[Quotes] 4:8 Principle: The Secret to a Joy-Filled Life
My highlights from Tommy Newberry's 4:8 Principle. This amazing book will show you how to have a joy-filled existence here on earth. S/o to my wonderful friend, May Garcia, for recommending!
“emphasize possibilities instead of problems.”
“trust God and believe that he has great plans for your life, regardless of what is happening right now.”
“Right thinking is a choice you have to make for yourself the rest of your life.”
“Did you know that you cannot be joy filled without thinking thoughts of joy? You cannot worry without thinking worrisome thoughts. You cannot be afraid without thinking thoughts of fear.”
“You will always have something to complain about, and you will always have some blessings to count.”
“Whether you choose to count your blessings or choose to complain, it’s helpful to understand that you have a choice.”
“If a thought leads you to feel like a victim instead of a victor, it is not from God. Paul also tells us, “Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57, NIV).”
“I am supercharged with joy.”
“I believe God wants to do exciting things through all of his children, and that includes you.”
“Due to our human nature, we live in a society bent on highlighting what is wrong with just about everything.”
“It is so common to minimize what is working well and exaggerate what is not working. The downside of human nature quietly nudges us to accentuate what is missing and down-play what is available.”
“If a child senses that she will have to earn her parents’ love through good grades, recitals, the right appearance, and other competitions, she can easily become an adult who believes she has to go out in the world and work for the love she craves. An even bigger challenge is that love perceived as conditional in childhood makes receiving the message of God’s grace more difficult.”
“A Prayer of Permission
Father God, I praise you for my uniqueness. You have not put another person in the world who is just like me. Prepare me to be the masterpiece that you originally created me to be. Thank you for making me in your likeness. Allow me to see myself today with as much significance as you see me. Keep my focus ahead of me rather than behind me. Protect me from overidentifying with my blunders and underidentifying with my victories. Disrupt and dissolve any stale, destructive self-talk from the past that I may still be embracing.
Grant me the courage to push beyond previous boundaries in all areas of my life. Remind me that my peak moments are just glimpses of the enormous potential you have blessed me with. Thank you for giving me permission to live life to the fullest! In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
“focusing on people’s positive traits rather than judging them or concentrating on their negatives.”
“Unless you are taught how to reject the negative messages, you will tend to accept them as the truth. As I mentioned earlier, most people never challenge their own thinking. Instead, they respond to negative thoughts as if they came from God, when in reality they might be erroneous, irrational, or warped. Accepting these thoughts at face value leads to behavior that is rooted in error.”
“The truth is that these peak moments, when you appear to be playing over your head, are actually glimpses of your full potential.”
“Self-worth is not based on achievements but on the significance you place on your life outside of your performance—on your identity as one created and loved by God. ”
“Step seven: Dwell on the person God wants you to become. Using Philippians 4:8 as a trigger, visualize your best self.”
“What would the future me do differently each morning or evening? How would the future me take care of my brain and body?”
“Imagine yourself with the habits you would have if you were already living your best life.”
“Anyone can be happy when circumstances are wonderful, but joy is different. Joy is proactive happiness. ”
“Remember, according to the 4:8 Principle, you will experience more of whatever you dwell on. If you meditate on your strengths, your God-given worth, and your future potential, you will be amazed at how differently you will view yourself.”
“See yourself as a child of God. ”
“remind yourself quietly, “What you think of me is none of my business.”
“One of many passages that express God’s love is Jeremiah 31:3: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself” (NLT).
Agree with your Creator! He knows everything about you, and he still loves you.”
“Because no one is perfect, forgiveness will have to be an ongoing process. You must either develop an ultrathick skin or become a perpetual forgiveness machine—maybe even both. People, especially those closest to you, will continually hurt you, either intentionally or unintentionally. Frequently it will be in a small way; every now and then it will be in a supersized way. Make forgiveness a key component of what I call your daily joy ritual—a series of short steps you do routinely every morning or evening. Refuse to cling to hard feelings in any shape, form, or fashion. While you may be forgiving others, you are more directly giving to yourself. Your spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health depends on your becoming a perpetual forgiveness machine.”
