Brave The Wave

Category: Blog

  • Corona, A Gift From God?

    Corona, A Gift From God?

    Corona, A Gift from God ?

    Do you ever look at what is going on with this Covid-19 event and think to yourself, “this seems strange.  Something just seems a little weird or unusual.”  Just two days ago I was watching footage of all the chaos that is occurring in India with all of their homeless population because so many businesses have been shut down. In the large cities in India, the workers live in the factory and are fed by the business. There are millions and millions of employees getting thrown out into the streets to fend for themselves. They are also being prohibited from leaving the city in which they are working to get to their own homes, sometimes hundreds of miles away.  Watching the masses of people in protests moving as waves was startling. It was almost like a scene from a movie.   All I could think about was how much virus was being spread among the hungry throngs of humanity.
    Clearly the hand of God is involved in all of this, but the thing that is so unusual is that the entire planet is being thrust headlong into this problem.  It is a rare global event.  I can’t think about anything in my own lifetime that rivals this kind of disruption to our daily lives that is impacting the whole world. Practically speaking the closest thing I could come up with was inflation or the opec embargo in the 1970s but that didn’t really cause the kind of suffering, pain and disruption to our daily lives as the Corona virus.
    The only thing that could be considered remotely close to this would be World War 2.   Though that lasted for years and the death toll was far greater than what we can expect with this virus.  What about the AIDS epidemic?  It was definitely global, but it really didn’t touch our lives personally because it seemed to impact specific groups. That epidemic had an impact on me personally in my training as a physician because we were in the brunt of that disease when I was in medical school. Half of the patients that I was taking care of in my clinical rotation in Internal Medicine had full blown AIDS and all of them died.   The majority were young men in their twenties and thirties.
    To me the important thing to learn from this that can help us try to get through it is the idea of the sovereignty of God.  Either God is allowing this event to occur or he isn’t.  Either God is in control of  this event or he isn’t.  We don’t choose to believe in God and his sovereignty because it makes us feel better as the atheists and non- believers continually like to accuse us of.   We believe that God is sovereign and he is in control because it is truth.  Truth is the way things really are.   We believe Jesus when he tells us that God’s will and God’s plan is perfect.  He knows what is best for us. He knows the best plan for our lives.  Look at what Pastor John Piper tells us in this quote,
    Therefore, God not only comprehends the coronavirus; he has purposes for it. God does nothing, and permits nothing, without wise purposes. Nothing just happens. Everything flows from the eternal counsels of God (Ephesians 1:11). All of it is wisdom. All of it is purposeful. For those who trust Jesus Christ, all of it is kindness. For others, it is a merciful wake-up call: “Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17).
    Kindness?  Yup, kindness.  Think about the most painful circumstances in your life when you learned some of the most important ideas with regard to your spiritual growth.  Most of the time those growth spurts were because of pain and suffering. But you wouldn’t change those for the world and you are grateful for those painful experiences.  I know I am.  If I hadn’t had those painful, harsh circumstances, I would still be wasting, time, money and energy on worthless ideas or pursuits. Things that have absolutely no value. Plus I would have missed out on all the valuable revelations, gifts, impressions and experiences that come from a growing thriving relationship with Jesus.
    God is in control in all of this and his purpose is much bigger than our tiny brains can comprehend. Our solace is in the fact that he loves us. We have faith and we trust in him. This may also be a wake up call to the many who are spending the majority of their time and energy on things that have been totally taken away, like sports or movies or other forms of entertainment.  This is a prime opportunity for everyone to get a better view of the big picture.  The most important things in this life are loving God and loving others, as Jesus told us.
    But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again.  One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
    Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
    (Matthew 22:34-37   NLT)
    We have been given a very important and valuable gift. The opportunity to spend time loving God with all our hearts, soul and mind. The world has been given this time to pause and think. The thing that will also help us and will reduce the number of fatalities is to stay socially distant. Being only in a small group. Our families.  We are given a golden opportunity to love and be close to our families and to love them and spend time with them.
    This is a huge gift from God.   But the only way we can see it as such is if we open the eyes of our hearts and see with spiritual vision.

