Every thought captive: The war on negativity (II) Practicing

As we were saying last day, the same level of thinking that got us into our negative thinking will not get us our of it. Negative thinking seems to be the default, and when we are crossed or disappointed, our thinking naturally goes to the worst case scenario. We need to catch ourselves in our negative thinking and proactively replace our negative thoughts with positive ones. I am not talking here about the power of positive thinking though, if we get it right, that can be helpful too. The problem though, as research has shown, is that telling ourselves things that are not true, is toxic in and of itself. I remember reading of a man who jumped off the Eiffel Tower because he believed he could fly. I am sure I don’t need to tell you his fate. Now we can believe what is not true, and we can fail to believe what is true. But how will we know?

As always the Christian has the advantage, I mean Jesus tells us that His Word (the Bible) is truth (John 17: 17). We do need to make sure we are interpreting it correctly, but we can believe, and in fact we need to believe, what the Bible says about salvation and about who we are in Christ. In particular when we have heard the gospel, and have chosen to put our faith in the finished work of Jesus, then we have already passed from death to life and we shall not come unto the Judgement (John 5:24). If you are having trouble believing this, then you need to practice speaking the truth. You might say “Because I have heard and believed, then I will not come to the Judgement, but have passed from death to life.” Then you need to say it until you believe it, and then you need to say it because you believe it!

I want to make an important distinction here between pretending, and practicing. When we are pretending, we are fooling ourselves like the man who jumped off the Eiffel Tower. When we are speaking the Word of God over ourselves, even if we have difficulty believing it, we are not fooling ourselves, we are practicing. Practicing in this way has to do with speaking what is true. And as above, we need to practice until we believe it, and then practice because we believe it. We might say, for example “I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21). You see when we get a hold of this, really get a hold of this, when we start to see that this is how God really sees us, then there is no way we will not give all that we are and have, to live up to it!

Father, thank You that if we continue in Your Word we will know the truth and the truth will set us free (John 8:31). So Father,  help us this morning to continue in Your Word, to read it,  meditate on it,  and to put it into practice, and thus claim the freedom You so desire for us. Thank You Father that you are far more interested in our freedom than we could ever be. And thank You Lord that You who began a good work in us, will keep right on working until that Day. And we give You all the honour, glory and praise in Jesus Name Amen