I Dare You: Embrace Life with Passion

Courage is fear that has said its prayers and decided to go forward anyway.

• The effect of laughter on the body is immediate. Laughing actually lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormones, and increases muscle flexion. • Laughter increases your resistance to infections. • Laughter also triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers, and produces a general sense of well-being.

Worrying does not move the hand of God, but faith does. Exchange worry for trusting God and you will see progress.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that “if a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.

God has picked you out to pick you up.

Do whatever you can do, and refuse to sit and do nothing. Remember, do what you can do, and God will do what you cannot do.

God can make miracles out of messes and mistakes when we have a positive attitude and believe all things are possible with God.

God loves with a great love the man whose heart is bursting with a passion for the IMPOSSIBLE.” —William Booth

If there is anything I want you to understand at the end of this book, it’s this: don’t settle for a secondhand relationship with God. That’s not the life of passion He is calling you to. Knowing God will keep you stable in hard times. It will make you secure and enable you to press past fear. It will cause you to know He is always with you whether you feel His Presence or not. You can know His forgiveness and mercy, His restoration and favor; truly knowing God will fuel your passion for life. When we see how beautiful and wonderful He really is, and realize all He has done for us in love, how can we not pursue Him and His will passionately?

Think positive thoughts! I can remember when I thought my thoughts didn’t make much difference. After all, they were in my head and certainly weren’t affecting anyone but me. I was wrong—and so are you if this is your attitude. Thoughts operate in the spiritual realm. You cannot see thoughts just as you cannot see angels, but they are real; they merely function in a realm not visible to the eye. Thoughts become words, attitudes, body language, facial expressions, and moods—and all of these affect the atmosphere we dwell in.

Years may wrinkle your skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles your soul.

God’s purpose for us and our minds is that we learn to live with a positive attitude. No matter what our circumstances, our minds belong to us and no one can do our thinking for us if we don’t let them. I encourage you to be passionate about being positive. A positive attitude lifts us above our circumstances and enables us to have peace in the midst of the storm and to have joy when there is no visible reason to rejoice.

Jesus did not die for us so we could have a religion. He died so we could have our sins forgiven.

It’s very hard to think negative thoughts about someone you’re taking to the Lord every day. You’ll be amazed at how God will change your heart toward that person; your thoughts and ultimately your actions could very well change the way he behaves.

Take one of God’s promises, like Joshua 1:9 (NIV), and mutter it over and over under your breath: Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

Have you ever gone to the furniture store to buy a chair without sitting in it? Have you ever purchased a car without test-driving it? Of course not, and God also tests us to reveal the quality of our faith. No matter what we think of ourselves, we find out what we are truly like in times of difficulty. Good times don’t bring the worst out of us, but hard times do. That is why God says these difficult times are good for us. They allow us to see what is in our character that needs to be changed. They also give us opportunity to use our faith, and faith only grows through our using it. As we choose to learn to trust God instead of getting upset about something, we experience His faithfulness, which, in turn, increases our faith for the next time we need it. The more we use our muscles, the more they grow—and our faith is the same way.

i dare you Slow Down and Use Your Mind Properly 1. Be determined to pay attention to the things around you, like flowers, trees, a child playing, or your family who loves you. 2. Commit to reading something that is not work-related for at least thirty minutes a day. 3. Get up twenty minutes earlier than you do right now and spend that time with God. Ask Him to show you how He wants you to use your time that day.

Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. —HEBREWS 11:1 You can close your eyes and see a disaster or you can choose to see victory.

Once again we should put our energy into praying and let God work. When we pray it opens the door for God to work and then He gets the glory when change does occur.

I frequently say we should let God out of the Sunday-morning box we try to keep Him in and allow Him to invade our Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday too.

Immediately, the water turned into wine. This was the first recorded miracle of Jesus’ ministry on earth and I want to remind you that His miracles did not stop there. He will also do miracles in your life if you obey Him, and offer yourself as a clean pot He can fill.

When you try to understand God’s purpose for your spirit so you can have the passion He desires for you, it requires a certain amount of trust and belief. Trust that God is in control, and believe that He will give you what you need to achieve and succeed! If you struggle in this area, here are some verses to look up and some of God’s promises to think about. 1. God will never abandon you. (See Hebrews 13:5.) 2. God wants the best for you. (See Jeremiah 29:11.) 3. God wants the best from you and He will do everything He can to help. (See John 14:26.)

Don’t use people to get money and things, but be committed to using money and material goods to bless people. Rich people can do a lot of good for society if they are willing.

We can look at Joseph’s example and realize through good times and bad, we must stay the course, being diligent and enthusiastic about what God brings. If He brings you to it, we must remember, He will bring you through it as well.

Some of us are so stubborn we won’t trust God until we have no other choice at all.

Remaining peaceful in hard times completely disarms the devil.

Let God fight your battles while you remain at rest, trusting Him.

I don’t believe God wants us to always be doing without. After all, He is the God of “more than enough,” not just “barely get by,” or “do without.