    God Bless You,
    Stay Safe

    Your brother in Christ,
    Johnny Cavazos MD

  • Control Your Thoughts, Control Your Anxiety

    Control Your Thoughts, Control Your Anxiety

               Control Your Thoughts, Control Your Anxiety

    Where do you feel your anxiety? In your stomach? In your chest? It is never in your head. Why is that ? Well that kind of uncomfortable anxious feeling is coming about because your body is reacting in a way to prepare for some type of threat. But where is the threat?  Believe or not, that threat came from your mind.  Your thoughts created the threat. Most of the time when we are anxious, our lives aren’t in danger at all. That is very true for me. Sometimes our fears bring opportunities. https://bravethewave.org/2020/03/20/on-the-front-lines-of-this-corona-battle/

    There is plenty of anxiety to go around these days even if we the Covid pandemic has winded down.

    We know from statistics that we are still very anxious and stressed.

    • 75 percent of Americans experienced moderate to high stress levels in the past month
    • Stress is the number one health concern of high school students
    • 80 percent of people feel stress at work

    https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/mental-health/stress/stress-statistics/

    What we need to realize is that perception of threat that our bodies are reacting to comes from our thoughts. The idea that we need to understand and embrace is that we are in control of our own thoughts, so in essence, we are in control of our own anxiety. If you can believe that, then we are in business.

    On any given day we think about 30,000 thoughts. For the most part we don’t even think about our thoughts, we just kind of go about our lives focusing on our tasks and sometimes we are at the mercy of our thinking. The problem is that if we look at studies, most of our thoughts are negative. Just by our very nature and because of survival instincts, we think negative thoughts about eighty percent of the time. (1)

    In 2005, the National Science Foundation published an article summarizing research on human thoughts per day. It was found that the average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those thousands of thoughts, 80% were negative, and 95% were exactly the same repetitive thoughts as the day before.
    We can see that one of the tendencies of the mind is to focus on the negative and ‘play the same songs’ over and over again. (That is called worry, same negative thought over and over in our head.)
    There was another interesting study (Leahy, 2005, Study of Cornell University), in which scientists found that, firstly 85% of what we worry about never happens. Secondly with the 15% of the worries that did happen, 79% of the subjects discovered that either they could handle the difficulty better than expected, or that the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning.

    The conclusion is that 97% of our worries are baseless and result from an unfounded pessimistic perception.

    Control Your Thoughts, Control Your Anxiety

    Pessimism. Negative thoughts. Uncontrolled thoughts. Undisciplined thinking.

    When you are spending much of the time thinking about your anxiety, you are not focusing on the role you are playing in the game.

    There is only one way to get control of your thoughts and that is by focusing on them. For the most part, we let our minds wander and drift and move toward the negative. We convince ourselves that we are helpless in most situations. Or maybe we feel hopeless or worthless. All of those thoughts are lies. Every single one of them.

    As believers we know that we have supernatural power available to us. We have the power of the Holy Spirit to help us in every battle that we face. If we are pursuing spiritual goals and we are working to bring others to Jesus, that is when we get a good dose of spiritual warfare. That is one area that I have experience in. Let us look at each of the thoughts that keep us feeling anxious and worried all the time.

    Thoughts of Helplessness

    For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

    (1 Timothy 1:7 NIV)

    This is one of my favorite verses in the bible. It is for this reason that we need to see the Word of God as the ultimate standard for our faith and for our behavior. Jesus talked about the Word in this passage,

    The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—

    So here we have a choice, just like with our thoughts, we can choose to believe Jesus or not. He is telling us that Scripture cannot be broken. It is unbreakable and it is the foundation of our faith life. So if we believe what Jesus is telling us about the Word, then we are really kind of tied to the idea that we don’t have a spirit of fear and timidity.

    If we accept this truth, but we allow ourselves to be controlled by fear and anxiety, we are living a lie.

    Well, what is the truth? We were given a spirit of power, love and self-discipline. The truth is that we are not helpless. We have power, love and we have truth.

    Remember that Jesus is the truth. That is what he called himself. “I am the way and the truth and the life.” If we are being overrun by thoughts of fear, timidity and anxiety, we have chosen to live a life that is inauthentic. We need to understand this basic principle because the spirit of fear and timidity is something that WE CREATED. It is a false self. It is inauthentic.