“Emphasize your originality by highlighting your special gifts and talents. No one else has your unique design, and God has a purpose for how he made you. ”
“With the gift of the Holy Spirit, you are qualified right now to do whatever God wants you to do. Surrender the idea that you need something or someone else to make you complete. As a child of God, you already have everything you need. ”
“Would your speech be more likely to represent the problems of the present or your hopes for the future? Would your words emphasize your blessings or your worries? ”
“Speak as if you believe in your prayers.”
“You can control what comes out of your mouth. Your words are, of course, a reflection of your thought process, but it is a bit easier to control your mouth than it is your mind. Start programming your mind by first disciplining your mouth. ”
“Life is meant to be a grand adventure for those few who dare to seize each day as if it were their last.”
“focus on the potential in others rather than their flaws—so you treat them with more patience and kindness. ”
“How could a bored, sullen, or defeatist attitude ever glorify him?”
“Our feelings seldom provide reliable advice for decision making.”
“You will always feel what you dwell on.
“Stop talking so much about your mistakes, setbacks, and disappointments. Refuse to fuel negative emotions by constantly talking about what is wrong with your marriage, your oldest kid, your sore back, your strange neighbors, and the world in general. Instead, broad-cast your blessings to anyone who will listen. Verbalize your vision for the future to trusted friends and allies. Turn the spotlight of your concentration to your future hopes and dreams, to the grand and mysterious future that God has in store for you.”
“Starve worry, fear, and doubt by no longer nourishing them with your attention. Remember, whatever you focus on, you are going to experience. If you have an urge to “go negative,” remember that it’s not going to produce anything positive.”
“What is the most fabulously positive thing you could do each night before you drift to sleep?
Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry — Ephesians 4:26
“Specifically, if you want to reap more joy, you must plant joyful thoughts—and lots of them.”
“Most people simply don’t pay any attention to their exposures. Instead, they just soak them up. They listen to whatever happens to be playing on the radio. They watch the TV programs that the networks promote. They read the books everyone else is reading.”
“If junk goes in, then sooner or later junk must come out. It’s impossible to avoid this. If you are passively ingesting what our culture routinely shovels in, then you will gradually become conformed to this world.”
“You are the gatekeeper of your mind. To experience a life full of joy, you must reject the negatives and protect the positives God has placed or has promised to place in your life. Those who experience more joy don’t necessarily have more to be joyful about; they just think differently. ”
“When you’re reading and listening to great ideas, then by default, you can’t be filling your mind with mediocre inputs.
“Realize that everything you watch, read, or listen to either brings you closer to God or nudges you further away.”
“Do the first fifteen minutes of your morning glorify God and set the foundation for a joy-filled day? To start your day with joy, first make a decision to do so. Then make a simple plan. Develop a list of one to three quick things you could do in fifteen minutes that are consistent with a joy-filled life. If you have to, wake up fifteen minutes early to seize this opportunity.”
“Minutes invested in praying for wisdom will save days spent in overcoming mistakes. To advance in joy, first retreat with God.”
“A healthy mind produces joy, like a healthy body produces energy. ”
“You must toss the junk thoughts that oppose God’s promises, and instead, stock your surroundings with joy-producing inputs that encourage right thinking and discourage negative, lazy thinking. Be aware that this is an ongoing process. If you throw these items out but restock with negative influences a few hours later, then your progress will be neutralized.”
“get around people who challenge you to constantly stretch, raise your standards, and pursue your biggest dreams.”
“Negative people poison your outlook, exhaust your energy, and chip away at your potential for joy. If you associate on a regular basis with people who whine, gossip, condemn, and commiserate, then the inescapable fact is that sooner or later you will resemble them.”
“make the shift to investing time with the right people—individuals who lift you up and produce a godly return in your life. How exactly do you determine which people are the right ones to invite into your inner circle?”
