Teacher: John Schoenheit

Life is too difficult for Christians to be mentally, physically, and spiritually successful without help from the Lord. The Bible encourages us to be strong in the Lord—and that is a must, if we are going to succeed as God’s workers, athletes, warriors, and ambassadors.

When Jacob was told that his beloved son Benjamin had to go to Egypt if the family wanted more food, he exclaimed, “Everything happens to me!” Of course, that was not true—but it expressed how he felt at the time, and how a lot of us feel when things go wrong in our lives. If we allow our thoughts to run in that direction, we can become pessimistic and even depressed, or we can slip into escapism and not engage the world the way God calls us to. In this teaching, John Schoenheit addresses 5 simple points for staying positive, being engaged in life, and being effective ambassadors for God—through our awareness of how our flesh makes us feel; our honesty about the world as a war zone; our understanding that it is not abnormal or ungodly to have strong emotions when bad things happen; our having control of our thoughts, and being willing to let go of the things of this life and keep the Hope in mind.