Be Positive

From a friend about our Bible study last night:   :)

"I just wanted to say that I really love and appreciate all of you ladies. Last night we talked a lot about being thankful and not always being so negative. I know that I am one of those people who has something negative to say probably more so than I do something positive.  I wanted to say that I am sorry for that, and I have every intention changing that (with God's help, of course.)  I am happy to have y'all in my life."

Awe I am so proud of her for saying that! 

There was a book that came out awhile ago called "The Secret."  Oprah raved about the book and everyone was talking about it.  It said that you could attract positive things to you by sending out positive energy.  There was actually some truth to that book.  There had to be or people wouldn't have loved it so much. 

From a Christian perspective, our words activate things in the spiritual realm, whether we realize it or not.  If you say, "I am never going to be successful at anything."  Then you probably won't be.  Satan will ensure that that will happen, as sad as that is. :(  He feeds off of our negative thoughts and words.

But if you think positively and always tell yourself "I can do this!"  Then you can.  "He who thinks he can and he who thinks he can't are both right."  Meaning, whatever we believe will happen, will happen.  We create our own self-fulfilling prophecies by how we think about various things in our lives.  How we think about things is what we will become true of our situations in life.  If we think our kids will misbehave, then they probably will.  If we think we will always struggle with money, then we probably will.  If we think we will never get along with our spouse, then we probably won't.

As much as people like to bash Joel Osteen he has some very good points. :)  If you will say aloud every morning, "I'm believing that today God will give me a great day!  I'm believing that my kids will be well behaved, that I will get a handle on my finances, and that I will have a great relationship with my spouse!"  THAT will greatly change your situation.  You just might begin to have all those things if you believe that God can give them to you.  You have to have faith. :) 

Negativity becomes like a snowball effect.  One bad thing happens so you begin to think the rest of your day is going to be horrible.  You anticipate that it will be horrible so you actually bring about the very thing that you are dreading.  You actually cause it to be horrible.  You end up making your own day horrible by what you think, do and say.  Why?  Because you believed that it would be that way so it was.  It's like that kids book, "My no good, very bad, horrible day" or something like that.  I believe our negative attitude actually does draw more negative things to happen to us.   

You can change your situation by the way you think about your situation.  You have to change your thinking in order to change your situation.  If you begin to force yourself to think more positively, you will see positive results in your life.  You really can think things into existence to an extent.  There is much power in our minds and in our thinking and words.  Satan attacks us in our mind and God inspires us and encourages us in our mind.  God created the world just with words.  We create our own world just with our words.  And our words come from what we think about. 

Watch what you think about.  Be very careful of what you allow yourself to think and say.  We are to take "every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."  Meaning, when Satan tries to attack us in our minds we need to refute his lies with Scripture, sometimes aloud, as Jesus did in the wilderness with Satan.  Don't let Satan talk to you for long.  Tell him to get behind you!  Tell that jerk to get lost! lol :) Counteract his lies with what the Word says is true of us and our lives.  "We are more than conquerors in Christ."  "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  "If my God is for me than who can be against me."  "Be strong and courageous, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go!"  Amen?  Amen :)

I love the song that says, "Keep on pushin back the dark."  How do we do that?  By staying positive and speaking life instead of death into situations in our lives.  :)

I also realized that most people I have known have been more on the negative side.  Psychologists would say they then have the melancholic personality type, but are we stuck in a certain personality? 

I took one class on personalities and spiritual gifts and the teacher said we can change what our temperament is.  At various times in our lives we may have different temperaments or personalities. 

But yes, just about everyone I have known was the melancholic personality: my mom, my best friend Ash, my brother, the guy I was with before my husband, my husband, my room mate in college, most of my friends in college and high school etc. 

I did have one friend in high school, Lesley, who was always as chipper as a squirrel though.  It was funny and I loved being around her because she was always so happy!

Last night I told my friend Jessica in my Bible study how much I appreciate how happy she always is.  Just about every time I see her she has a huge smile on her face.  She certainly is "bringin' the sunshine" as Angela our Bible study video lady advised us to do. :)

My grandma was pretty much always super duper positive and encouraging.  She could get in her moods sometimes, but generally she was always very happy and upbeat. 

My brother was grumpy pretty much from the time he was born.  He generally has a mentality that everyone is against him and the world will end tomorrow.  But having my dad for a dad didn't help I'm sure.  My dad was very verbally abusive and majorly discouraging to my brother, so that explains his negativity. :(

My mom has struggled with clinical depression for as long as I can remember.  Given what my dad did it makes sense.  But it seems hard for her to get happy about anything.  In fact I don't think I have ever seen her happy about anything.  Except, ok, the first time was when I saw her lead a Bible study of women about a year ago.  I had never seen her that perked up and excited about something in my life. :)  And hopefully my baby Serenity will bring her joy finally.  She needs something to be joyful about for sure. :(

My best friend, as much as I love her, has always been more on the negative side.  But her life has been pretty hard, so it is totally understandable.

Another ultra positive person I knew was my youth pastor in high school.  She was the most confident, positive, happy person I had ever known.  Thus why I wanted to be just like her and follow Jesus closely as she did.

And THAT is how we can make Christianity seem appealing to the world.  Not when we are depressed and down on ourselves and everything around us.  The world already knows about depression and negative thinking.  But Jesus came that we may have LIFE!

So we are called to be different as Christians.  We are called to be more positive.  We have a hope that the world doesn't have, that we will be in heaven one day where there will be no more suffering.  We have a God who loves us more than words can say and sees Jesus when he sees us. 

That is A LOT to be positive about!  Amen? :) 

So try to be more positive, because God would want you to be. :) 

Satan wants you to be negative so you feel defeated and like you can't do anything.  But God wants you to be positive.  It's called having faith.  Have faith that things will get better for you.  Look ahead of you rather than behind you with hope, because you have God on your side.  Amen?  Amen!  :)

May God bless you abundantly!