503 | Undermining The Crises of Life

Chris LoCurto 0:00
On today's episode, tough times might not be going away anytime soon. But that doesn't mean that life has to be tough for you. We'll be talking about that coming up next.

Welcome to the Chris LoCurto show where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are. Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous new year so far, it's only been a few days, but hopefully so far, you've not been hit with any major crisis's yet crisises crises crisis, however, you said, hopefully they've not hit you yet. But it's also definitely likely, as we begin a brand new year. It's not like that everything got wiped away, right? It's highly likely that there's going to be a chance that we're going to run into some sort of crisis this year, man, I hope not. But if we're thinking about it, practically, we're, we're guaranteed to encounter some kind of trouble at some time, right? If you look at John 1633, it says, I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace in this world, you will have trouble but take heart, I have overcome the world. Praise God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord for that. Right? We do know Lord, the Lord already promises us we're gonna have some tough times in this life. The key is, this life isn't the the end of it. For those of us that are believers, those of us that are followers, this life isn't the end of it.

Right, we've got the next one which is eternity in praise God for that. And he's already overcome this world so that we can live in that world with him that that life with him and, and not have to deal with the the junk we've got to deal with here. But just because you're a Christian doesn't mean that you won't have problems. You're gonna Nowhere. Nowhere does Jesus say, Hey, listen, if you are one of my followers, you're void of problems, no sign in this world, you're gonna have it, we just read that, we know that that's gonna happen. We know that it's a problem. And x 1422, we read that the apostles encouraged believers to continue in the faith, reminding them that we must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. Now, one of the things we talked about a lot in next level life is how how often we look at the negative things, the the hardships. And we think to ourselves that that's actually bad. Why? Because in the moment, it's actually bad. We experience it that way. But guess what, here's something super important to understand. God uses hardships to grow us. God uses difficult times, to grow us and make us more into who he wants us to be. So today, I want to talk about that part, the part about enduring this present reality not as a victim of life circumstances, but as a victor. So if you would like to learn more about that, check out episodes 495 through 498. There's a whole lot of information on not being a victim. But instead today we're going to talk about being a victor. I want to show you how to get the upper hand on the crisis's of life, even undermining them so that they're not able to steal your piece, to steal your joy or to steal your sanity. So when we come back what you can do now to get a grip on the things that make you feel out of control.

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Freedom, it's so powerful, I felt rejuvenated, almost renewed, I just felt so welcomed and loved and accepted for who I am and not an ounce of judgement. So I was very comfortable there that had a really big impact on me, that's going to be worth it. It's going to be hard. But it's going to be even better on the other side. For me, it was just it was just very refreshing. And I want to say lifegiving. For me, it really was, you know, I would go to next level life again. And probably again, and probably again, because it's so powerful. If you want

Chris LoCurto 4:30
to experience the same kind of life transformation, this same kind of self awareness and freedom that they have. Or maybe you're just curious what the process would look like for you. Then head on over to Chris accardo.com/next level life.

Before we get back to undermining the crisis's of life, let's talk about how to overcome the things that are undermining your leadership. The fact is that the more effective you become as a leader are, the more effective your team becomes, which means the more your business will grow with less stress. If you're ready to take a huge leap forward and your leadership capability, then you absolutely need to check out our next level leadership live event, which is coming up in April, the keynote lessons are geared to equip you to build high performing teams, cultivate excellence in every corner of your business and grow your revenues. The lessons we're teaching during this event are truly transformative, you're not going to want to miss them. So sign up today at Chris mcardle.com/events. And get ready for growth. Okay, let's get back to what's keeping you from the life you really want. Now, these days, we hear a lot about things like panic, stress, triggers, PTSD, and trauma now, man, I'm probably going to offend a lot of people right now. And if I do sorry, well, I really want you to consider what you're describing as one of these things. Now, panic stress triggers. What we see is we see a tonne of people using certain things to create drama in their life. So if you're somebody who is genuinely experiencing something traumatic, you know, I guess it's very subjective to what the definition of traumatic is.

