This is how to respond to 'that'

From yesterday morning's sermon at my church:

"When you multiply a (circumstance or situation) by self-pity, that middle letter of the word 'sIn', and focus there, that, 'Oh, woe is me'--that brooding over that, rehearsing it over and over, will always equal depression.

"Every time you have depression that will be there and it's the key to change. You can't change the circumstances, or the fact that you respond to them, but you can change the way you look at it," explains Richard Jordan.

"When Paul says, 'In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you,' that's the key. Change the self-pity to thanksgiving. The way you think about the issues produces the emotional response.

"Emotions are the result of the way you think. Events are just events. Something that happens just happens until you interpret it. You impute a meaning to it: 'They did that; that means this.' When you do that, 'this' becomes the reality of your experience. 'This' becomes what 'that' means to you.

"You can only experience in life what you're thinking it means. So if you change the way you think, you change your emotions.

"Emotions are always based as responders. Reality comes not from what you interpret something to mean, but what's the truth of the situation and the only place you're going to get absolute truth is out of God's Word. So I need to take what God's Word says and apply that and create reality.

Proverbs 4:23: [23] Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

"The things that issue out of your life, what the reality of your experiences are, come out of your heart and your heart has a mind, a will and emotions. Your will chooses to take what you think and apply it and your emotions respond."

(new article tomorrow for certain)