The Power Of Positive Thinking

Paul knew the power of positive thinking. That’s why he told the Philippians in Phil. 4:8, “Finally, brothers, 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.”

If we were to truly put this formula into practice we would be able to counter all negative thought. Everything we could think of that is positive will fit into one of these categories. When we are bombarded with the lies of the devil, thinking about what is true (the bible) will counter it and change our focus. When our minds are centered on immoral thoughts we need to switch to thoughts of nobility and think about what is honorable. When our thinking is wrong we replace it with right thoughts. When our thoughts drift to impurity we attack it with purity. We turn disgusting thoughts into lovely ones. When we’re fixated on shameful and degrading things we turn to thinking about things that are admirable. We turn thoughts of digression into contemplations of excellence. We replace irresponsible thoughts with praiseworthy ones.

And in all this we understand that the power of positive thinking leads to the power of positive doing. Thinking about what is true can lead to doing what is true. Thinking about what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy will motivate us to do the very things that fit into these categories. And the example and impact we can have because we are positive thinkers and doers are immeasurable. That is the power of positive.

3) The power to overcome negative thoughts comes from Jesus.

2nd Cor. 10:3-5, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

If you are born-again you have the power of the Holy Spirit-enabling you to demolish every thought that is in opposition to the truth. Taking a thought captive and making it obedient to Christ means we are tying it up so it can’t move around freely inside our head anymore.

See, often times we can’t control what comes into our mind. It could be regret from the past, an angry thought toward a person, a demoralizing thought about yourself, whatever. These negative thoughts can come out of nowhere and they’re meant to take us off focus. We might not be able to keep them from entering our minds but we can keep them from renting space in our minds. When we deicide we’re not going to entertain the negative thought and let it run wild we lasso it; we hogtie it and render it defenseless. Then, we turn it over to Christ who sends it away because it has to obey him.

But Christ won’t do anything with it unless we turn it over to him. We will always have the choice whether we want to give the negative thought power or not; it has no power on its own. If we dwell on it then we are giving it power to magnify and grow. However, if we make the negative thought obedient to Christ then he will tell it to get lost. Then, we have to replace it with a positive thought. Heb. 3:1 tells us to fix our thoughts on Jesus. When we do that we are focusing our thoughts on something positive. So, whenever you find yourself struggling with negative thoughts, first, turn your thoughts over to Christ and then turn your thoughts to Christ himself.