The Power of Perception
Distorted perception was one of the first negative fruits produced by the fall of man. After Adam and Eve sinned, they began to notice themselves--their nakedness, their shame, their need to hide from God. Prior to the fall, they were not at all self-conscious. They were God-conscious.
With the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have been restored to God-consciousness. But in order to experience it, we must renew our minds to that truth.
The mind is the seat of perception. And our perception is our reality. Now, I didn't say that perception is reality. I said that OUR perception is OUR reality. How we perceive our situations determines our response to them. If we perceive our situations as hopeless, then we will respond to them with hopelessness. If we perceive our situations as hopeful, we will respond to them with hope.
The key to living the victorious Christian life is to align our perception with God's perception of us. God says the following about us:
1-We are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37).
2-We are the head and not the tail, above and not beneath (Deut. 28:13).
3-We are accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6).
4-We were healed by the stripes of Jesus (1 Peter 2:24).
5-We have a good future (Jeremiah 29:11).
Apply these truths to your writing. Do you see that they will change your perception of yourself as a writer?
That's my "musing that matters" for today. What's yours? :)
Blessings,
MaryAnn
__________________________
Copyright 2008 by MaryAnn Diorio, Ph.D. All rights reserved. This blog entry may NOT be reproduced, reprinted, or published in any form whatsoever without the written permission of Dr. MaryAnn Diorio. You may, however, forward it to others, but please do so IN ITS ENTIRETY. Thank you for your cooperation.
Comments
"If we perceive our situations as hopeful, we will respond to them with hope."
Everything starts with our thought life, doesn't it? "Take every thought captive." Boy, that's hard. But we can do all things ...
I'm leaving for Mt. Hermon tomorrow (Thurs.the 13th) and will be gone until next Wednesday (the 19th) morning. Then we're off on a family vacation on Friday (the 21st), so I'll be silent for a couple of weeks.
I'll touch base on the day I'm home inbetween and give you all an update!
Please pray for traveling mercies and also for my daughter, Anna, that her seizure activity won't be bad and that she won't be too upset that I'm gone.
I'll be meeting with an agent on Friday, late afternoon. Yikes! I'm excited and nervous.
Thanks, Musers, for all your encouragement and prayers!
Pam, yes, we'll be praying a safe & productive trip, and also for your daughter. Say "hi" to Don Parker & family from Mom and me, please! Thanks.
I was thinking of the encouraging words, MaryAnn. It reminded me of a sermon our pastor in CA preached. Before the fall we were "inside people," looking on the heart, and afterward, "outside people," looking at appearances. I'm so thankful for these Biblical truths as well: (don't know if the html will work, but I'm trying)
We are the righteousness of God in Christ.
We have the mind of Christ.
The Kingdom of God is within us.
We just have to "let that mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus."
Thank you so much for this timely musing!
![[Powered by MovableType]](http://www.maryanndiorio.com/blog/images/design/poweredby.gif "poweredby")
These are excellent words of encouragement embodying countless and endless opportunities in every aspect of our lives, and yes, especially in writing. I have begun to speak again of writing. I have not written, but at least, I am in the process of specualtion once again, and this musing certainly helped a great deal.