    My book series is called the Authentic Self series. It begins with a road map on how to move towards authenticity and then focuses on passion and confronting fear. I am finishing the fourth installment that deals with pain and suffering.  In order to understand our “Authentic Self”, it would be helpful to define it,

    Our “Authentic Self” is the person God had in mind when he created us. It is the person we were meant to be, doing the tasks and assignments we were meant to complete, using the gifts and talents we were designed to use, with the love we were meant to share. 

     Thoughts of Hopelessness

    The Greek word for hope is Elpis. This is a little different than the way we think about hope. It is more like eager expectation. Like when you are getting ready to board a plane to fly to your vacation destination. You are in a good mood and you are eager to have time to relax and enjoy your family. It is something you look forward to. That is exactly how God wants us to think about heaven. Here is an excerpt from my book Brave the Wave on hope,

    I’ve come across people in my life who have little or zero faith. I’ve seen the look in their eyes at the death of a loved one. One thing’s missing. Hope. Not the hope of wishful thinking, but the hope of the Bible.
    Biblical hope is conveyed by the Greek word elpis, meaning “confidence” or “trust.” Our hope is to be more like eager expectation. I’ve seen this kind of hope in people of faith when they’re nearing death. Sometimes they’re eagerly awaiting it, almost like they’re in line for a ride at Disneyland. Excitement and eager expectation. Smiling and waiting. They have total confidence in the beauty and wonder of the place that Jesus has prepared. They believe Jesus when he says,

    Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”

    We either believe Jesus about heaven or we don’t. We either believe this promise or we don’t.

    The people of faith who are excited about dying and being with Jesus believe this statement down to their very bones. You know who else has no fear of death? People who’ve had near-death experiences. The majority of them lose their fear of death. They believe they now know exactly what it’s like, and that’s one of the traits of people who’ve undergone those experiences. No fear.
    We need to decide whether we believe and trust Jesus. There will be trouble, but he’s with us. We’ll die, but he has prepared a place for us. We have the Bible’s brand of hope: eager expectation, not wishful thinking.

    Here again, we have a choice to believe Jesus or not. We have a choice to trust in Him and we can do that by making a effort to control our thoughts. We can choose what we want to think about. We can choose to be more disciplined in our thinking.

    Thoughts of Worthlessness

    The last category is thoughts of worthlessness. Just looking at the cross should remind us that we have value, worth and that we are loved. That is why we should keep a reminder of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us around us at all times. We need to constantly be reminded about the greatest act of love the world has ever or will ever see. We are loved, we have value and we have worth. We should feel confident, powerful and we should have a drive to move towards our purpose.

    My next book on pain and suffering should be coming out in the next month or two. If this blog or email has helped you in any way, please share it with your friends and family. Spread the word. We should be focused and fearless in pursuing truth and telling others about Jesus. That is the call for every believer.

    Your Brother In Christ,

    Johnny Cavazos MD

    Bravethewaveweride@gmail.com
    Bravethewave.org

    1. https://tlexinstitute.com/how-to-effortlessly-have-more-positive thoughts/#:~:text=In%202005%2C%20the%20National%20Science,thoughts%20as%20the%20day%20before.

    Discover Your Passion, Release Your Power: How to fulfill Your Purpose In the Power of the Authentic Self now available for purchase !!!

     

     

     

     

  • The Key To Unlock Peace

    The Key To Unlock Peace

    The Key To Unlock Peace

    What is the one thing that you think could solve the majority of your problems? I remember talking to a friend who was having difficulty with his business and trying to get new customers and he was very stressed out. I remember asking him, “If I gave you a million dollars right now, would that solve the majority of your problems?”. He sat back and thought about it for a few seconds and said, “Yes, yes it would.” Then I said, “then your problems are pretty small.”

    If we stop and think about our own individual situations, we are truly blessed. Just living in this country we are blessed. Half of the world’s population is living on two dollars a day or less and we are complaining about how bad we have it in the United States. We spend a lot of time thinking about what we don’t have rather than what we have. Therefore, we wallow in want and envy. That is a problem.

