Word of Encouragement: Counselor’s Corner: Keep a Right Mind-Set

This is not an article on how to teach you how to think positive as secular psychologists or as new age thinking would, but how to keep a right mind-set through the truth in the Word of God. So many Christians are living pessimistic, defeated, and negative lives. God wants us to think His thoughts and be people of God filled with faith in our speech and in our thoughts. When we beat ourselves up, think negative thoughts about ourselves or others, or think worst-case scenarios over every difficult circumstance that arises in our lives, we are not living the life that God has for us. Most likely, if we are thinking these thoughts we will become depressed, anxious, tired, and be susceptible to a lowered immunity. You may be saying, “Well, you just don’t know what I go through.” I don’t have to know what you go through, I can say my life has been a fight. Nothing has simply come easy for me, and I have faced more trials and tribulations than I could possibly write about. I have endured seasons of wrong thinking, and it left me mentally and spiritually paralyzed.

Sometimes, we can have a predisposition for negativity or be dealing with depression, this can make negativity more prevalent. You will have to fight harder to regain control of your thoughts. Yes, I said fight. You can be on all the medications to help with depression but if you are not working to keep right thoughts, the medications will not be as effective.

Be careful of what you allow to enter your mind. Not all thoughts that come into our minds should we dwell, ponder, or agree with. Check your thoughts, and ask, “Does that agree with what God would say?” If it does not, immediately get rid of that thought. Start thinking of something else, a positive, faith-filled thought. If that thought keeps coming back, stop the thought and replace with another thought. It takes time to discipline our thought life, especially if your thinking has been that way for a while, or perhaps you were raised in a home where you were exposed to wrong thinking. But today is the day of change. Ask God to give you His mind and His thoughts. Keep pursuing this until right thinking is automatic, and all traces of your former thinking is far behind.

Focus on what is right in your life, and keep a daily gratitude list or journal. In the beginning this may feel strange or that it is not really helping, but renewing thinking patterns takes time; so keep going until you have achieved a right mind-set. Write out on note cards, scriptures and positive affirmations and say out loud daily, this is a way to purposely think about what you are thinking about. You have to be purposeful in pursuing this change in thinking. It may take a lot of work in the beginning, but it will be worth it. Negative thoughts will come to us all, but we don’t have to accept them. Train your mind to not accept negative, defeated, or discouraging thoughts.

Be mindful of the company you keep, if you are hanging out with negative people; the negativity could rub-off on you. Be careful of the material you read and the things you watch on T.V. Negative reports through the news can dampen our faith and cause us to think negative. Fill your mind and fill your life with positive, faithful people and positive activities. Guard your heart and mind constantly from negativity. When a difficult situation comes up in your life, don’t start speaking what you see, but start speaking faith over your circumstances. It is important not to react to our circumstances, and this begins in our thoughts first.

Choose your Thoughts!

I am not even up good in the morning and before my feet hit the floor, the battlefield starts in my mind. I think to myself, “Let me get a hot cup of coffee before the onslaught of negative thoughts starts.” I have to CHOOSE to begin saying to myself first thing in the morning, “This is the day the Lord has made and I will be glad and rejoice in it, or joy comes in the morning.” I have to speak life over myself and I do not always feel like doing it. Get past your feelings; otherwise, you could end up lying in bed all day or you could CHOOSE to set your day negatively by the words you speak over yourself first thing in the morning.

For additional reading on thinking, check out my book:
Wilderness Mentality Stop your Stinkin' Thinkin'

