- Correct. - If you focus on the negative things in your relationship, it'll take over. - So you gotta pay attention to what you're thinking about. - Well, pay attention to what you give your attention to. - Right. - Right, that's my little insight. - Welcome to Mind Matters with Dr. J. A. Jones. Dr. Jones is the head pastor of the Faith Community Church of God in Orange Park, Florida. Relationships, finances, our spiritual life, whatever it is, our problems start within in our minds. - Dr. Jones explores mental wellness through the application of God's word in our lives. It's just what the doctor ordered. Let's join him now and dig into Mind Matters because your mind matters to God. - Welcome to Mind Matters with myself, Dr. Jones. And I have a special guest with me. But before I introduce her, I really wanna thank you for tuning in to Mind Matters every Sunday at five o'clock PM. I do appreciate your time. I appreciate your listening ear. And I'm so thankful that you're listening and hopefully you share this broadcast with others, your friends, your family, because my goal is to help everyone reach their full potential as God's creation. And I thank you for tuning in. Today, we wanna talk about something I think it's so important because it's all about you today. It's all about you. I wanna talk about cultivating a life of abundance, the garden and the garden nerve. We gonna talk about the timeless wisdom from Genesis chapter two, verse 15 and how it can help us cultivate a fruitful and abundant life by working on ourselves from the inside out. Thank you for being with me also, Cindy. Anything you wanna share? It's great to be here with you, Dr. Jones, and to receive all your abundance of wisdom. - Okay, well, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Now, you know, the wisdom that I have comes from above, you know, that every good and perfect gift comes from above, the Bible says. So I remember way back in India, you remember that in ministry when I was a lot younger in ministry and serving people and families and individuals, my first prayer was, God, give me wisdom that I may help your people. And he did that. - Amen. - You confirmed that through prophecies, it was confirmed as well throughout the years that I am a wise man because I get my wisdom from God and obviously I get it from the Bible because that's God basic instruction before we leave earth, right? - All right. - So thank you. I know you're saying it. - I have been with you for many years. - Four to six years. - Yes, and I have watched you. - Yes. - Evolve, I'll put it that way. - Okay, grow, develop. - Yes, and as your, the title says here, cultivate. - Right, cultivate, cultivate, cultivate. - Cultivate in life. So yes, you have grown tremendously over the years. So you had to go through some things to get that wisdom. - Absolutely. - Amen, I was with you. - Yes, and you still are. - Yeah. - Hallelujah, as people say, hallelujah. - To God be the glory. - To God be the glory. So as relates to the thought today, cultivating a life of abundance, I love it because it's all about the individual today. It's all about working on ourselves from the inside out. And the first thought is this, plant seeds of positive thoughts. Because the scripture tells us in Genesis chapter two, as we read it, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to 10 and keep it. There were 10 means to cultivate. - Yeah. - To keep it, to protect it, to allow it to flourish. So God has put Adam in the garden of Eden to 10 and to keep it. Just as Adam was entrusted to care for the garden of Eden, guess what? We are called to 10 to the garden of our minds. - Yes. - The first step is planting seeds of positive thoughts. - Yes. And even if we're not a farmer. - Right. - You know, we can maybe relate to something else. - Okay. - Whatever we desire in life, whether it's a house, whether it's a car, whatever it is. - A great marriage. - A great marriage, a career. - A great career, yeah. - All of it needs maintenance. - Maintenance. All what needs maintenance? - Everything we have needs maintenance. - It has to be maintained. - Exactly. - A car has to be maintained. - Yes. - To work at its optimal performance. A marriage needs to be maintained. - Yes. - To work at its optimal performance. - Yes. - In the relationships of friends, what about our money needs to be maintained? - Right. - So we can have a good money flow individually, but also in the house. It needs to be maintained. - Correct. - A health need to be maintained. - Correct. - Just like a garden, it needs to be maintained. - Right. - And you know that 'cause the other day you was outside pulling weeds. - That is of the tree. - You was pulling weeds and you got sore the next day, the next two or three days. And 'cause you did not like those weeds growing up in our beautiful landscape and you still don't. So we're gonna do something about it, right? - Well, thank you. - Because it needs to be maintained. - If it's gonna look beautiful, it has to be. And as the, you just read the Lord put the man in the garden of Eden to tend to it. - Oh, absolutely. - So