“Invest more time with people who look like this:
1. Their character and integrity are equal to or greater than your own.
2. They share your faith, or even better, they are further along in their relationship with God.
3. Their lives demonstrate the joy-filled fruit of their faith.
4. You’d like your children to grow up and be similar to them.
5. They hold you accountable and ask you the tough questions that are avoided by the majority.
6. They draw the best out of you and remind you that God is doing exciting things through you.
7. They are sincerely committed to being positively sharpened by their exposure to you!”
“Label the first category “Red Relationships,” and list the most negative, small-thinking people in your life. Whenever feasible, avoid these red relationships. The next category is “Yellow Relationships,” which includes people you should hang out with in moderation. The third category is “Green Relationships,” which are the most positive, joyful people in your life right now plus the people you hope will become a bigger part of your life in the near future. To engage the 4:8 Principle, focus on deliberately increasing the quantity of time you invest with these individuals.”
“Conversely, do not affirm what you do not want in your life. Refuse to get cornered into conversations involving cynicism, doubt, fear, worry, or gossip.”
“stay alert to the negativity of those around you. Do not let others contaminate your mind with their pessimism and idle words. Practically speaking, this means talking to yourself and others only about the conditions you desire and the things God wants for you.”
“We often make great strides toward our goals, only to wreck that progress with self-inflicted sabotage, forcing us to start over once again. ”
“Become highly sensitive to what you think about most often. What you say to yourself and others provides the biggest clue as to the quality of your thought life.”
“Remind yourself that nothing is too good to be true for a child of the King. God wants you to prosper and have every good thing. Do not block his generosity with unprofitable talk.”
“If you cannot say something positive, silence is the best alternative.”
“Your responsibility is to deliberately feed your mind crisp, vivid pictures of the person God wants you to become. This starts with practicing the 4:8 Principle. Certainly, God’s vision for your future is lovely, excellent, and worthy of praise—even well beyond your imagination!”
“To get started, set aside four or five minutes every day to visualize yourself, in as much detail as possible, living a joy-filled life. See yourself fully alive, loving your work and having a strong, positive impact. ”
“thank God for his perfect solution.”
“Negativity spreads like the flu—not just from person to person, but also from one area of life to the next. ”
“Schedule your negativity.”
“First, if you are dealing with chronic worry, schedule a specific time each week to sit down and worry. Think of this as “worry on demand.” Instead of scattering your problems and concerns over the entire week, group them into one specific time period. When a worry comes to mind during the week, capture it in writing and remind yourself that you have set aside Tuesday at 4 p.m. to deal with it. That should be enough to get it off your mind temporarily so that you can return to and enjoy other activities. Make a note of how many real worries still remain on Tuesday afternoon.”
“You experience lasting abundance only when you realize that you already have everything you need for total joy.
“Gratitude is a choice. It is a conscious and deliberate decision to focus on life’s blessings rather than its shortcomings. Life will always have shortcomings, and it will always have virtues. When you focus on your blessings, your life feels abundant. When you focus on what’s missing, life feels incomplete. As you know by now, where you point the spotlight is purely a matter of choice.”
“Do you stand out as an exceptionally grateful person?”
“You will find that your capacity for joy increases as your sense of gratitude grows”
“Gratitude is the cornerstone of an unstoppable attitude”
“Epictetus said, “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not but rejoices for those which he has.”
“You are going to draw more joy out of your business, out of your marriage, out of your family life, and out of all the other aspects of your existence when you make a commitment to become a genuinely grateful person. ”
“Worry is when you trust your fears more than you trust God.”
“I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.” Most of what we worry about never come to pass. ”
“Gratitude, on the other hand, makes us feel that we have enough. Ingratitude leaves us in a state of deprivation in which we are constantly pursuing something else. Think about it. Where have you been looking for satisfaction recently? To material possessions? To intellectual distinction? To social standing? In light of your past experience, why do you think you will be happy with just a little bit more?”
“develop a reputation for being a highly grateful person”
“When you practice exceptional gratitude, you enjoy the peace of knowing that you’ve said what needs to be said and that you’ve appreciated the most important people in your life.”
“change the questions you consistently ask yourself, you start thinking differently. When you ask better questions, you receive better answers.
“step to better thinking and a joy-filled existence here on earth is to become aware of your thought life”
“Do you affirm God more often than you affirm your adversity?”
“With God’s help, I get it done.”
“I let stress melt away.”
“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him. I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation.” - Psalm 91:14-16
“experience and spread God’s joy throughout your life for the rest of your life!”
4:8 Principle is based on Philippians 4:8 which says,
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.
Hey SUGAR, Thanks so much for the add.