Many of our thoughts are random, some are from the enemy, some are from past experiences, and some are from God. You must differentiate which thoughts are coming to your mind and from what source. Our mind can also be passive, and that is not necessarily a good thing because a passive mind can open the door to the enemy planting his thoughts into our minds. The only sure way to win the battle in our minds, is taking every thought captive and asking yourself, “Is this thought from God?” If it is not from God, immediately replace that thought with God’s Word and faith-filled statements. DO NOT ponder, dwell, or analyze your thoughts too much. In other words, if you get a thought in your mind like,” Your such a failure,” you can know immediately that did not come from God. So many times when we get a thought like that we come into agreement with the thought and when we do that we have now believed the lie the enemy was trying to get planted in our minds to become a stronghold. A stronghold forms after not taking captive thoughts that come into our minds and CHOOSING to accept the lie as a truth. We must discipline our minds to take EVERY thought captive immediately, because if wait to do so that thought will be implanted into our minds. Once a thought gets implanted in our minds, it takes a lot of work to remove that thought. Think of it like a seed that gets planted, if you go and dig up the seed right after it is planted it can be easily removed, but if you wait until that seed has grown and developed deep roots it will take a lot more to uproot that plant. Our thoughts are similar, once a thought gets “roots” it will take a lot more effort to dig up the roots.

We have to constantly monitor what is coming into our minds. The enemy is clever and will disguise his voice to sound like yours, so you believe the thought is coming from you and not the enemy. If we are not thinking on thoughts that are lovely, excellent and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8), we need to stop the thought immediately! Yes, there are times when something will cause you pain or upset you, and your thoughts may really have difficulty thinking about anything good or praiseworthy, but we can cast our care on God (Psalm 55:22), and believe He will work out ALL things for our good (Romans 8:28).

We have between 12,000 and 60,000 thoughts per day, or 35-48 thoughts per minute. That is a lot of thoughts to have in one day, and research supports that many of our thoughts were exactly the same as the day before! 80% of our thoughts are negative, but we have the ability to change that. Negative thoughts are life draining. Thoughts such as, “should,” “ought to”, “never, “or “can’t” are particular draining to us mentally.

It is important that we are so filled with God’s Word that we will immediately know when a thought comes to us that is not from God.

For years, neuroscientists believed the brain was fixed and immutable but new research suggests that we can rewire our brains! It is possible to reset our happiness and joy meters! I have always believed this, but when I was in college studying Psychology I was taught that our brains were hard-wired from birth and could not be changed. Research now shows our minds can be set free from depression and even addictions by CHOOSING the right thoughts! Science simply confirms what scripture has been saying all along, “Fix your thoughts on what is true and good.” Philippians 4:8. The words think, thought, and mind are used hundreds of times in the Bible. Proverbs 23:7 says, “As he thinks, so is he.”

When someone has experienced significant trauma or setbacks in their lives, it can cause patterns of thinking that are toxic. These toxic thoughts can become automatic as one engages in life. These toxic thoughts must be exposed to the healing and truth in God’s Word. It may take a while for toxic thoughts to be completely removed in someone’s mind, but by renewing the mind often in God’s Word and saying scriptures out loud that speak the opposite of the toxic thought will cause a shift in toxic thinking.

But we can retrain our brain no matter what experiences we have had! If you truly desire to be that joy-filled, optimistic, sunny person, you can be no matter what your genetics are or your circumstances! If you CHOOSE to take every thought captive and renew your mind with God’s word for the next 21 days, you will have formed a new habit of right thinking.

What are some negative thoughts that you need to “fast” from for the next 21 days:

·        Anxious and worry

·        Fearful

·        Guilt

·        Condemnation

·        Discouragement

·        Self-defeat

·        Failure

·        Unworthiness

·        Self-belittling

·        Criticism of self or others

·        Judging self or others

·        Complaining

·        Fault-finding

·        Ruminating the past

·        Dwelling on painful memories

·        Thinking about your problems/difficult circumstances

·        Thinking thoughts like, should, ought to, need to, or can’t

·        Focusing on what is wrong in your life (lack)

·        Thinking negative thoughts that God does not love you or bless you

·        Thinking hopeless thoughts or believing that everything will always be this way

·        Believing you are rejected

·        Believing you are not good-enough or smart enough

·        Worst-case scenarios

·        Other people have it better than I do, or they are more blessed than me

·        Self-pit or being the victim

·        Comparing yourself to others

·        Caring what others think of you

·        Discontentment

Any other negative thoughts that you need to fast from for 21 days?