everything needs attention or to be tended to. - Yes. - In order to keep it and it's written well, I won't say original state, but if you wanted to be beautiful, you got to give it some attention. - Yes. - Oh, absolutely. - And that requires maintenance. - Yes, absolutely. You know, and that's so important. So the scripture says this. Finally, brethren, in Philippians chapter four, a powerful passage in the Bible, verse number eight, it says, "Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of a good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate or think on these things." And that's so important because the first point we're expressing today to our audience, thank you for tuning in. It's about planning seeds of positive thoughts. - Yes. - We live in a negative world. - Yes. - The news is negative. - Yes. - A lot of the social media can be negative. - Yes. - A lot of billboards can be negative based on circumstances, based on accidents, based on frivolous lawsuits. And people just want to be pessimistic and not optimistic. They just negative, you know, negative vibes are everywhere. But we got to turn that around because the goal today on this radio show is for everybody to know that you are the gardener of your own garden, right? - Right. - Just like you was outside pulling weeds the other day and you're trying to maintain it, right? - Yes. - That's external. But we're talking about the inside now, who we are from the inside out. - So basically we got to pay attention to what is going on around us. - Yes. - And even though weeds can come up overnight, if it's left unattended for a good amount of time, they take over. - Right. - They take over the bushes, the flowers, the plants, the ones that you want to be there. - Absolutely. - They will take over and crowded and it just looks ugly. - And that's true because just like you said that, they take over, negative things can take over a life. If you focus on the negative things in your relationship, it'll take over. - So you've got to pay attention to what you're thinking about. - Well pay attention to what you give your attention to, right? That's my little insightful idea that I came up with and you helped me with that years ago. If we focus on the negative on everything, we're gonna be a negative person. - We have a choice. - We have a choice. - We have a choice. And this is how we maintain our mind. You have a choice of the thoughts, just like a Philippians 4 and 8 tells us what to think about. - It does. - It does. - It helps us to choose what type of thoughts we should be thinking about. They just, they're lovely, they're pure, you know, and that helps our attitude in the way we look at life when we think on these things and it helps us to help peace and to get rest. But we have to pay attention of what are, we're surrounded by and choose the good thoughts, the pure thoughts, the just thoughts, the lovely thoughts, choose that. 'Cause as you just said from the news, from just being in life period. - Oh, just people around you so negative. - Sometimes you get people, you just, man, they drain your energy because they're all negative. They're gossipers, nothing good. You know, it could be a sunny day and they'd say, "Well, it's gonna rain." - Well, let's focus on the sun instead of the rain, okay? Oh, look at those dark clouds. Well, oh my goodness, they're gonna happen. But the Bible says in Proverbs 23 and seven, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. The key word is that it's heart. As we think from the inside out, the deeper emotions of who we really are, the subconscious mind, instead of the conscious mind. And that's what that proverb is telling us. Who we are is based on who we are from the inside out. How we act, how we behave, how we carry ourselves, what we say, because our thoughts are seeds that can grow into either beautiful flowers or stubborn weeds. By focusing on positive, uplifting thoughts, we cultivate a mindset that blooms with joy and peace. - Yes, yes. - That is so true. It's very important for us to understand that, right? - Right, and if you wanna have a life of abundance, you've got to have the peace. You got to cultivate the good thoughts and not go with the negative. Oh, well, this is what's happening. This is the way it's all gonna be. And this is, you know, instead of thinking on those good things and making a difference, being the change, being the change. - Oh, absolutely. - Being the change, being the change, not just going with the flow of what is around you. - Right. - Yes, we already done talked about the thermostat in the, in the, the monitor. - The monitor, yeah, a few, a few shows ago, yeah. - Right. Yeah, so we can decide whether we're gonna be a thermometer and just portray and show what we are surrounded by, - Right. - Or we can be the thermostat and think on those things that are just lovely, pure and other good report and make the change be positive. - We can set the atmosphere when you do the thermostat. - Be positive. - You can set a positive because if you set that atmosphere like the thermostat, it will overcome the