But if we take the normative definition of traumatic, it's not the things that are being said, today, it absolutely drives me nuts, to hear somebody say that they almost dropped their cup of coffee. And it was very traumatic for them. You know, it almost spilled on their clothes. And it was traumatic, that they did drop a cup of coffee in their car once before, and they've got PTSD, since it is ridiculous to use phrases like this for situations like that. If you're offended by this, come see us. Come talk to us come talk to somebody, because we need to help you to get greater reality. Why? Because, truthfully, almost dropping your cup of coffee doesn't create trauma, by the definition of trauma, right? So we are seeing people use words like this on a consistent basis, to describe stuff to make it more dramatic in their life. It is ridiculous, right? Even in mild stress or inconvenience. We see people having strong reactions, we see people being incredibly frustrated. So you have to ask yourself, is it you? Even if it's a decent amount of stress? Do you tend to have a very strong reaction to it? When you're frustrated, you feel like giving up? When there's a problem? Do you want to throw in the towel? When someone says or does something that rubs you the wrong way? Do you want to get even or even retaliate? These are things that we've got to start asking ourselves now, again, if your response is, you know, you had something that is super minor, and you're now calling it PTSD, we probably need to reset expectations, we probably need to reset reality. Right? So, think about this, if you have post traumatic stress disorder, from almost dropping a cup of coffee, we probably need to reset reality, or we need to take a hard look at it at least right? We can't reset it. But we could probably dig in and find out now what does that mean for all of those folks who have been through actual traumatic stuff? I have had a few times in my life when I've been through something that I would define, and I think most of the planet would define as traumatic. And it's been very difficult, right? But I reserve those situations. And I hope that I don't have that I'm not looking to be in a traumatic situation. And yet, what do we find? And again, if you go back to any of those episodes, one of the things we talked about is how fashionable how in vogue, it is to have trauma nowadays, to be a victim in this world. Right? So many people are looking for that. If you're listening to this show, and that's what you're experiencing or feeling. Please get with somebody, please get with us. Please get with somebody who can help you through that. If that's not it, then we still want to evaluate ourselves maybe are going through considerably tougher stuff and we want to evaluate what's right, what are appropriate reactions, right? Just because we're having these responses of, you know, strong reactions or wanting to give up or you know, wanting to get even. They're not necessarily right or appropriate reactions, they're basically overreactions. Now we talk a lot about how our lives and even our hearts are like vineyards. They're meant to be blooming to be fruitful to be healthy. And we also see in the Song of Solomon, it says, catch the foxes for us. The Little Foxes that ruin vineyards, our vineyards are in bloom, according to Solomon, there are these little foxes that undermine the health and vitality that we seek.

I think you're aware of that. I think you know that, right? There's little things out there. So what are the little foxes that are spoiling your vineyard and holding you back from being fruitful? Are you missing fruit like, love? Are you missing fruit like, Joy? What about peace? These are things that are worth protecting, I can't tell you how important it is to make sure that we do protect our heart and the important things that we experience from The Little Foxes. So that's what we're kind of talking about today. The problem is that it's super easy to get caught up in the current culture flow, right? Like, let's say panicky times, right? Chances are that even if you haven't, you probably know somebody who has had a panic attack, I can tell you, I used to think they were fake. Until I had my first one. I think I've probably had two or three in my life. And I can tell you, I used to think they were fake. I thought when I was younger, I was like, there's no possible way this is actually happening until one day I found myself gripping my chest, knowing it wasn't a heart attack. And just realising as I was going through a very traumatic and legitimate, traumatic time in my life, I realised oh my gosh, these things do exist. Here's the deal. Such things have the power to incapacitate some people, leaving them hopeless. If we look at Luke 2126. Jesus gives us insight into what it looks like to live in the end times he says men's hearts will be full of anxiety and fear, as the powers of heaven are shaken. Now, I don't know where you are. In your walk. I don't know if you are a follower of Jesus or Yeshua, as we would say his his Hebrew name would be. But I can tell you, I do believe as a close follower, somebody who spends a lot of time researching, studying and trying to understand my my God as much as I possibly can. When he talks about how my disciples will recognise the signs of the times, folks, if you haven't looked around lately, there's a whole lot of signs of the times going on. So I do believe and if we take a look at it prophetically, then the end times began when Israel became a nation in one day, which was in 1948. Right went overnight, the United Nations became made Israel a nation and one day so that that started the end times, well, what do we see, we see a whole lot of stuff that makes it look pretty crappy, aligns with what he says is going to happen. So it's not hard to understand that there's going to be you know, the men's hearts will be full of anxiety and fear obvious. It's not just men, this is men, women peoples is what he's speaking to. Nowadays, it seems like any little thing can send people into panic. People feel traumatised or triggered by things that 20 years ago would have been considered insignificant or harmless. So I want to kind of separate out what I talked about in the beginning.

