Remember they are:
Disobedience (to your own heart) and -
Control (you can’t control anything in life but your own mind).

Now let’s tackle the BIGGEST cause of stress in our lives today! What is it?

Fear! Yes fear is a HUGE cause of stress.

Fear is actually the root cause of ALL other causes of stress. Fear is behind them all.

Did you know that faith and fear have a common denominator. What is it?

How can you tell when fear is present in your life?
One good way is to note your first SPONTANEOUS reaction to a challenge and the thoughts that go with it.

• Did you gasp and think or say: How am I going to cope with this?
• Did you lose your breath for a second and then find a host of “what if thoughts” flooding your mind?

Those are certainly reactions of fear.

So how can you change those reactions?
Well first you need to face the fact that the fear habit did not grow to this magnitude overnight, and it is likely it will not disappear overnight.

Here’s how you can cultivate faith:

• Take note of the words you listen to (and only listen to positive faith building words).
• Take note of the words you are speaking and stop speaking negative words. Make an dedicated effort to speak only positive words no matter what the situation.

  This will take discipline, determination and development to achieve completely. Remember habits are developed!

• Stop associating with negative people.
• Stop watching negative and violent programs on TV.
• Read, listen to and watch strong faith building books, articles and messages.

These things will certainly put you on the road to developing faith habits and fear will have to flee.

Once fear is gone, you will find that your life will have a LOT less stress.

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Yet these two people are direct opposites in the way they handle situations. Let’s take a closer look.

What does a worrier do?
When faced with a problem or an obstacle in life, a worrier:

• Focuses on negative possibilities and MEDITATES on them.
• Goes over in his or her mind the “what ifs”. All of these “what ifs” in his mind have a perceived probability of a negative outcome. Right? (I call this the “what if drama”).
• Usually the negative outcome of the problem is so real in the worrier’s mind that his emotions are already involved.
• A worrier is full of fear!

You cannot worry for too long without negative emotions overtaking you. Then the next step is for these emotions (which started from negative thoughts) will travel into the body and even cause sickness!

And the problem is not solved. No one is hurt. Nothing has actually happened – YET. But in the mind and imagination of the worrier the worst has already happened. Ouch!

So in a few words:

What does a warrior do?
When faced with a problem or an obstacle in life a warrior:

• Focuses on the possibilities of winning! (What warrior would ever go into a fight with his or her mind on losing?)
• The mind of a warrior is trained and discipline to focus on the positive outcomes in any battle. He or she is completely focused on winning!
• A warrior is full of faith.

So in a few words:

So let’s compare the two again:

A worrier’s mind is filled with FEAR.
Any action that he or she takes will be motivated by fear. This may indeed cause a negative outcome to the situation.

A warrior’s mind is filled with FAITH.
Any action that he or she takes will be motivated by fatih. This creates a high probability of causing a positive outcome to the situation.

Today’s question:
Are you are warrior or a worrier? Is your mind filled with FAITH or FEAR?

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This law is demonstrated in nature.

Have you ever sown a carrot seed and expected to see pumpkins grow?

Of course not.

Is this a valid comparison?
Yes! Let’s take a look at a parable that Jesus told that is found in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 4 and verses 1-13. I am sure that you have heard of this parable known as the parable of the sower. You can read the full story of the Sower right here.

A sower sowed seed on 4 different grounds.
1. Hard ground
2. Rocky ground
3. Sun scorched ground.
4. Good ground.

Jesus’ disciples did not understand this parable and so after everyone else had gone, they asked Him about it in private (see verse 10).

He told them:

The ground represents the conditions of the hearts that the words are sown into. Powerful right? It gets even better!

Would you like a key that would allow you to understand ALL of the teachings of Jesus?

This parable IS that key!
(Read verse 13. If you don’t see it at first, read it over and over until you “get it”).

• The words you speak.
• The words you listen to.
• The words you believe.

You decide on the harvest tomorrow by the words you speak today!

What kind of harvest are you expecting in your life tomorrow?

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