negative. And I do believe that. The Bible said in Romans chapter 12, overcome evil with good. - Yes. - Yeah, one of my favorite chapters in the Bible in that particular book, overcome evil with good. So, because God is good, right? - Right. - All right, so what I think saying is sometimes people just are sucking on lemons too much and they drinking too much prune juice or something, I don't know. They got so much attitude about themselves in life. So, nobody don't want to hang around a person like that. - Right. - That's what the Bible says. We got to plant seeds of positive thoughts. But the true, the real deal is this. Guess what? If you have to plant seeds of positive thoughts, that means they're negative seeds somewhere. - Yes. - Right, they're negative seeds somewhere. - You have to decide. - Right, but we're talking about us today. We're talking about you audience individually as an individual, as a man and as a woman. But just think of your mind as a garden and negative thoughts as pesky weeds. If you don't pull them out, they'll take over your mental flower bed. - Yes. - I want you to know that today. Hopefully, you remember that particular example that I just gave you going forward. I want you to know that you can cultivate a life of abundance. Thank you for tuning in to Mind Matters. With myself, Dr. Jones, and I have my special guest, my wife, Cindy, that we've been together 46 plus years, and we're still at times on our honeymoon, having a good time. And I thank God for her. But you are the gardener of your own garden. - Correct. - If you have a garden in your front or back yard and you know how hard it is to keep the weeds out, you got to work on your mind the same way. And you can pull those pesky negative thoughts. - Yes. - You can cast them down. You can take charge of every negative, pessimistic, depressing, depressing, discouraging. - Yes. - Fearful thoughts of timidity. You can take charge of every one of them. I want you to know that today. That is my prayer and that is my hope for you that you can grow to your full maturity as a mighty man and a powerful woman of God. Know that today. - Dr. Jones is the pastor of Faith Community Church of God in Orange Park, reaching a hurting world with the love of Jesus. We thank you for listening to Mind Matters and we encourage you to show support for the many community outreach ministries that Dr. Jones and Faith Community Church tend to. You can give at Faith Community's website faithccop.org or just text money sign and the amount you want to give to 833-435-8022. That's 833-435-8022. We are blessed to be a blessing. Now let's get back to the program. Now the second point is this. Water with consistent actions. We talked about the first point. Plant seeds of positive thoughts, but you have the water with consistent action. To cultivate a fruitful life is watering our seeds with consistent positive actions because it's not enough just to think positively. We must also act in ways that nurture our growth is so important, right? The Bible says this. And James chapter two, I think it's verse 17. Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is what? - Dead, dead, dead. - It's dead. - Yes. - Dead as the donut. - Right. - Absolutely. - And just like you said, if we just think positive thoughts and we don't take positive actions. - Yes. - Is dead. - Absolutely, absolutely. - Yeah. If you yell at me and I yell at you back-- - Come on somebody. - You know, neither one of us are listening to each other and getting an understanding. It's not improving the situation. - No, not at all. - One of us got a calm down and as the word said, to speak softly. - Yes. - Or to decide to take the back, seek so to speak. - No, absolutely. Well, let me give a personal example. You reminded me of some of your tactics and your strategies. We've been together. Yeah, yeah, you threw it on me. Yeah, you messed me up. - My tactics. - Yeah, your strategies. Whether you knew you did it or not. But back in the day in our younger time in our relationship as married couple, one of my scripture that I learned later was a soft answer turns away wrath. Now that's in progress, chapter 15. So when I used to yell at you, or I'm gonna just say raise my voice back in the day. You didn't raise your voice, huh? - I said, you had it right the first time. - Oh my goodness. Let me, come on now, don't throw that much shame at me. I did yell. Audience, I did yell. Tell the truth and shame the devil. - Okay. (laughing) - I did yell. You're right. Okay, let me say it correctly. What I used to yell, which is a long time ago. All right. - He has changed. - Oh, absolutely. Oh, that's about growth and change, right? - Yes. - It's about awareness. - Yes. - We all have changed. - You do it on purpose. - I definitely have, absolutely. But the point is this, the scripture always work. To me, you was working the scripture because I yell, you didn't yell. You responded with a soft answer. And the Bible says a soft answer turns away wrath. Now, I was emotional. I was living from my childhood in adulthood. I had some self-esteem issues. I had some