If I don't believe it's traumatic to drop coffee, or almost dropped coffee, right, but do I believe that people receive it as incredibly stressful? Yes, I do. Do I believe that people panic in situations like that? Yes, I do. Right. And I feel like we see this happening a lot more with a lot more people. It's not just a couple of people, we see it a lot. Many people are seeking a, a safe place if you will, to hide away in. So let's take a look at what some Old Testament wisdom says. If we take a hard look at Psalms 46 And this may be something you want to go over multiple times. God is our refuge in our strength. He is always ready to help in our times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roaring phone, but the mountains tremble as water search. A river brings joy to the city of our God the sacred home of the Most High. God dwells in that city. It cannot be destroyed. From the very break of day, God will protect it. The nations are in chaos, and their kingdoms crumble. God's voice thunders and the earth melts. Notice the contrast between God's City and the nations right. It's crazy what's going on in the nations. But look how protected you are. In God's City, the Lord of Heaven's Armies is here among us. The God of Israel is our fortress. Folks, if he is not your fortress, then why not? When is he going to be? Have you made him? The God of Israel your fortress today this week this year? If you have not done again, this year is only three days into it. But if you have not, why not? Maybe you want to read through Psalm 46 A few more times. Write down in a journal what comes to your mind as you're reading and thinking through those verses right? It's important for us to recognise the genies not going back in the bottle. Now I don't believe in genies. Sorry, Christina Angular, but I don't believe in genies. But when you take a look at what's going on in this world, it's not going backwards. We're not going back to any level of normality that we thought we can't. It's gone too far forward. Too much crap is happening. Too much evil is happening too much jacked up stuff, bad politicians. Too much stuff has happened. Too many people are believing evil is okay. Too many people are believing that the way that people are stealing from people hurting people taking advantage of people that it's okay, you know that this is happening all over the place. Now. That's not going to change. So what do we do about it? Let's take a look at instability, right? So why all the panic and fuss over even the slightest disturbances today, people are easily disturbed, they're easily disappointed.
They're easily crazy, easily offended. They're easily frustrated, they're easily flustered. If we take a look at it, at what sends people into the panic mode, many times it's whenever there is some sense of instability, someone, someone else reacts poorly to them, their day doesn't go the way that they wanted, they get bad news that sends them into a tailspin. Instability in circumstances is defined as The quality or state of being unstable, exhibiting a lack of stability or firmness. So does your life ever feel that way? Do you ever feel like things seem to always be shifting around you?

