Eat healthy and exercise is the key according to most experts. I'm sure veges and fruit are helpful and exercise assists also but there is one major ingredient almost no one is talking about.

How many Godly people do you know that seem to live a long life?

It is astounding how many Godly people are blessed with a long life. I know there are exceptions and things happen but as a general rule there does seem to be something going on that leads to long life.

Here are some scriptures about adding length of days to your life.

Psalm 21:4 He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.

Proverbs 3:1-2 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.

Proverbs 3:13-16 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding…. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.

So what is the most important ingredient you need to live longer?

That ingredient my friend is… God!

The Bible says in Matthew 6:33 that we should seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.

True wealth comes from not pursuing money but in the pursuit of God.

Psalm 112:1-3 says: Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever.

Ecclesiastes 5:19 says that if we have been given riches and wealth then it is a gift from God.

Ancient Israel demonstrated to us how blessing, happiness, provision and true wealth comes to us when we follow after God. Time and time again they were wonderfully provided for when they pursued God however they constantly turned away from God and pursued after the blessing. Instead of seeking him who was the blessor they chased after the blessing. Seek first God and he will provide I needs. Wealth simply means having that which is sufficient.

By many modern evangelist prosperity doctrine standards Jesus was a failure...

He never owned a big house, fancy car and he didn't have a golf course in his backyard. In fact the Bible says the Son of man had no where to lay his head. Having money and a truck load of material goods is not true wealth. There is nothing wrong with having money and using the money as a good steward, it is the love of money that is wrong. Therefore pursuing it instead of God.

It is dumb to pursue money as the Bible says iin Proverbs 23:5 – Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

If you continue to chase after money you will never catch it. Whereas if you chase after God all of your needs will be met. The same goes for business, if you only concentrate on the money you will fail, whereas if you concentrate on how to provide a good service and you are genuinely interested in trying to improve the life of those you come in contact with by presenting a good quality product or service then the money will follow.

True affirmations of wealth come from seeking those things which are from above.

The term make a joyful noise is only found in the book of Psalms and is mentioned 7 times. How amazing is that for those of you who are familiar with the number patterns in the Bible and especially the number 7 here is yet another example.

Making a joyful noise seems to be associated with singing and music. Psalm 81:1 says to sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Psalm 95:1 tells us to Come and sing unto the Lord and make a joyful noise the rock of our salvation. Psalm 95:2 says to come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise to him with psalms. Psalm 98:4 Says to make a joyful noise, make a loud noise, and rejoice and sing praise. Psalm 98:6 says with trumpets and the sound of cornets make a joyful noise the Lord.

Walking with the Lord is a happy and joyful life!

The positive affirmations from these scriptures are endless:

I will make a joyful noise to the Lord
I will sing aloud to God
God is my strength
I will sing to the Lord
I will make a joyful noise to the rock of my salvation
I will come before the presence of the Lord with thanksgiving
I will make a joyful noise to God with psalms
I will make a joyful and loud noise to the Lord
I will rejoice and sing praises to God
With music I will make a joyful noise to the Lord

Make a joyful noise in the Bible concordance can also mean: to shout, raise a sound, cry out, give a blast. It literally means to shout in triumph and to shout for joy.

By making a joyful noise to the Lord you are the one who gets happy from it.

Ephesians 5:19 – Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.

Colossians 3:16 – Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

This is a wonderful place to be. Singing and making melody in your heart and singing with grace in your heart.

The hope that we have in Christ Jesus is just not an empty hope so sought of feeling, it is a real tangible and exciting hope.

Here are some affirmations of hope from the Bible:

My hope and faith is in God

In Gods great mercy he has given me a new birth into a living hope

I have a hope that is an anchor for my soul

I will lay hold of the hope that is set before me

I have a joyful and confident expectation of living forever

I rejoice in hope

I am save by hope

I have a joyful and confident expectation through patience and comfort of the scriptures

I am filled with joy and peace in believing and I abound in hope

I have a hope laid up for me in heaven

The Bible says that there is a hope that purifies us.

