July 31

Positive thinking is how you think about a problem. Enthusiasm is how you feel about a problem. The two together determine what you do about a problem.

July 30

If you will set aside a few minutes, ten or even five, to think about God and Christ, to confess your sins, to pray for those who have done wrong against you, and to ask for strength—and if you do this consistently day after day—a true faith will begin to send spiritual health and power through your personality.

July 29

Many of the world’s finest Oriental rugs come from little villages in the Middle East, China, or India. These rugs are hand-produced by crews of men and boys under the direction of a master weaver. They work from the underside of the rug-to-be. It frequently happens that a weaver absentmindedly makes a mistake and introduces a color that is not according to the pattern.

When this occurs, the master weaver, instead of having the work pulled out in order to correct the color sequence, will find some way to incorporate the mistake harmoniously into the overall pattern. In weaving our lives, we can learn to take unexpected difficulties and mistakes and weave them advantageously into the greater overall patterns of our lives. There is an inherent good in most difficulties.

July 28

The best way to deal with a problem is this: Write it down on a piece of paper. Study its component parts. Think it through. Then put it aside and think of God. Forget the problem. Think of God. The more you think of Him, the more He will put ideas into your mind when you pick up the problem again. You will get your answer. God answers. If you don’t get it that first time, you will the second or the third. Shift from the problem to God.

July 27

Having asked God for forgiveness, accept release, then truly forgive yourself and turn your back definitely on the matter. Fill your mind with hopeful, helpful, and positive thoughts. Have faith and go forward. “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before” (Philippians 3:13).

July 26

You need not fear if you know an action is right. Pray about it to be sure it’s right, for if it isn’t right it’s wrong, and nothing wrong can turn out right. Knowing you are right, there is nothing in this world that can defeat you. It may go hard; you may receive blows. But God will not let you down. He will see you through. Know you are right, then fearlessly go ahead.

July 25

What’s wrong with having problems? The only people who have no problems are in cemeteries. Problems are a sign of life. So be glad you’ve got them. It means you are alive. The more problems you have, the more alive you are. lf you have no problems, better get down on your knees and ask: “Lord, don’t You trust me anymore? Give me some problems.”

July 24

The world needs millions of acts of forgiveness and repentance to flush out hate, resentment, and bitterness.

July 23

Help others to overcome fear and worry and you gain greater power over these problems yourself. Every day think of yourself as living in companionship with Jesus Christ. If he actually walked by your side, you would not be worried or afraid. Say, “He is with me now.” Repeat it every time you feel fear or begin to worry. Recommend the practice to others as I do to you. It works.

July 22

Every last one of us possesses the power to live a truly wonderful life; yet we settle for being unhappy, when it isn’t necessary. We should ask ourselves what we have done with the talents and abilities which God built into us. Every human being ought to look inside himself and thank the good Lord that he has unused strength he has never drawn on—and then start drawing on it.

July 21

“Don’t you know the world is full of problems?” asked the negative thinker. “But the world is also full of the overcoming of problems,” replied the positive thinker.

July 20

God answers prayer in three ways: yes, no, and wait awhile. If you receive a no answer, look for the lesson the no answer teaches. God sometimes shuts doors to lead you to the right open door. If you experience difficulty and hardship, perhaps it is because God wants to do something for you other than you expected or have yet experienced.

July 19

Practice changing critical attitudes toward your fellowmen. Get in the habit of looking for something to praise, something good to say. Once you start picking at people critically, you will find yourself criticizing everything they do. Reverse this mental attitude by finding something, however small, to praise in everyone. It will greatly add to your own happiness.

July 18

Life for most of us contains many tough and difficult problems; we need all the confidence and reassurance we can get. Nothing builds confidence and reassurance like a word of praise. Nothing restores our self-esteem and recharges our batteries like a little admiration. Why, then, needing appreciation ourselves so badly, do we deny it so often to others?

July 17

One of the greatest things you will ever be able to say in your lifetime is this: “I have realized the potential that Almighty God put into me.”

July 16

Deep within the individual is a vast reservoir of untapped power waiting to be used. No person can have the use of all this potential until he learns to know his or her own self. The trouble with many people who fail is that they go through life thinking and writing themselves off as ordinary, commonplace persons. Having no proper belief in themselves, they fail to utilize their talents. They live aimless and erratic lives very largely because they never realize what their lives really can be or what they can become.