controlling issues back in the day, 'cause I didn't know that then. I just thought I was being a man and being what I need to be and taking charge. You follow me? - No. - Back in the day, but people got to understand you have to grow in life. - Right. - You have to be consistent with your actions. So I didn't know that was in the Bible. What you were doing, maybe, I don't know if you knew, but then I opened a word because I got in the word now. And now the word got in me. And now the word kind of flows in me and out of me. So I learned that a soft answer does turn away wrath. In other words, because you did not yell, I got calmer. I got cooler. - Yes, it's hard to fight when you ain't got nobody to fight with. - Well, absolutely. So, and that's so important, right? Oh, absolutely. You fighting by yourself then, right? - Right. - You know? - Yes, proper says if you don't put sticks on the fire, the fire gonna go out. - Say that one more time. That is a powerful passage in proper. You're right. If you don't put sticks on the fire. - It will eventually go out. - Wow. - You don't want to add to it. - Add fuel to it. - Right. So if you yell and I yell, then that's just making the fire bigger. - Absolutely. - But one, somebody got to put the fire out. - And that, this is relative to every relationship though, right? Not just marriage, but work relationships. - Yes, I used to be a customer service representative. - Okay. - Well, I had to get on the phone. That wasn't my original title, but that was in a duty that was imposed on me. - Sure. - And so when you get on the phone and a customer is angry and they're yelling and stuff. And you trying to talk to them. - Yes. - They're not listening while they're yelling. - Nope. - And so what I would do was just after I got their information, we'd just sit there. Well, not really just sit there, but I would find the answer to the issue that they had. - Right. - And while they're yelling. - Right. - And they thought I was gone or I wasn't listening. But when someone is yelling and they're venting and at a high capacity, whatever you say is they're not gonna be really listening. They're just gonna yell back. - Oh, absolutely. - And you're getting nowhere. - Absolutely. So you were calm, cool, and collected while they were yelling at you. Okay, because that's who you are. That's your demeanor. And it took you something to get to that point. It takes God, right? - True. - It takes the Holy Spirit. It takes being in the Word of God. It takes being persistent in changing ourselves so we won't allow other people to get us out of character to cause us to do things we normally would not do. Because the Bible says in Galatians chapter six, verse nine, it says, "Let us grow, let us not." Let me say it the right way. And let us not grow weary while doing good. - Yes. - For in due season, we will reap if we do not faint or lose heart. - Right. - So consistent in our actions, no matter how small, leads to significant growth over time. - Yes. - It's the daily watering of our efforts that ensures our seeds will grow strong and healthy. So these are ways that we can nurture our growth by watering with consistent action. - Yes. - And the Bible talks about the water of the Word, right? It talks about how powerful the Word is as we hear the Word. Listen to the Word. - Yes. - Read the Word. Learn from the Word of God. 'Cause the Word of God is able to save our soul. Our soul is our mind, our will, and our emotions. When we say soul, S-O-U-L, it talks about how we think, the choices we make, which is our will and how we feel, our emotions. That's our makeup, part of our makeup and with spiritual beings as well. So as you're listening to this broadcast, thank you for tuning in to My Matters. We're definitely talking about how we all can cultivate a life of abundance. Because Jesus said he came that we can have abundant life in John chapter 10, verse 10. But the thief, the weeds, come to steal, kill, and destroy. - Yes. - Right? Because we are the gardener of our own garden and that garden is our mind, the soul of our heart. - Yes. And a lot of times when we're receiving negative actions the way that we water it is with positive actions. - Yes. - As the word said, do not repay evil for evil but overcome evil with good. - Absolutely, Romans chapter 12. - Yes, and love covers the multitude of faults. - Right, yes it does. - So when you show forth love versus trying to get back at the person by doing what they're doing to you. - Right. Then you're productive. - Yes. - But when you're trying to treat them like they're treating you. - Come on now. - Then you're getting nowhere. - Nowhere. Nowhere. - Yeah. - Absolutely, and that's so important, but you know. - It doesn't accomplish anything. - Absolutely, and I think we all want to be fruitful and accomplish something good in life instead of bad in life because I think I shared it with my audience last week about bad, better and best because that's where God wants us to be in the best place. And a lot of people are still in a bad place in how they think because they can't overcome negative thoughts. They