1 John 3:3-4

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

In Psalm 130:5 it says, I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, and in his word do I hope.

It is in Gods word that we should place our joyful and confident expectations and of course by extension Jesus Christ because he was the word made flesh. By reading and saying Bible affirmations of hope we remind ourselves of the much bigger picture and the wonderful things God has planned for us. It is easy to take our eyes off these things when we are going through the every day things we come against in life so it pays to sit back and take stock sometimes and to remember the hope that we have through Christ Jesus.

Other meanings for the word forgive in the Bible concordance are:

To send away, to bid going away or depart, to send forth, yield up, to expire, to let go, let alone, let be, to disregard, to leave, not to discuss, to omit, to let go, give up a debt, forgive, to remit, to give up, keep no longer.

So here are some affirmations of forgiveness from all of those meanings:

I will forgive
I will not hold onto the pain and suffering any longer I will send it away
I bid this bitterness to depart
I will yield up my unforgiveness
It is time for this bitterness to expire
I will now let it go
I will not think on this problem any more as it is time to leave it alone
It is time to let it be
I will disregard what was done to me
I will no longer discuss the issue and leave it alone
I omit that trespass
I definitely now can let it go
I know it hurt but I now give up that debt
I will keep this no longer

God has forgiven all of our trespasses. I'm sure you can think of plenty of terrible things you have did in the past and wouldn't it be horrible if God wouldn't let go of those things and kept holding it against you. God has demonstrated how to truly love and how to have a real and genuine relationship. The key is in forgiveness.

The Bible has a lot to say about love and even goes as far as to say that God is love. That statement alone should alert us to the fact that if we want to find love then we need to go to the place where it is. God is love; God is that place where love can be found.

1 Corinthians Chapter 13 is quite often referred to as the love chapter. It uses the word charity which actually means love. Let's break down the verses of this chapter to see what love is and is not.

Love is patient and kind
Love is not jealous
Love does not boast
Love is not proud
Love is not rude
Love is not self-seeking
Love is not easily angered
Love keeps no record of wrongs
Love is never glad about wrongdoing
Love rejoices with the truth
Love protects
Love always trusts
Love always hopes
Love always perseveres
Love never fails

Wow! How great is love?

So let's see how many affirmations we can get out of this chapter.

I have the love of God and so…

I am patient and kind

I am will not allow myself to be jealous

I will not boast

I will not be proud

I am never rude

I will not be self seeking

I am not easily angered

I will keep no record of the mistakes others make

I will not rejoice about evil things

I will rejoice in the truth

I will protect others by loving them

I will always trust and not think the worse

I will always hope

I will continue to persevere

My love will never fail

Finally let's finish with this scripture: Romans 5:5 – And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Where is the love of God? What has been shed abroad in our hearts? How did God put his love in our hearts? All the answers are in the above verse.

By the way shed abroad means to: pour out, to distribute largely. He hasn't just sprinkle this love onto our hearts he has poured it into our hearts in large portions.

In fact Jesus promises us that he will never leave us or forsake us.

How good is Psalm 5:11-12? But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.

Look at all the affirmations contained in these verses…

I will put my trust in the Lord
Because I put my trust in the Lord I will rejoice
I will ever shout for joy
The Lord defends me
I love the name of the Lord
I am joyful because I love the name of the Lord
God blesses me
Gods favour surrounds me like a shield

From other scriptures from the Bible we can find affirmations like:

I will trust in the Lords mercy
My heart trusts in the Lord
I trust in the Lord and I am surrounded by mercy
I am blessed when I trust in the Lord
I will trust in the Lord at all times

The word trust means to have confidence in, feel secure, have hope in and to be sure about. It is a shame that the great majority of relationships are not realising the full potential of love that is available because one or both partners are holding back in the fear of being hurt on someway. Jesus has proven to us that he will never hold anything back; he even died for us before we were in a relationship with him. We can have full confidence in him so the onus then falls back on us to completely love him without holding anything back. We can do this, we can stop holding back in fear because he is someone we can totally trust.

