Ease is overrated because many times it seems like we as a society is seeking for a place. We're working hard, working hard to get to a place of ease. Okay. 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 back to Mind Matters. I hope you're having an incredible day. If not, you're right here and you're right at the right place. You tune into the right station. This is a show where we get into the principles from the Bible that shape our lives and guide our decisions. Now, guess what we're going to do? Something so important that we did last week, we're going to continue what we talked about with Miss Cindy with her podcast title, Next Gen. She's with me today. You want to greet our audience or say anything as we move forward? Hello everyone and that podcast is Dear Next Gen. Okay. Yes. It's Dear Next Gen. It's on pot being and pretty soon it will be. Well, it may be on Apple podcast and some others. At all. Okay. It's new. It's new. We're still working out the kinks. Well, nothing wrong with new because I love what the Bible says. Do you know, Cindy, that the Bible addresses everything we do or don't do or think about or be about. It's nothing you want to do. But I'm just saying it's the most relevant book on the planet. There's so many people have best sellers. I've written two books and I'm working on a third book. They're doing decent. They're doing well. And I've known other people to sell whatever 10,000, 20,000, 100,000 or several million books, which they call them what the best sellers and those things are good within its space. But the Bible is the best selling book on the planet and it's that for a reason, right? That for a reason. It will always be. Oh, yeah. Because the Bible says, I love what it says in the scripture, the word of God will not return void. It will accomplish what he sends it out to accomplish just like the rain comes down and water the earth and then make it th bud and then bring forth fruit, you know, the grass grows, the flowers, blooms and all of those things, because rain from heaven is organic, right? It's not manufactured by man, you know, no chemicals in it. It comes straight from heaven. That's kind of how I put it. And that's important for us to know as we go forward. So today we're going to do part two on what ease is overrated. Say it one more time. Ease is overrated. Now, what is that about? Ease is overrated because many times it seems like we as a society is seeking for a place. We're working hard, working hard to get to a place of ease. Okay. And we find out there's no such thing. What do you mean this? That's a place called ease? Really? What you mean this no such thing? Well, well, okay. Sure. Let me say it this way. You're working hard to get to a place where kind of like the guy in the Bible that Jesus was saying, this guy said, "I'm going to fill up my barns and then I'm going to sit back and take my rest and just ease." Okay. Okay. And the Lord said, "You food, today your life is required of you." Okay. All that stuff you work hard for is going end up for somebody else. Okay. And they may not be as they probably just squander it. You know? Okay. You know, they probably mess over it. They're not going to appreciate it because they didn't work for it and so forth. Oh yeah. But when I say ease is overrated, I'm saying striving to get to that place instead of finding the ease in Christ. Okay. Being in the will of God for your life now. That is the ease. Okay. You know, Hebrews talks about entering into the rest. Yes. Okay. Entering into his rest. I like that. Yes. Now, that's a place of ease. Yes. You know, when you can enter into the rest of God and he and just relaxing, trusting and believing him knowing that he's got everything in control. He does. 100%. 100. And I like that because last time we got together, we talked about societal dictating certain lifestyles for us to follow and you addressed that. And that was very well spoken by you. And I think we talked about how much work and maintenance it takes to obtain and maintain material things. And you gave great advice about being overwhelmed when we're feeling overwhelmed and how to balance the spiritual purpose as relates to the pressures of life. You've covered that. Now, today, we want to pick it up and I want you to give me some more about this particular episode. Ease is overrated. Dear next Jan, right? Did I get it right? Yes. Dear next Jan with Miss Cindy. Right. And I think that's so important as we move forward. So give me some more thoughts as we continue this as relates to your first episode or your second episode. Oh, okay. Well, that second episode is is the scriptures is Luke chapter 12. Okay. Yeah, Luke chapter 12. Jesus gave several parables in that chapter. And he gave talked about hypocrisy and covetousness. Okay. The rich fool. Okay. His second coming. And he talked about servants, you know, a faithful servant, an evil servant. And in some version, they said the testing of servants. Right. And so, anyway, it's it's about the majority of the chapters advising us about what we should be focusing on and how to live our lives and that he is coming again. Okay. And so we really need to examine ourselves to find how he's going to find us. Are we going to be one of these? We're going to be a faithful servant. Are we going to be a foolish servant? You know, can he count on us? Are we one of those people that we knew what to do, but we can do it? All right. I'm with you. Yeah. Right. Right. So a question, question. How can we guard against becoming to focus on material wealth and instead focus on being good stewards or managers of what