The Power Of Negative Thoughts

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“The Power Of Negative Thoughts”

1 Peter 5:8 NLT

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

 

For so many years of my life, I have heard podcasts, sermons, read books and heard stories of the power of positive thinking.  I want to be clear that this is vital and very important for us to consider, but what I have been feeling and thinking about is how we need to also realize the power of negative thoughts and where those can lead.  I’m NOT focusing on the idea of having negative thoughts, but I AM focusing on what negative thoughts can do to us.

 

For most of my life, I have struggled with a negative self-image.  I have struggled with having a low self-confidence and low self-esteem.  However, God has brought a lot of encouragement and resources into my life in the past several years to combat this way of thinking. 

 

I want to encourage all of us not only to focus on the power of positive thinking, but to also be very cautious and aware of what can happen when we focus on the power of our negative thoughts.  We need to be aware of both sides. 

 

If we are focusing on negative thoughts a lot in our lives, we need to be made aware of how those thoughts spiral out of control and do so much internal damage to the way we see ourselves.  Last week, I shared about how our old self is gone and we are now a new creation in Christ.  The enemy wants nothing more than to bring to our minds constantly all of the negative thoughts that surround that old self. 

 

I have found through much wisdom in therapy, through reading Christ-centered books, Scripture and talking to people who really love me, that I need God’s wisdom and strength to help me battle the negative thoughts train I often have.  I have learned that I need to be very proactive when I’m battling these thoughts and when they surface.  I have to learn better how to combat them with what God says in His Word about who I am. 

 

I want to encourage myself and you all that every single day, we need to be intentional about filling our minds with positive thoughts to push out the negative thoughts.  It’s very hard to do some days.  There are days when things are going great and it’s very easy to focus on the blessings of life.  There are also days when we feel like nothing is going right and our world is falling apart.  The blessings are STILL there, but they are being drowned out by the enemy filing us with negative thoughts. 

 

Every day, we need to be very intentional about focusing on the power of positive thoughts and be aware of the power of negative thoughts that are trying to drown out the positive ones.  We need to be on alert and ready for the enemy’s attacks. 

 

Are we ready?

We're Done With The Old Self

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“We’re Done With The Old Self”

Galatians 2:20 NLT

My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 

Just recently, I read this passage for the Air1 Radio verse of the day.  They always send these in the NLT.  The first part of the passage hit me hard.  “My old self has been crucified with Christ.”  I had to take some time and let that sink in for many days.  The impact of these words is so powerful.  Just take a few moments and let these words sink deep into your mind, heart and soul. 

 

Our old self is gone.  Do we fully understand this concept?  I don’t think we do.  Why do I say that?  Because the enemy haunts us at any chance he gets to remind us of our old self and how bad we were.  He wants us to think we can’t ever get way from who we used to be.  But….he is WRONG!  Might I remind us all that Jesus Christ went to the Cross to die and put death in the grave?  

 

Our old self is gone.  We live through the life Christ has given to us!  We are a New Creation each new day!  The old life of sin has no power over us.  We have victory through the Cross!  Let that also sink in for a few moments.  I think for so many of us, we let the enemy yell into our minds way too often reminding us of our past and all the bad things we did before we came to Jesus.

 

We need to be reminded each day that we are made new in Christ.  The enemy no longer has control over our lives and we are not slaves to sin.  The enemy wants nothing more than to constantly remind us of the messed up lives we had before coming to Jesus. 

 

While the enemy constantly reminds us of our messed up old self, Jesus constantly reminds us of the new life we have through Him!  It’s hard turning away from the constant reminders of our old self.  The reminders make us feel like we’ll never move past those old tendencies and sin we used to live in.  However, Jesus reminds us that He paid the price for all of those sins and His love will never change for us.

 

Let’s look at the phrase again, “My old self has been crucified with Christ”.  I want this passage and phrase to be on my mind each new day as a reminder that my old self is gone and I have new life in Christ!  I hope this passage becomes a favorite of ours that we remember every day to be reminded who we are now.  We are no longer slaves to our old self, we have been made new in Christ!

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Alive & Alive

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“Alive & Alive”

Ephesians 2:4-5 NIV

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

 

There’s a song by Passion Conference that we often play at church called “Glorious Day”.  One of the verses says “I was breathing, but not alive” and that phrase always reminds me of how our lives were before we knew Jesus Christ.  We are all physically alive up until we give our lives to Christ, then we are both physically alive and spiritually alive.  It’s so great to see people’s energy after they made a decision to follow Jesus.  They are on fire and so excited to share with others.