July 15

What are the essential factors in creative and exciting successful living? Number one is to be chief executive officer over your life and over yourself. When you feel life is pushing you around, or you are being pushed around by a variable self, you are not happy or effective. But when you become supervisor of your life, there is no joy in the world equal to it or to the excitement and satisfaction you will feel.

July 14

Don’t be an if thinker; be a how thinker. The if thinker mouths, “If only I’d had a break.” The how thinker emphasizes the hows: “How do I compensate for this shortcoming?” or “How do I accomplish it?”

July 13

If a person habitually thinks optimistically and hopefully he activates life around him positively and thereby attracts to himself positive results. What you mentally project reproduces in kind. Positive thinking sets in motion positive and creative forces and success flows toward you.

July 12

The late Mrs. Thomas A. Edison told me that when her husband was dying he whispered to his physician, “It is very beautiful over there.” Edison was a scientist, with a factual cast of mind. He never reported anything as fact until he saw it work. He would never have reported, “It is very beautiful over there,” unless, having seen, he knew it to be true.

July 11

In this life, we must learn to develop the quality of urbane imperturbability. This is the ability to accept people as they are, and not let their annoying actions get under your skin. It will, in time, even get you to loving people.

July 10

A physician tells me that 35 to 50 percent of the ill are sick because they are basically unhappy. “Joy has significant therapeutic or healing value,” he says, “whereas gloom and depression militate against creative life processes.” Learn to live the joy way, for “a merry heart doeth good like a medicine” (Proverbs 17:22).

July 9

A friend once had a problem that had been agitating his mind for days and to which he could not get an answer. He decided to practice “creative spiritual quietness.” He went alone into a church and sat for an extended period in absolute silence. Presently, he began to be conditioned to quietness. Finally, he “dropped” his problem into a deep pool of mental and spiritual silence. He meditated upon God’s peace rather than upon the specific details of the problem. This seemed to clarify his thinking and, before leaving that quiet place, an answer began to emerge which proved to be the right one.

July 8

An old man appeared on a popular television program. He had received a prize for having won a contest. He stole the show with his exuberant spirit and quick wit. “It’s easy to see,” remarked the admiring master of ceremonies, “that you are a very happy man. What’s the secret of being as happy as you are? Let us in on it.” “Why, son,” the old man answered, “it’s as plain as the nose on your face. When I wake up in the morning, I have two choices. One is to be unhappy; the other is to be happy. And I want you to know, son, that I’m not as dumb as I may look. I’m smart enough to choose happiness. I just make up my mind to be happy . . . that’s all there is to it.”

July 7

There is no circumstance in your life where God will not stand with you and help you, no matter what the trouble may be. He understands all your problems, all your frustrations and disappointments. He sympathizes in your weaknesses. He loves you.

July 6

The head of a university hospital once said, “When a person becomes ill he should send for his minister, priest, or rabbi as he sends for his doctor.” That is to say, the sick may be helped in two ways: through the science of medicine and surgery, and through the effective use of faith and prayer.

July 5

A positive thinker does not refuse to recognize the negative; he refuses to dwell on it. Positive thinking is a form of thought which habitually looks for the best results from the worst conditions.

July 4

Winston Churchill once gave a talk to the boys of Harrow, his old school. He stressed the importance of believing they could win. “Never, never, never, never give in,” he told them. Four times he said “never.” Churchill gave those boys the basis of success: Never quit.

July 3

Thomas Edison is supposed to have made a curious remark which is fascinating: “The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around.” That is to say, you are what you think and your life is determined by what goes on in your brain. The brain is the center of thought, memory, feeling, emotion, dreams, prayer, faith; in short, it is the creative and directing center of the entire person. The body may become old, feeble, suffer disability; but so long as the brain is clear and in working order, so long do you really live.

July 2

There is a spiritual giant within each of us telling us we need not remain enslaved by weakness or victimized by frustrating limitations. The giant within you is always struggling to burst his way out of the prison you have made for him. Why not set him free today?

July 1

What is hope? Hope is wishing for a thing to come true—faith is believing that it will come true. Hope is wanting something so eagerly that, in spite of all evidence that you’re not going to get it, you go right on expecting it. And the remarkable thing is that this very act of hoping produces a strength of its own.