How is your heart going? Would you like a stronger heart? Then take hold of Psalm 73:26 which say, God is the strength of my heart.

You don't want to be afraid anymore? Then Psalm 27:1 is for you because it says, Who shall you fear? When the Lord is the strength of your life, of whom shall you be afraid?

Are you going through a hard time? Then Psalm 37:39 says the Lord will give you strength in a time of trouble. Psalm 46:1 also says that God is our refuge and strength, a very pleasant help in trouble.

Some Christian Affirmations of Strength

God is the rock of my strength
I will go in the strength of the Lord
The Lord is my strength and song
God is the strength of my heart
It is God who girdeth me with strength
I will be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might
I will be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus
In the day I cried to the Lord he answered me and strengthened me with strength in my soul.

In Luke 11:21 it says, When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace.

We are in the house of God (the palace) and Jesus is our strong man who protects the palace and we are his goods and in total peace and security. We don't have to struggle in our strength when we have a strong man who is way more then powerful watching over us.

If you think about that word predestined it spells out loud and clear that we as Christians have a destiny. We have been pre- destinied (yeah I know it's not a real word) but it shows that every Christian has a purpose. How many movies have you watched where the hero discovers he or she has a destiny? How many lines have been uttered that say something like – Fulfill your destiny?

If you have become a Christian you have a destiny and the encouragement is that you too need to fulfill your destiny. Anything outside of that doesn't really bring you fulfillment or happiness. A destiny is exciting – going on quest to fulfill your destiny is a challenge. The Bible says we have no continuing city here on earth because Christians are sojourners looking for a better country. We are all on our destiny quest.

Hebrews 13:1 says, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.

We are partakers of the heavenly calling. The word partaker means: sharing in, a partner. Christians are partners in this heavenly calling, we share the same destiny as Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:12 says, Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

The word meet means: to make sufficient, render fit, to equip one with adequate power to perform the duties of one.

What a wonderful purpose we share:

I will give thanks to the Father
God has made me sufficient to share in the inheritance of the saints
God has rendered me fit to be a partner of the inheritance of the saints
God has equipped me with adequate power to perform the duties of a saint

Finally I will leave you with this verse from Colossians 1:13 – Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.

To translate means to take from one place to the other. We have been taken out of an aimless and purposeless world and translated into the amazing kingdom of Jesus Christ full of purpose. From this day forward my friends, Fulfill your Christ given destiny.

The word peace can also mean: rest, security, safety and prosperity.

Just like the scene of the river mentioned above if we want to attract others to us (or more importantly to Christ who we represent) we ourselves need to be at peace. If we are at peace we will be like that river and we will be surrounded by well watered vegetation that will attract the wildlife (the unsaved – no offense guys it's just an analogy).

Isn't this peace, rest, security, safety and prosperity what everyone is looking for? Can you imagine your life if you had this kind of peace in it? This kind of peace is can be found in Jesus Christ.

In John 14:27 Jesus said, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Some affirmations of peace we glean from the above scripture are:

Jesus has given me his peace
Jesus has given me rest
Jesus has given me security
Jesus has given me safety
Jesus has given me prosperity
I will not let my heart be troubled
Jesus has given me his peace there is no need for my heart tot be troubled any more
I will no longer be afraid because I have safety in Jesus

When preaching the gospel we don't really think of it as preaching peace yet that is exactly what we are doing. In Acts 10:38 it says, The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:).

When we respond to the gospel look what happens Romans 5:1 – Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

We have peace with God! One of my sayings is that most tombstones are engraved with RIP which means Rest in Peace. My arguement is that it is too late to rest in peace when you die – we can partake of the born again experience right now and be resting in the peace of Jesus Christ our entire life's.

If we want to rest in this amazing peace that God provides us through Jesus Christ then as it says in Romans 8:8 … to be spiritually minded is life and peace. There is the secret folks… being spritually minded is the key to true happiness.

Finally brethren I'll leave you with the following scripture in Romans 15:13 – Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.