 

As I look past on the past many years of my life, I see so often that I have lived my life without excitement of knowing Christ.  I gave my life to Him when I was young, but there have been so many times where I didn’t live “Alive & Alive”.  I was just breathing, as the song says.  I hate to say it, but many of us tend to fall to this problem.  We get so caught up in the day to day routines of life and we let things bog us down and so often our spiritual lives take a backseat.

 

If we have given our lives to Him, we should be living each day with excitement showing the lost world what they are missing.  However, sadly, many of us (myself included) spend many days in our own world doing our thing and living as though we are not spiritually alive.  We have so much to live for being born again in Christ! 

 

We need to be bold and share with the lost world that we are not only physically alive, but spiritually alive as well.  We sadly spend so many days pretending to be spiritually alive, but we are just basically breathing and on autopilot.  We have so much more to be living for!

 

I want to encourage all of us to live not only physically alive, but spiritually alive as well.  This passage says it all in that Jesus made us alive in Him!  We have a story to tell and a wonderful love to share!

 

Are we just alive or are we alive & alive?

I Am..... Vs. I Feel.....

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“I Am…….. Vs. I Feel……..”

Ephesians 2:10 NLT- For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

 

I have shared with you all within the past year how I have struggled with self-esteem most of my life.  Having been in therapy for the past almost 3 years now, I have learned so much about how my past and childhood affects how I am as an adult now.  Those who know me well know that I come down hard on myself when I do or say something stupid and mess up.  I talk down to myself pretty bad and my family is often reminding me that I should not be doing this.  I am not nice to myself at all when I mess up. 

 

The enemy likes to make me think that I am the dumbest person to ever walk the earth.  I find a lot of mental battles each day.  Something my therapist has really helped me work through is to remember that when I feel something, that doesn’t make it true.  I need to remember what God says in His Word about who I am.  I have had to work really hard to keep my mind positive about who God says I am.  The enemy gets VERY loud each day trying to throw negative thoughts my way about myself and how I’ve messed up in life.  He loves to constantly remind me of my faults, while God wants to constantly remind me that I am unconditionally loved and, as Paul states, I am God’s masterpiece. 

 

I am sharing this with you all today as I am confident there are people who will read this devotional and completely relate to what I am saying.  Many of you find yourselves bashing yourselves verbally and mentally each day.  You think you never do things right or amount to anything.  The enemy is very, very sly in getting us to feel dumb, stupid and worthless.  This is a LIE from Hell and we cannot believe it!

 

I know that I will battle these thoughts for the rest of my life, but I also know that God will remind me who I am in Him.  I am His masterpiece.  I am special and unique in the Kingdom.  We all need to remember that we are special and unique to Him. 

 

I’m often finding that, with a snap of a finger, I can mentally be thrown into a negative mental pit where I am bombarded with negative thoughts about myself and I get buried with those.  I’ve never thought so much about mental health in all my life before and now I have a taste of what many people struggle with day in and day out.  I want to end with more words from Paul that should remind us each day to focus on whatever is beneficial.

 

Philippians 4:8 NIV- Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

 

“I Am…….” is what God says about us.  “I Feel……” is often what the enemy says.

He's Always Available For Us

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“He’s Always Available For Us”

Psalm 138:7-8 NIV

Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

 

Recently, as I was sitting in a lobby waiting for an appointment, it dawned on me how much of our lives we find ourselves sitting and waiting for someone to see us.  We all have so many different appointments where we find ourselves waiting. 

 

We wait in a doctor’s office to discuss health issues.

We wait in a dentist’s office to find out if we have tooth issues.

We wait at a therapists office to talk about life issues.

We fill out an application and wait to get a response about a job offer.

We call someone, leave a message and hope they return the call.

We send an e-mail to a company and wait for a response.

 

We wait for responses from other people.  Sometimes people get back to us quickly, other times we wait for hours, days, months or years.  We leave messages and wonder if they will be returned. 

 

As I’ve continued to mull this over, I am so thankful and grateful that, no matter where we are or what we are doing, God is always available to listen to us and hear what is on our minds and hearts.  He wants to talk with us.  He’s never out to lunch or on another call.  He’s always there.  No matter where we go or what we are doing, we can approach Him and have a conversation.  Whatever needs or concerns we have, He’s right there to hear what we need to bring to Him.