cannot overcome depressing thoughts, worrisome thoughts, fearful thoughts, thoughts of anxiety. You can overcome anxiety, sir. Ma'am, listen, you can overcome anxiety. Trust in God. Think on things that are just. You don't, the Bible said in Philippians, chapter four, also says there's don't be anxious for nothing. - Yeah. - But by prayer and supplication, make your request known unto God. - Yeah. - And the peace of God should keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. - I love the peace of God. - Absolutely, nothing like that. Because the Bible said peace can be off unpair. - Right. - It can rule us safe and not out. We all need the peace of God. So what we've been talking about today as relates to cultivating a life of abundance, I think everybody wants that. But we got to know we are the gardener of our own garden because God told Adam to tend to it and keep it. - Yeah. - Right? Now, it's not just for Adam. It's for everybody, it's for a man, it's for women, it's for who so ever, right? - And I want you to know-- - What type of life do you want to have, you know. - Say that one more time. I like that. - What type of garden do you want to have? Do you want a beautiful garden? Well manicured, no weed. - Come on now. - Same thing when it comes to our minds. - Yes. - You know, they say you can't stop a bird from flying over your head, but you can stop it from making a nest on your head. - Yes. - You know, so what goes on inside our minds, all kinds of negative thoughts are going to come. - Yes. - The word refers to it as fiery darts from the enemy. - Yes. - But you can decide whether you can let those things nest in your mind or you can use the word of God, which will not return void to him, but it will produce what he sent it to do. - Yes. - You can think on those things that are just lovely, pure and of a good report. - Right. - And let it produce in our mind and follow it up with loving actions. A lot of times the action that God requires us to do is opposite of what we think we should do because it's like we return in love for hate and people tend to think, oh, well, they just getting over you. You're gonna let them do that to you. You're gonna let the, it takes a whole lot more strength to be meek than it does to show your weakness by reacting to something that somebody else done to you and doing the same thing back to them that they done to you that doesn't take any strength at all. - Absolutely. - That's easy, that's emotional. - Oh, absolutely, you know. - But it takes a whole lot more strength to treat them with love and overcome evil with good. - Yes, overcome evil with good. And that's so important because God is good. The Bible says taste and see that the Lord is good and everything stems from a healthy relationship with God. - Yes. - A vertical relationship versus a horizontal relationship. Some people look at their relationship with God. When I see good, then I got a good relationship with God. Oh, when I see people treating me right, maybe I got a good relationship with God, not always because they think because horizontally, everything is cool, calm and collected, I got a good relationship. But that's not the truth because as you stated many times, we got to maintain our own garden. - Yes. - From a natural standpoint, at our house, in our backyard, in our front yard, wherever you have that natural garden, we have a garden in our mind, you know, there's so many ugly thoughts from the past, so many abusive thoughts from the past, so many crazy thoughts from the past that we have to tend to, and we have to take charge of whatnot. - You're right, pull those weeds out. - We got to pull it out with the truth. - Right. - Because that's a lie from the past. - Yes. - The truth of what makes us free. - Recognize that it is a weed. - Oh, absolutely. We canize that it is a problem. Because a weed can take over your garden. - Oh, yeah. - If you don't maintain your natural garden in your yard, and some of you do it as a business, you're a landscape artist, and you go and see other people's gardens or landscape, and you can tell. That's some weeds that needs to be taken out, and it needs to stay away, and it's very, very important. And I'm excited today, we did not finish this broadcast, but tune in next week as we continue cultivating a life of abundance, because it is all about you, because you are the gardener of your own garden, and that garden is your mind. And I'm looking forward to you seeing being with us, and being with me, Cindy and I, next week. Have a wonderful week, and have a wonderful day. - Thanks for tuning into another episode of Mind Matters with Dr. J. A. Jones. Be sure to tune in next Sunday at 5 p.m. right here on Praise 107.9. For more insightful discussion about how God's word can get our minds right. You can also hear Dr. Jones preach in person Sundays at 11 a.m. at Faith Community Church of God at 1268 Gano Avenue in Orange Park, Florida, 32073. Thanks again for listening, stay mindful, and keep striving for improvement, because your mind matters to God. 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