we've been given? Well, we, one of the ways is have a attitude of gratitude. Okay. Okay. Be grateful, be content with what we have. God will bless us with more when we're faithful and a good steward of what he gives us. Right. If we're not faithful over that, say, we have an apartment. Okay. We want a house. We want to own a house. Okay. Okay. We can't, we don't keep our apartment clean. Right. Come on now. Okay. You get a house with three bedrooms and all of that, you know, yard maintenance and all the other stuff, you know, if you can't be faithful over a few, a little bit, responsibility that we give, how are we going to be responsible if he gives us something bigger? Right. You know, right. And I think that key is so important, what you're saying being faithful over the little God would give us more. And that's a life principle. I think it's so important for everybody to know. And hopefully my audience is able to think more deeply about their personal relationship, you know, with God and their relationship with wealth and materialism because we're offering biblical wisdom to help people to refocus their lives. So as we move forward, what else about this particular episode as relates to ease is overrated, as relates to, you know, commitment, deserving, certain things and what the Bible has to say? I think you're speaking from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12. Is there anything else? Is it relates to that? Well, and I have another question after you finish that, I'm pretty sure. Well, in verse 48 of that chapter, chapter 12, it says that, but he who did not know yet committed things deserving of stripes shall be beaten with few because he didn't know, you know, and then that verse also said for everyone who has been given much, much would be required. Right. And to whom much has been committed of them, they will ask even more. So when you're faithful over a few things, people see your reliability, your stability, they want to, they want you to do something else and do something that they know you're, you're, they can count on you, you know, and so they're going to ask you for more. Okay. And I think that's so important. Absolutely. Absolutely. Because you mentioned that much is required in that particular passage. I like that. Right. Right. It's, you mean, you say much is required from those who have been given much. Now, the thought is this, or the question, here's my question. How can we balance the demands people place on us without losing sight of what God wants us to do? Well, by staying prayerful, okay, acknowledging God in all our ways, you know, he will direct us in and, and letting peace be our umpire. Okay. You know, Proverbs three, five, and six says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him. And he shall direct your path. Right. And so went to stay out of the, you know, demands of people. Oh, people ask you something. And I know you're real good at this. You don't say yes right away. Yeah, I'm real good at a lot of things, but you're right. Anything. I mean, to me, like the answer is right there, but he's not going to say yes. Well, this is what I go by. The Bible said be swift to hear and what slow to speak. I live by that principle in the book of James, then it says slow to wrath. But it's so important for us to be swift to hear, but we must, because I need to process what you just said. So I can respond instead of react. So many people are in a state of emotionalism, they're reacting in their emotion versus responding with the right intelligence, as well as the information that need to be said. So they won't have to say, Oh, I spoke too soon. Oh, forgive me. I did not mean to say that. Come on. I know somebody's listening to this radio show. We're talking to Miss Cindy about her podcast, Dear Next Gen, which means Dear Next Generation. And we're talking about this episode. Ease is overrated. You may have just tuned in. And thank you. If you did, and we're covering several things that I think is so relevant for us to have a complete understanding because the Bible said with all that, well, it says wisdom is the principle thing, but with all you're getting, get understanding. That's probably chapter four, verse seven. So now we're talking about how can we balance the demands of people, what people place on us. So we won't lose sight of what God wants us to do. So you're saying take time and examine, always give yourself, well, yeah, majority other time, give yourself time to see what you be able to meet that requirement. And if that's what God wants you to do, you do need to acknowledge God, Lord, is this something you want me to do? And and not say yes, all the quickly. Well, the Bible said, let your yes be yes. Let your name be named. And that's this is so appropriate right here, because a lot of times words bring an emotion. And what it depends on who's talking to you, an authority figure, or a sibling, or a neighbor, or a friend, you may want to respond quickly, or you may want to think about what you want to say. Right. And regret it later before you say it. And that is so important because words are powerful words carry weight. And like I said, it depends on who it comes from. So most of the time we're as you're addressing the next gen, ages 18 through 40 or so, I think that's so important for our generation of today, and our generation of yesterday and our generations of tomorrow to have that understanding of what you're articulating right now as it relates to us, not just saying something just to say something, just to please people, just to like, you know, to be like, no, don't worry about being like, we got to be loved and liked by God. 