One day I visited the new gorilla house at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo and found myself there at the right time. While looking at a momma gorilla sitting only inches away from me with nothing but a thick pane of glass between us, one of the trainers came by and gave me an experiment to try. She asked if I had any photos in my wallet and if so, to pull them out. She had me hold up one photo for the gorilla to look at, after a few seconds the gorilla would tap on the glass, which meant she was ready to see the next photo. This went on for a few minutes as I showed her all the photos that were in my wallet at that time. Amazing!
In one of a gazillion scientific studies on Primates (chimps, gorillas, and orangutans) it has been proven that this species of animal has some of the same thought patterns as us humans. And in fact can think and plan ahead in certain situations.
One o f the most used quotes I used on teens when I was a Youth Pastor was, "Thinking is dangerous to your health." Basicly what I was driving at is we all have a tendency to think too much, over analyze the situations we may be in, or just plain think without any action. It does us no good to think or concern ourselves with things if they are driving us to the point of: worry, doubt, cause anxiety,
or do damage to our faith.
Turn your worry into worship.
Don't get me wrong, carrying a sense of concern over another person, especially a family member is okay. But if you are going to carry that burden with you and let it linger, you are only making yourself feel worse. Some people will do this to no end, and you can see the burden they are carrrying do damage to their own well being, as they let it steal their joy and happiness. Why?
The last few weeks I have heard so many messages on faith, heard countless testimonies on faith, and read alot on faith through posts on the internet and in scripture, which has obviously led me to to do yet another blog post on faith.
In the Book of Hebrews we are taught that "without faith it is impossible to please God", so does this mean when we lack faith in a situation we may be in, we are displeasing to God?
If we find ourselves in a difficult situation or a circumstance arises unexpectedly, and we kind of have a moment where our faith does disappear, I call that a momentary lapse of faith; which is okay as long as we quickly right the ship, take a deep breath, and get back to a focus on who is really in control of the situation.
Now if things happen to us day after day and we moan and complain to God and have no faith at all, yes that is displeasing to God. We are actually saying we are hesitant about God and what He can do for us.
One's faith in God is about learning about God, knowing about God, and having a relationship with God. Through prayer, worship, and reading His Word and confessing it over our lives and our struggles, is what builds our faith.
Keep yourself away from thinking too much and over analyzing everything.
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philipppians 4:8)
As always, if you have no access to a Bible go on my link to biblegateway.com on my home page, for more on faith.
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