Give me 5 minutes a day and I'll give you a happier, more successful life

I know many people reading this are in debt for your house and your car and maybe some other things. Maybe you are having trouble making the payments and having enough left over to put food on the table. Suddenly one day you get a letter that says a distant relative that you never knew had died and left you $200,000. How would you feel? Of course, you would feel happy, joyful.
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If you knew that you were getting the money, even if you didn’t know exactly when you would get the money you would feel happy. Sometimes it takes a long time for the inheritor to get the money because it is often tied up in probate court for about a year or more.
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But the point is if you really believed the money was coming you would feel happy. The happiness shows that you really believe the money is yours.
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In the same way, if you don’t have enough money to pay your bills and you pray for help, if you really believe God will help you, you will feel happy. The happiness, the joy, is an indication that you really do have faith.
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Many people who have accomplished great things in life, like starting charities, businesses, repairing relationships, helping others, etc. say that they used faith to achieve their goals. Not only that, they say that you have to feel it. You have to feel the joy of knowing that God will help you. The joy is evidence that you have faith.
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If you know me well, you will know that my wife and I are working to start a charity for street kids. We are praying that the resources we need will come to us. We take action. We pray. We thank God that He is moving the way He helped with another charity I did in the past.
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There are many ways to make extra money these days. I have talked with people who used some of these methods part time and they have done very well. We found a company started by Christians who give unlimited free training. It is a great blessing. Thank you God!

How do we know we have faith for answered prayer?

You might not believe everything I say here, but read the whole thing and leave a comment to let me know what you think.

God’s will is important

Obviously God’s will is the most important factor in answered prayer. Since that is so obvious I won’t discuss it here.

Faith is important

Several dozen times Jesus said that faith is a key to answered prayers. God’s will is the most important factor. But why did Jesus only talk about God’s will a few times and he talked about the importance of faith several dozen times? I think it is because he wants us to know that we have to do our part.

Why does God consider faith so important? The Bible says we go to heaven based on faith, not works.  Ephesians 2:8 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith…”   Faith and love are the very most important things in our lives.

But someone might say, what if it is not God’s will to help me? That shows he doesn’t  have faith that his prayer will be answered.

If we pray to make a good grade on a test, we can’t just pray, we have to study. We have to take action. We have to do something. God normally doesn’t help with that kind of a prayer unless we do our part.

But what if we are sick and we have done all  that we can to get well. We eat right, exercise, see a doctor, take medicine and still don’t get well? That is when God steps in and helps. Jesus said to the sick woman who had the flow of blood for many years: “Your faith has healed you.” Matthew 9:22. Also, Jesus healed the blind and told them their faith healed them. Luke 18:42.

Why didn’t Jesus say that God healed them, why did he say their faith healed them? I believe it is because he wanted them to know they had to do their part. They had to have faith.

How do I know I have prayer-faith?

Think about a person who is deeply in debt and can’t pay his bills. One day a rich man decides to not only pay his bills but also to give him a million dollars. How would the poor man feel? Well, it probably depends on whether or not the poor man really believes the rich man is going to help him. If he really believes the financial help will come to him, he will feel happy and relieved. His worry and negative feelings will go away completely.

You would know if the poor man believed or not by his feelings. In the same way, we can check our feelings to see if we really believe God is going to answer our prayer. If we are in dire straits financially and can’t pay our bills, we can pray for help. If we are sick, we can pray. If we are filled with joy because we know God will help, that shows that we have faith that God is going to help.

Your resume reflects the very best of everything you have done, all your many strengths, accomplishments and successes.

But what does your anti-resume look like? All your weaknesses, failures and disappointments. These are things that probably only you know about, things that you would have never discussed with your parents, friends or colleagues. The jobs you did not get. The projects that failed. The rejections. The schools that did not accept you. The missed deadlines. The embarrassments.

And yet, these failures and weaknesses probably did more to shape you into the person you are today and the person you will become than your successes and accomplishments. I know mine did.

So make sure you know what your anti-resume looks like. Sadly, you will keep adding to that anti-resume throughout your career. My anti-resume continues to grow every day!

You were born right

I saw a study that said children are born with a good self-image, but due to all the scoldings and criticisms they get throughout life, their self-image becomes poorer as the years go by. School can be very rough on many children’s self-image because it is almost impossible to do any task 100% correctly and get perfect marks on an assignment. It is easy for parents to tell the children what they do wrong without ever telling them what they do right.

Robert Rosenthal was the chairman of the psychology department at Harvard until he retired and began working at a university in California. He did a famous study in which he showed how powerful self-fulfilling prophecy is. This is also called the Pygmalion effect.

Rosenthal chose 3 teachers at random and told them that since they were outstanding teachers they would be given 90 outstanding students to teach and the goal was to improve the students academically. After time it was found that the students did, in fact improve dramatically. But then he told the teachers that the students were not outstanding at all, they had been chosen randomly. Probably the teachers felt proud about that, after all, they had been chosen because they were outstanding. But then Rosenthal went on to tell the teachers that they were not chosen because they were outstanding, they were chosen randomly also.

Believe in yourself and others

The results showed that if you really believe in others, they will perform better. Not only that, if you believe in yourself, you will perform better too.

Tell yourself often that you are outstanding and the prophecy will come true. People often criticize themselves, but this brings about negative results. You wouldn’t say those things to others would you?

Tell your loved ones/subordinates at work they are outstanding and they will become so.

I heard a radio talk show in which the speaker said we should complement our children five times for every time we tell them what they do wrong. Wow, that will keep me busy, but I know it is good advice.

Your words have power, use your words wisely!