Do you feel like circumstances are out of your control? Do you feel like life lacks a certain stability a certain predictability a certain firmness? Well, if so, then the result instability. And a person is defined as a tendency towards unpredictable behaviour or erratic changes of mood. So here's what we have to understand. If you're feeling this, if you've ever felt anything like that, before, you know you're you're up one day, you're down the next you, you lack a certain steadiness, balance, clarity, because life is out of control, or you feel a lot of control. If you've experienced that before. And again, we've moved past the concept of it being something that's really not an issue, you know, not something super silly, you know, you almost dropped a cup of coffee, I keep using that as an example, because I think everybody can see that that doesn't belong in the trauma category. But you do have things going on, you do have stuff happening, and you find that you're responding harsher, that you find that you're responding, more stressed out more panicky, if you are experiencing those things. Well, guess what, there's no shortage of stress, troubled trials crisis all around us. But the presence of those things doesn't necessarily mean that we have to be panic driven. In our responses, this is the point that I'm driving to today, folks, if we can remove the silly stuff, and we can recognise the legit stuff, right? The the really bad traumatic stuff. What is this stuff in the middle that we are struggling with? It's real. There's a lot of stresses. There's a lot of things going on. But have we noticed that our responses tend to be overreactions? And yet, we still don't know why. And we still don't know what to do about it. So here's my question to you. What is your response to instability? Many react by trying to control the situation, a lot of people try to control people who are involved. Either way, it's not a good plan. Keeping everything under control is ultimately an impossible and very futile goal. Why? Because controlling people, circumstances, outcomes, it's all incredibly exhausting. It's all very manipulative, and it's all very focused on me. It's all in vain. Right? If I'm trying to control those things, Viktor Frankl had a great saying, which is forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except for one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. Folks, let me say this, again, forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess, except for one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to that situation. So the question is, are you responding? Well? are you responding in a healthy way? What do you think about how you're responding? Are you are you keeping yourself and your responses under control? Because that's actual real freedom. And it's, it's waiting for you. That sounded so emotional right there, it's waiting for you people. But it is true, it is waiting for you, you can choose better responses, you can choose not to respond the way the world is, you can choose to really evaluate what the current situation is.

And ask yourself, is my response, okay? If it is not, then what do we need to do about that? We're going to talk about that. When we come back, if instability is undermining your quality of life, then it's time to get the upper hand on your stability. Books, if you've been listening to me for any length of time, then you know the number one issue when it comes to business, when it comes to family, when it comes to friendships, is having a lack of high quality communication, to make sure that you are absolutely winning in every aspect of your life, it all starts with having great communication, the best way to get that communication is to understand your personality style, and to understand the personality style of the folks that you're spending the most time with, whether it be at work or whether it be at home, the best way to do that is to go to Chris ducker.com/store. And get your personality profile and personality profiles for your team to date. Get it for your family members. Today, as you go through that profile, you will begin to see the greatest ways to communicate, go to Chris ducker.com/store today. All right, we're back. Our little crisis is undermining your sanity, are they undermining your stability? Are they undermining your serenity? How can we turn the tables here? How can we control ourselves? Even if we don't have a grip on the situation? Even if we can't control other people? Because guess what folks you can't control is an illusion there, right? The truth is, and I've said this before, ancient wisdom teaches us that we tend to suffer more, and how we perceive the situation. So how we think about things than the reality itself. You can actually choose not to be hurt by something in your mind, right? The the person teaching you this today has to deal with this stuff. I struggle with this stuff, right? I have to use the tools we teach to get through some of these things, right? You can actually choose not to be offended by someone's words or actions, which today is increasingly becoming more difficult. Why? Because people will become an incredibly offensive.