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 Communities 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. And what I meant by what I just said, being liked by God, obviously God loves us. But I believe we need to love ourselves. So, like is what the world does. You know, social media like you articulated very well. But we love him because he first loved us. So, I want to clarify that as we move forward. But give me some more thoughts on that particular episode that you did as it relates to ease as overrated. Okay. Well, as we were saying, you know, we need to acknowledge God in all our ways and heal direct our path and we don't need to give in to what everybody wants us to do. When we're faithful over those few things and when we're reliable and when we're committed, that's the scary thing people are scared of. Why you said that and why are you talking like that? But it's like commitment is a scary word. It's a scary thing. I don't want to commit to something and I'm not going to do it. That's because it requires discipline. Right. Okay. It does. And we want to be free to change our mind. Okay. True. You can't have a stable life if you're not committed or disciplined. In what area and what you mean? Because we're talking obviously the next Jan and whoever else is listening to this particular show today. If you leave your life free. Okay. If you if you're not committed, if you're not disciplined, then you're kind of as you would term a loose cannon. A loose cannon. Okay. Whatever that means. A loose cannon means I'd do it if I want to if I feel like it or I won't if I don't feel like it. Okay. That could be a person that could be dangerous. You're talking about a loose cannon. They can be dangerous with their words. They can be dangerous with their actions. They can be just a dangerous person with their life because they're subject to say and do anything off of a whim of all for a moment. So yes, I got that. And you know how fickle our feelings are. Right. Well, feelings are fickle. Yeah. They change at any moment and they're influenced by whatever. Okay. You know, it could be food, could be a drink. It could be what's happening in the moment. You know, when you go to the movies, they play music and you can tell when something's about to happen. Right. And the music makes you feel all of these different emotions and stuff, you know. But we can't live our life like that. Okay. Okay. We must be committed and disciplined to carry out our responsibilities whether we feel like it or not. Okay. And so when you're committed and you're faithful and people love you and people will love you. Okay. And they want you to do many things because they know they can count on you, but you will not put on the earth or to do what everybody wants you to do to be everyone's heroes, you know, and being what they want you to be. Okay. So we got to spend time with guys spend that time with some people say that meditation, you know, start the day they get into the yoga and calm their minds or whatever, you know, but we need to tune in with what God wants us to do, tune in with him, get his leading, get his guidance. So we can go out through our day, get our daily assignments and his guidance. Right. And get used to hearing his voice. There's still small voice that a lot of times we call something told me something, something, something, something. Yes. I don't know what something is, but something told me. Right. Yeah. Whatever that something is. Yes. And people hear all kinds of voices too. So you got to be aware of what's his what's his voice and what is these other voices. The other voice could be because there's an imitator, you have an enemy and it's real pushy and it brings confusion. God is not the author of confusion. Right. You know, he brings peace and joy and love. Right. And he encouraged us to do good things. Right. He helps us to be kind and patient and long suffering and faithful. He helps us to control ourselves. Yes. Like you say, you, well, we've talked before, you don't say, yes, immediately to anything, you need to take time to instead of being reactive, being responsive. So we need to take times and doing, you know, what are we doing? What are we doing? What God wants us to do that leads to a life of peace, which should be in us and not around us. A lot of times we think peace is a situation or we're in a good place because everything's come right now. I'm not facing a crisis. So that means when you think about when I, what came to my mind, peace is no noise, meaning it's completely quiet. I remember mothers as they grow up or even my mama said, man, when y'all get out of the house, I'm gonna have some peace because we as boys made it a lot of noise. I mean, so peace is not necessarily the absence of noise. Correct. The absence of traffic. Right. That absence of other voices, peace begins within. Yes. Just like when Jesus was on the boat, right? He was the storm was out there and but he was asleep in the inner part of the boat, but his disciples were like panicking and fearful and all of those things, but he was asleep and probably snoring, you know, and then a cycle woke him up. Master, you don't care that we perish. And then he spoke to him and said, peace be still. So peace is not the absence of noise per se outwardly, but it's who we are from the inside out. It's peace that we have it within us. Yes. So we can have noise around us, but we can stay have peace in the midst of adversity, the storm and the trials of life. Yes. Yes. I my mind goes back to when I was planning a women's conference and it