(ThyBlackMan.com) Christian believers are not immune from thinking negative. In a culture that routinely expects the possible from the impossible, that’s hard to believe. We sometimes demand that “perfection” (whatever that is) is the goal.
The fact is nobody – believer or not – is perfect! We all fall. The difference for believers, though, is that when we fall, when we become victim to negative thinking, we have the grace to recover.
When we find ourselves thinking ‘stinky’ thoughts, we have the power to release those thoughts and, in the words of the Apostle Paul, think in a “more excellent way” (I Corinthians 12:14).
“Stinky thinky” thinking is the negative loop of bad thinking which keeps you broke, disgusted and behind on your dreams! Experts suggest 60-80,000 thoughts pass through our brains on a daily basis. Shockingly, up to 90% of those thoughts are carried over from yesterday. Even more shocking, up to 80% of those thoughts are NEGATIVE!
A negative thought is any thought that causes us to slip, lose hope or that stands in the way of improving our well-being.
The fact is the Bible is chock full of characters who got caught up in negative thinking and behavior which often ended up with devastating results. From Moses to David to Peter of the Hebrew Bible, we find these stories of negative thoughts, actions and the sin it births.
This behavior does not take place in a vacuum. It is the negative thinking attached to a mistake or blunder you made perhaps years ago and it keeps you on the stinky-thinky merry-go-round! Here’s the loop:
- Repeating the same mistake over and over
- People close to you reminding you of your mistakes over and over
- You keep reminding yourself of your mistakes over and over
The Christian believer, as mentioned, is in possession of the grace of Jesus Christ to purge ourselves of ‘stinky thinky’ thoughts. We often lack the motivation for acting upon this grace and here’s why.
Three Reasons Why You Can’t Get off the Carousel
- You keep looking back. Perhaps you are anticipating the mistakes of the past will correct themselves. They most likely will not. Therefore, you keep casting furtive glances at past mistakes. The best thing to do is to learn from them and move forward.
Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:62
- Your spiritual vision is hazy. You have a desire to move forward – to get off the carousel – but the people around you have filled your mind with disbelief and doubt, keeping you grounded on the tarmac when you’ve been cleared by God to take off! This is where bad company comes in.
This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:16
- You don’t see the assignment in your struggle. For you, it’s all struggle. There’s nothing redemptive about what you are going through. Instead of GROWING through you are GOING through and there is no redemption in sight. You think it is happening ‘to me’ rather than ‘for me’.
Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.
1 Peter 4:12
Redemptive Hermeneutical Principle: Take care of the negative thinking and the other two categories (words and actions) take care of themselves! When you think confidently in Christ, you will speak and act no less confidently in Christ!
Release ‘stinky thinky’ thoughts.
Staff Writer; W. Eric Croomes
This brother is the Believer’s Coach and is a licensed pastor, speaker and certified holistic lifestyle coach. Pastor Croomes is author of Watch Your Life: The Believer’s Guide to Thinking, Speaking and Acting Confidently in a Belief-Challenged World and Surge into the New: Stand Up Reach God’s Excellence, a book aimed at helping Christian believers strengthen their faith walk in Christ, written in the middle of a pandemic.
One may contact him at; WEC@ThyBlackMan.com and online; https://www.pastorwericcroomes.com.