Or we perceive people as being incredibly offensive. And sometimes they're just not. Things are just looking different. We have to choose how we're going to react, how are we going to? Are we going to be offended by something that somebody says? Or are we going to be able to look at that person and really evaluate is that person, let's say somebody is trying to offend us? Is that person really struggling themselves? If they are struggling, and they're saying something offensive to us? It's because they're trying to get a rise. They're trying to get a response. So if you are offended, guess what? they've succeeded. You help them to accomplish their goal. What would it be like if we didn't get offended? If we recognised if somebody was acting in an unhealthy way, we recognise that they were being unhealthy and we decided not to get offended. You can actually choose to respond with meekness, with kindness, even courage. But what do we do, we tend to blow things out of proportion because we feel out of control. Again, we can't control other people. We can't control our circumstances in life. Not all of them. We can control a lot, but we can't control all of them. But we can choose to control ourselves. And our responses. Proverbs 2528 says, A man without self control is like a city broken into and left without walls. The point is, is that without the city walls, it's now easily controlled by others, right? So if I don't have self control, that I'm definitely easily controlled by other people. I have no protection, right? If we are going to undermine the crisises of life, then it begins with disciplining ourselves, yourself your thoughts. Your Mind? Remember those little foxes that I mentioned about from from Solomon? Little things that break in and steal your joy? What are you going to do about them? How are you going to mend fences? How are you going to repair the wall? How are you going to fortify your hearts? Well, Jesus spells it out for us in Matthew six. So if we look at Matthew six, verse 25, through verse 34. This is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life, whether you have enough food or drink or enough clothes to wear, Isn't life more than food and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food and barns for your heavenly Father. He feeds them. Aren't you far more valuable? Listen to this people, aren't you far more valuable to him? than the birds? Now think about this. This is Jesus speaking. So it is God. God is saying, you're more valuable to me. Right? Aren't you more valuable to me than the birds and I take care of all the birds can all your worries at a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing. Look at the lilies of the field, and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.

And if God cares so wonderfully about the wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care about you. Why do you have so little faith? So don't worry about these things saying What will we eat, what we drink? What will we wear? These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously? Let me say that again, live righteously. If you don't understand what that means, dig in and discover exactly what that means. And he will give you everything you need. So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's troubles are enough for today. Listen, there's plenty of things to worry about each day. Don't overburden yourself with tomorrow. Don't overburden yourself with useless imaginations don't have useless fears. Don't overburden yourself period. Another way of looking at all this is learn to take it one day at a time. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Don't fret over what's not in your control for the believer. We can actually go beyond what natural wisdom tells us there supernatural wisdom to tap into. So what's our job or responsibility here to according to Jesus, to learn to go to the Father, so that we can humble ourselves, to learn to bring ourselves under his control, not our own not man's, but his to learn to put everything into his hands. Allow him to work in us His love and peace and strength. Now, how do we do that? Well, Jesus taught us in four steps how to go to the Father. In Matthew six, he said, pray like this. Our Father who is in heaven, Holy as your name, your kingdom come, Your kingdom, your kingdom, not ours. Not this one Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. Don't ask God to forgive you for your sins. If you can't forgive the rest of his kids focus on that. Make sure that you're forgiving people for what they've done to you. And lead us not into temptation, but rescue us from evil.

Folks, these are important important phrases. One recognise that our Father is holy, that he is set apart from all evil, all the rest of us that he has a kingdom that got planted on this earth. When Yeshua took the cross, died and was resurrected that planted the kingdom of God on this planet and it has been growing aggressively ever since. We want more of his kingdom to come. We want it to be here as it is in heaven. We want him to give us our daily bread. What is your shoe is a man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. He was the walking talking Torah. He is the Word. In the beginning was the Word the Word was with God the Word was God. Jump forward a few verses the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It's important to know we need that daily right? We need to be forgiven for our sins. Think about it. How much more do we need to focus on forgiving other people who have hurt us? Who have sinned against us? Right you if you do not know the story of the man who is brought into the king and has this heavy heavy duty debt and the king forgives him all that he's crying out I've got kids I got family I can't do Do this in the end, he gets forgiven all of his, you know, tonnes of of debt that he has. And he walks outside and he sees the guy who owes him a couple of bucks and he grabs him by his his tunic and has him thrown in jail. And then later on the king hears about this in in rage is like you've got to be kidding me. I just forgave you all have this. And you're doing that to that guy. Forget it. All this is back on you. Right? That throws him in jail, as well. We can't be the one that we're asking God to forgive us. So so much, so many things that we've done wrong. And then turning to other people and holding grudges against them and not forgiving them for the stupid that they've done. We've done tonnes of stupid, we've all done all of us, every one of us. Right? We need to recognise that we have a loving Father who forgives us if we seek it. If we ask for it. He forgives us, right? And also, don't seek temptation. get as far away from it as you possibly can. And the last thing you want, you know, I hear these people talking about man Oh, you know, I'm taking on the devil today. He's not getting me, listen. He's not stupid. He's had 1000s of years to study us.