seemed like everything was coming up. The closer we got, you know, things was going wrong or obstacles was popping up and stuff. And I just I couldn't help but to just smile because I knew it was the enemy bringing adversity and we were going to have a great time at this conference. Right. But it's having peace. Okay. And still getting all frustrated and frantic and what we're going to do? Oh, if we need to do this, we need to do that. And no, God is in control and it's going to work together for our good. Oh, absolutely. So thank you for being with me. I do have one last question though, as we talk about as we get to the end of this particular episode and talking about Miss Cindy, your podcast as relates to Dear Next Jan. So how can people recognize when they're stepping out of God's peace and into a state of confusion or busyness? Oh, yeah. They can tell by when they start feeling frustration. Okay. And when they start feeling stress. Okay. When they feel the or they start reacting to pressure. Right. Or they get angry irritated easily. Okay. You know, you don't lost your peace then. Right. Because you're your your help internalize that to depend on yourself. You get a bad attitude. You start feeling selfish, start looking out for yourself. And and all of these lead to can lead to health issues too. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We're already got health disparities in our country. But it can lead to more health issues, right? As it relates to a blood pressure, diabetes, when we eat a lot of comfort foods that are not healthy for us. So it can help it can cause it's based on choices though, cause our health to decline. Right. Because of what you just said. Yeah, a lot of times, you know, well, I learned over the years from living life. So to speak, when you have these, when you get emotionally upset or something like that, you want to go eat a candy bar, get some ice cream, some chocolate and stuff. Right. And then you look in the mirror, you know, like what you see. Right, right, right, right. You know, you just you say, uh, and I came to the realization of I'm doing all of this because I'm upset with this person. Right. And I'm damaging myself. I'm hurting myself by doing all of this. They don't care. You know, they don't have to deal with that. And so I had to learn to not to internalize that and eat these things that's going to kill me that I'm going to pay for later, you know, right. That's that's not peace. No, you know, and when you get into that state, like you said, the state of confusion and busyness, right, you know, a lot of times, when you come time to relax, you taking in all of this stuff that's not good for us. Right, you know, and it's affecting our body and we only get one of those. Right. You know, and then we got to take care of that. But if in our mind, we don't turn that switch off and not go to, like you said, the comfort foods. Right. Again, nothing wrong with comfort foods. Right. There's a balance. Yes. Oh, I love me a Snickers now. A little bit. Come on, talk to me. I love me a German chocolate cake. I love me some carrot cake. I love me some sweet potato potato pie, sweet potato home made not stove about home. I mean, I grew up on that. I love me some macadamians cookies. Yes. The thing is that we got it. Yes. I know you run off on that. Oh, yeah, I must. The thing we have to realize is good to me and say, no, you got me thinking in this. It's good to you. Oh, it's good to me, but not to you, but not good for you. Okay. I got you. And as I was about to say, and the word tells us there is a time and there is a season, there's a time and a place for all things. Yes. We have to know that. Yeah, banana pudding. Okay. There is a time. Okay. Yeah, banana pudding, man. Peach cobbler, peach cobbler, don't get you some peach cobbler. Maybe you want some week instead of every day. And that's true. You know, treat yourself or once a month or every two weeks. High over, you have to know your own body. Right. And you're dressing our audience today with thank you for tuning in whoever is listening. And whenever you're going to listen, this is a powerful show as relates to dear next Jen, dear next generation with Miss Cindy is overrated. He's is overrated. And because we're blessed to be a blessing and God's has give us gifts and talents and all of those abilities and resources that you talked about. Right. Right. Anything you want to conclude before we before I bring it in. One last scripture is that in John 10, 10, he says, the thief comes not except to, well, the thief does not come except to steal and to destroy. And he said, I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly. Right. So God gives us life and we have to know how to handle that life, not to get so focused on the ease part and the dessert. All right. How can people reach you before we close? I have to close that quickly. Like I said, we're on pot being right now. And they can send me an email is miss sin Cindy Jones is a m s c i n d y j o s at gmail.com. So they can send me an email with that. Awesome. Thank you for being with me. And hopefully we put a spotlight on your mission as relates to the dear next Jen with Miss Cindy on pot being at the moment. And thank you for being here with me to help this show spread the word about what God has deposited in your life that you can help the next generation next week. We're going to be talking about how to know your purpose. I was not missed that. I would not miss that. Tell somebody about it. How to know your purpose. I'll see you then 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. [BLANK_AUDIO]
