Transformational Thinking Series

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Transformational Thinking

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVRFLHHkPsc

Our minds are an amazing creation of God. They handle billions of informational bites, and process 800 memories a second. No computer will ever compare with the mind’s computing power. And what’s even more amazing is that we only use a fraction of its capacity.

Now, the Bible says, “As a person thinks in his or her heart, that is who they are.” (Proverbs 23:7 paraphrase)

It is what we think that determines, more than anything else, what and who we are. It’s not our background, heredity, or environment. It’s what we choose to think about that has the greatest influence upon our lives.

And so, if we’re serious about changing something in our lives, we have to start by changing the way we think.

Paul said, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2 NKJV)

And so, if we want to make the changes in our lives that will help us be more of what God wants us to be, we’ve got to start changing the way we think. And the way we do this is by changing our perspective.

One of the biggest problems to thinking clearly and transformatively is our perspective about what we’re going through.

The Apostle Paul had a good handle on this.

“We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10 NKJV)

Paul knew that while he may get knocked down, he wasn’t knocked out, and that no matter how bad it was, it was nothing as compared to what Jesus went through, and so he was willing endure for the sake of the gospel.

And so, here are some guidelines to help us transition our thoughts and transform our thinking so that we can in like manner endure to the end.

1. Think about God’s Goodness

One of the main things that keeps us depressed and down is when we continue to look at and be focused upon all the bad stuff. Instead, what we need to be thinking about and keeping our focus upon is the goodness of God.

And what this kind of tells me is that when we are depressed; a lot of it is because we’ve forgotten just how good God is.

Medical studies have shown that one of the healthiest emotions that a human being can have is that of gratitude. And so the more we can fill our minds with gratefulness, thanksgiving, and gratitude, the healthier we’re going to be.

Thinking on the goodness of God accomplishes this very thing. And it’s more than being grateful for all that God has done, but it is also keeping clearly in our minds just how good God really is.

How good is God? Well, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins so that we can live for all eternity with Him in heaven. That’s how good God is.

And so, we need to understand that God is good and has our best interest at heart. He loves us and knows exactly what He is doing. And while a lot of bad things happen, God is always good, and can bring good out of the bad if we’ll trust Him.

Consider Joseph. His brothers hated him, and ended up selling Joseph to some slave traders to get rid of him. The slave traders sold him to Potiphar in Egypt, but he was falsely accused and ended up in prison for a crime he never committed. Everything seemed be going from bad to worse.

But God had a plan, a good plan, because God is good. And eventually through these series of bad events, Joseph was raised up to the second highest position in the world, where not only was he able to save thousands from starvation, but is family to boot, even though they did him such harm.

Look at Joseph’s perspective on this whole string of events as he was responding to his brothers.

“As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” (Genesis 50:20 NKJV)

We’ve all had people mistreat, reject, and cheat us. But God is a good God and is bigger than what we’ve gone through and are going through.

And so this leads us to a truth, and that is, while we can’t control our experiences we can control how we choose to think about them. And so when life doesn’t make sense, start thinking on the goodness of God.