Don't get cocky. Ask God to keep you safe and remove you from the temptations. That's not what you want. You don't want to be in the evil, right? Focus on God. And I will tell you this, if we go back to the term righteous, you will discover I'm just going to suggest this for all, we're just going to leave this here. When you are ready. When you are ready. I want you to sit down and read the book Pagan Christianity, don't do it on Audible. Sit down and read this thing, word for word. And discover some things that are affecting you and holding you back because of paganism that's entered our belief system. It's important. And the crazy thing is, when you see it, you can't unsee it, I can tell you this, a lot of people don't want to see it. A lot of people want to stay exactly the way they are. And not focused on what God wants. They want to stay focused on what they want. So it makes it a very difficult book for people to read. Now I know this, I'm aware of this. It's something that I have known about for many, many years. When you're ready to find out what it means to follow God righteously and have his protection start there. That's a good dig in place. There's many many, many books out there like this, but that's a really good research, one from George Barna version from the research side, I guess is what I should say. So where do we go from here? Well, we got to focus on discipline, discipline equals freedom. So what's the central point? Learning to deal with small problems, The Little Foxes the constant worrying is great training for learning to deal with bigger actual crisis's that will come

remember the story of David before he became king of Israel, before he was even chosen as Israel's next king before he was ever anointed by the prophet. And before he faced the giant Goliath. David had already been tested, proven and trained as a young shepherd in the field. First Samuel 17 David talks to Saul who was the present King at the time about how he learned to be a warrior in the little battles. When he was a little boy. Your servant was tending his father's sheep, when a lion or bear came and took a sheep from the flock. I went out after it and attacked it, and rescued the sheep from its mouth when it rose up against me. I grabbed it by its mane and struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. And this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them. Since he has defiled the armies of the living God. David spent years preparing for the greatest crisis to come against his country, Israel and that was Goliath. He had already spent years tackling lions and bears, warding off robbers and thieves protecting his father's flock of sheep from the menaces of life. Notice what his approach was to the little foxes which were actually lions and bears. I went out after it and attacked it. So here's what I want to ask you. What are you facing right now that you need to address in your life? What's the fear keeping you from living fully? What's the worry and anxiety that has you fretting? What's the dread or trepidation that has you exhausted? Tackling the small predators prepared David to be the greatest king that Israel ever saw? David was the first tested with the small things before he faced cliath and was made ruler of the flock of Israel undermining the crisis's in your life begins with facing everyday problems with level headed crit having up appropriate reactions, improving your problem solving skills, remaining calm leaning into the Father's love and growing in him, it is a process folks. And then you got to tackle the negative self talk, you got to tackle the line, you got to battle the lies with the truths. You've got to discover the things that you're telling yourself that are bringing you down, that are hurting you that are affecting you.

You got to take those thoughts captive. If you do not spend time pounding those lines with truths, or the negative self talk with positive self talk, then you can't be surprised that it's super easy to feel out of control. Responding to the little crisis is with strength, courage, and resilience will actually prepare you for big crisis is responding to little traumas by controlling your thoughts will prepare you for big traumas, if they happen to come along. If you recognise, God uses difficult situations to turn you into a better version of you, then as you go through stuff, you won't be so ready to get out of them. You want to learn through them. I used to pray all the time for difficult situations, God, get me out of this, God, get me out of this. And I change that to God, teach me what you want me to know, just do it as fast as you can. Right? Because I'd really like to get out of this. But I don't want to get out of this and not have learned. So here's some clear perspective that you'll need in order to make this all practical the three rules for undermining the crisises and training yourself to endure number one, feelings are not facts. Let me say that again. Because a lot of people do not understand this. And there's horrid teaching going on out there right now that says you need to feel every feeling you've got.