    As an example,  do you know what we have in this country that you don’t see in other countries? Storage businesses. Look around on your way to work and count how many businesses there are to store our excess “things”. We complain that we don’t have enough whatever. Money, time, clothes, cars, luxuries, vacations. Name it. If we stop and think about it, we are a nation of whiners.

    We are also very anxious. Very nervous. Very worried. Hey, I am part of it too. I worry about my business. I worry about paying the bills. Paying for college. Paying taxes. All of it. I’m in the same boat as everyone else. Where do we find peace? Well one place we can start is our own thoughts.  This blog gives some great suggestions. https://bravethewave.org/2020/03/12/control-your-thoughts-control-your-anxiety/

    Our Best Days

    One of the things we can do to help is as we are going through struggles is to remember that we are believers. We have faith and we are looking forward to the promises of Jesus. We tend to get bogged down in the day to day struggles of survival and we can’t  fully believe that we have an eternity of peace and joy and love to look forward to because of the grace of our salvation.  Jesus said,

    My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?

    (John 14:2 NIV)

    Look at how he ends that statement, ” if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?”  It is our choice. That is the essence of freewill.  We can choose to live by believing in Jesus and holding onto his promises or we can ignore them.

    I was listening to a book by Pastor Mark Driscoll, “Win Your War: Fighting in the Realm You Don’t See For Freedom in The World You Do”,  and  he presented an idea that really caught my attention.  As believers in Jesus, as we are pursuing our purpose, this life and the struggles, trials and pain we encounter will be the closest we get to hell. It won’t get any worse than this. Our best days are ahead of us because we look forward to an eternity in heaven. We relish the idea of spending time with Jesus in unimaginable joy, peace and love. This is an empowering idea. One key to peace is to always remember, OUR BEST DAYS ARE AHEAD OF US.

    Sometimes tough times are actually opportunities. Golden opportunities.  https://bravethewave.org/2020/03/20/on-the-front-lines-of-this-corona-battle/

    For unbelievers, this life is the closest that they will get to heaven. Their best days are the ones they are living now. Everything going forward is just going to get worse than the life they experience on earth. This is a sobering idea.
    It reminds me of an interview I saw with atheist director Woody Allen. Waking up terrified every day, he lives in a constant state of fear because he believes that life has no meaning. He believes that the concept of heaven and hell is just “nonsense”. Life is like a train ride and we all end up at the “same station”.   Once this life is over, there is nothing else. He lives in constant fear and he deals with it by making one movie per year. This view of the world brings terror and misery.

    When we can live in light of eternity and understand that our best days are ahead of us, we can be grateful.  Gratitude brings peace. It also bring love and joy.

    The Power of Gratitude

    There is only one way to get to peace and that is through the Prince of Peace. There is no other way. He is behind the door but the door is locked. The key is gratitude. When you use the key of being thankful for everything you have, it unlocks the door to his presence, His power and His peace. We should start by being grateful for Jesus. Grateful for our salvation. Then we can be grateful for the gifts of our family and friends. They are a gift from God to teach us how to love. If we aren’t dealing with chronic illnesses we can be grateful for our health. We really take that for granted.

    I myself just went through an episode of chronic back pain that lasted for months. Unrelenting pain. That was a real eye opener and I pray for any of you going through chronic pain. That is tough. If you are pain free and free from any physical ailments or disease at this time, I would get on your knees and thank the Good Lord. Don’t take your health for granted.

    The Prince of Peace

    There are two places on this planet that I know when I go there, I feel blessed. I need to expand the number of places where I feel blessed. We all should expand and grow the number of places we can go to and just sit and be grateful. Sit and be with Jesus. Sit and thank Him and love Him. Thank him for our families and our health and that we have abundance in this life.

    Unlock the door.  Remember that our best days are ahead of us. Be grateful. Then bask in HIS PEACE.

    You can listen to Dr Cavazos in the brand new Discover Your Authentic Self podcast!

    https://www.realmenconnect.com/podcast/episode/c5a4abaf/422-how-to-discover-your-authentic-self

     

    Discover Your Passion, Release Your Power: How to Fulfill Your Purpose in the Power of the Authentic Self is now available for purchase !!!