Imagine: You are walking in the mall when you see someone from church, the person passes you but doesn’t greet you. The radars in your head start to work, “Is she angry with me?”, “Did I say something wrong the other day?” You start filling in your own story, your mind takes a walk with you and often it is in the negative realm. Do you recognize this?
Or maybe another example. You send a message to a friend to meet this week, after two days she still has not replied but you can see that she has read your message. “Maybe she doesn’t want to meet, maybe she finds me too pushy, maybe….”, here you go again, filling in what the reason might be, but again it is negative.
Why do we think so negative?
When you think about it you can probably come up with different examples. Our mind is the greatest battlefield where satan is trying to attack you. A lot of woman struggle with a low self-esteem. We don’t think very highly of ourselves and when we find ourselves in a situation where we don’t know why someone says or does something we fill in the answers for ourselves. And when we do that, often it is negatively. Probably its because of something we did or say that this person response in a certain way. And those thoughts influence again our behavior in the future towards this person. But is it true what we think? Do we ever check our thoughts with reality just by asking? I don’t think that happens a lot, probably because of the same thoughts. “What will they think if I ask?” So you don’t. But I believe that the truth is that if you would actually ask, they would look at you with amazement and tell you that you had nothing to do with it, that their child was sick or they
had busy days at work and how they actually were looking forward to meeting with you.
A positive truth
The truth is often much more positive than our own thoughts. And it happens in an instance. Lately my husband and I were driving on the highway. When the car in front of us started driving very slowly, he had to change lanes and said out loud “Is he crazy to drive so slowly on a highway! ”I replied, “Maybe his car broke down and he can’t go any faster….” Why always think so negative? 2 Cor. 10:5 “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” Satan is called the father of lies, he came to destroy and here in Corinthians it is clearly stated that he uses our mind as a battlefield.
We need to renew our thoughts with positive thinking.
Paul tells us in Romans to renew our thoughts. So apparently our thought need some renewal because our old man thinks negative thoughts and lies. We need to renew our thoughts with positive thinking, with the Word of God. And the Word of God tells us to know your own value, to know that you are loved ad cherished by the Father. The Word teaches us to always see the good in others. It is true all people are sinners, but if we believe our brothers and sisters need grace as much as we do, we should see that the good in them is Jesus.
What the Word teaches us
Phillipians 4:8 says: “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.” So let’s stop filling in on the things we don’t know, by our own thoughts that aren’t based on any truth. Let us put our thoughts in the light of this verse and decide to stop thoughts that let us think negatively about others or ourselves…
Read also: How to be a strong woman?