Listen, just because you have a feeling. It doesn't mean that it's not legit. It doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. It just means that if it's not healthy, you don't have to keep feeling it. But there is literal teaching that says that you need to feel every feeling and walk through every feeling. And it's destroying people, folks, feelings are not facts, and facts, believe it or not, don't care about your feelings. Number two, feelings, follow thoughts, feelings, follow thoughts, you do not have a feeling and then have thoughts that are tied to it, you'll have thoughts after it. But you don't all of a sudden get a feeling of something that doesn't actually have a thought preceding it. Number three thoughts are in your control. They're in your control. If you're feeling out of control, it's because your thoughts are out of control. You're You're undisciplined, you're unfocused, you need to put your thoughts in order. You have to recognise that if you are not controlling your thoughts, and I'm not saying that you don't have thoughts that crop up immediately that are bad. I'm talking about what do you do with them? After they do? Do you immediately jump on it recognise what's negative, what's positive? And then react accordingly? Or do you allow them to affect you negatively? For some folks, those negative thoughts can control them for days, weeks, months. So it's going to take you some time and it's definitely going to take you one of the most important things which is practice. I want you to practice reading, studying and memorising scripture. I want you taking time to pray to the Father and put things in his hands. And I know it may sound funky to a bunch of you, but meditate on good things. Things that bring life things that are rejecting the things that pull you down focus on those things. Philippians four, eight says Dear Brothers and Sisters, one final thing, fix your thoughts on the things that are true, honourable. Right, pure, lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Have you ever done that before? Have you spent time thinking on those things before? Have you ever asked yourself? If what you're thinking on is in line with what Paul is telling the church to do at Philippi? True, honourable right pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, worthy of praise.

Probably 90% or more of what goes through our minds would be tossed out if we had a filter for these things. Can you imagine what that would feel like if you focused only on those things all day long? How different life would be Colossians three twos As Set your mind on the things above, not on the things on earth. So where's your mind getting caught up on these earthly things? What's making you feel? Angry, envious, anxious, resentful, full of fear. You can actually control these things, if you're willing to bring your thoughts under control. So take control of your mind, your thoughts and your responses, measure what's going on around you with your reactions. And ask, Are they appropriate for the situation? Does this response equate to what the situation is? If not, what do I do about that? I want to leave you with this last thought. And maybe this should go on your journal. Or maybe you'll want to, you know, print this out and put it on your bathroom mirror, but you'll want to keep this in your mind. One of the most frequently repeated commands and all scripture is Fear not. Why? Because God says, I am with you. And Isaiah 4110. God says, Fear not for I am with you. Don't be dismayed. For I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you. With my righteous right hand. Folks, I completely understand. I get it. There's lots of stressful things going on in the world today. There's lots of junk, there's a lot of things that are happening in our personal lives, there's a lot of things that can cause us to feel out of control. I'm telling you, I am one of those people. I don't know a single person who doesn't feel out of control from time to time. The question is, what do we do with our responses? How do we handle it? What do we focus on? What do we think about what do we process on? You can see there's a whole lot of scripture in here today. The more time we will spend focusing on God and making him the number one thing in our lives. Nobody else has your eternity in his hands but him

the more we will make him number one in our lives, the more he will help us and protect us through these situations. And it will help us not to fear and not distress. So make sure that you're making him number one, make sure that you're taking your thoughts captive that you are doing everything you can to not respond badly, unhealthy incorrectly to the things that are going on in your life. Well, folks, hopefully this has helped you today. And it's all the time we've got I hope this is something that you can implement right away. I know you can. It's just a choice. You got to do it right. There's other people in your life that you know, also need to hear this as well. So share this with them and help them to get to this understanding as well. As always, we want you to take this information, change your leadership, change your business, change your life. And join us on the next episode.