 

It’s an amazing feeling to know that He always has time for us and is always there for us.  He’s not sitting there, looking at His watch, bouncing his leg, and giving off body language communicating, “Hey, are you almost done blabbing??  I’ve got things to do!”  Never! 

 

Isn’t it an amazing feeling to know that God is ALWAYS there for us and is never too busy to spend time listening to what is on our hearts?  When life is going great, He’s there for us.  When life is the pits, He’s still there for us.  We just have to call on His Name and He is right there!  He’s not on vacation with an out of office message and He’s not ghosting us. 

 

Just remember, though, that His ways are not our ways.  He won’t always respond in the ways we expect.  He’s always there for us, but so often we come with our expectations of how we want Him to respond.  Come before Him with an open heart and mind and commune with Him.  Be open to what He wants to say and how He wants to lead. 

 

It’s a great feeling to know God is always available for us, no matter what.

What You Need, When You Need It

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“What You Need, When You Need It”

Philippians 4:19

NIV- And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

 

In the parking lot at our apartment complex, I’ve recently noticed a truck from a company with a sign on the side that reads, “What You Need, When You Need It”.  That’s good advertising, but I have to only wonder if the company customer service and technical service really stands up to its claim?  Wow, we could wonder that about a lot of services we read about, right?

 

Cell phone companies claim to give you the best service, but which one really is the best?

 

TV manufacturers claim their brand delivers the best, but which one really is the best?

 

Car manufacturers claim their vehicles not only run the best, but they’ll take care of you if something goes wrong.

 

Marketing advertisements are full of promises to make our lives better and give us what we need and to never let us down.  Yeah, right!!!

 

In this day and age, we are bombarded every day with so-called promises from various companies and various food places telling us we need this and we need that. 

 

Every one of us has had our hearts shattered by some company or product that didn’t deliver what was promised.  We trusted, but then got badly burned.  The world definitely knows how to get our attention and get us to believe that certain products will bring us exactly what we need when we need it.  We’ve all fallen to so many co-called promises and they totally let us down.  This is where I like to get on Google reviews and share exactly how I feel so that others won’t fall to the same fallen promises from a certain place.

 

In all of this, we often wonder if anything is really true as claimed?  Well, I know One Who always stands up to what He claims.  God has given us His Word and it’s exactly what we need when we need it.  He always gives us what we need, when we need it.  However, we often have issues with His ways.  We often think He’s not delivering when we need it, but in reality, we just don’t understand His ways and they are always better.  We just don’t understand.  But, from all He’s done in the past, we can definitely trust what He promises us.  We just have to trust in His timing.

 

Next time you’re lured in by anything the world is offering to bring you what you need, remember that ONLY God can make that claim.  He truly gives us what we need when we need it.  He gave us Jesus Christ and He is all we will ever need.

The Best Part Is Community

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“The Best Part Is Community”

Hebrews 10:24

NIV- And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

NLT- Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

 

I know in the past couple of years, I have shared numerous times that I could not be where I am with my running again if it wasn’t for the community of people that encourage me.  In the past 2 years, I have come to enjoy running more than I ever thought I would again.  It would not mean as much to me these days if it were not for the people I am connected to as we spur one another on and encourage each other.  We have good days of running and bad days, but as we share our experiences with each other, it bonds us together.  I am so grateful for this. 

 

5 years ago in June, we started attending Canvas Church in Mankato.  We enjoy the worship, the preaching, but most of all, we truly enjoy the community of people we have come to know and love.  If we just attended each Sunday and did nothing more, we wouldn’t feel as we do today.  We would just be Sunday attenders.  But as we have become involved in various ways, we have established very strong friendships. 

 

Every day that I come home from work and on the weekends, I have a community that welcomes me with love.  I get to spend quality time with my wife and my daughters(when my oldest is home from college).  This community encourages me and loves me every single day.  I love them back each and every day the best that I can. 

 

So with my running, my church family and my family at home, the absolute best part is the community of people I am connected to.  That’s amazing because we are encouraged to meet together and encourage each other.  I am beyond grateful for the people I have come to know and love in our church.  It’s exciting every Sunday to see brothers and sisters in Christ that are genuine and authentic.  It’s amazing to see people being genuine in their connection to God in worship and just loving on others before and after church.

 

The best part of my running is the community I’m connected to for encouragement.  The best part of church is the community of people I’m connected to that encourage me in my walk with Christ.  The best part of my community at home with my wife and daughters is that they show me unconditional love.    

 

We all need to be connected.  I recently heard a pastor on Air1 Radio that said, “We’re not wired for isolation, we need community!” Amen!