Volume 50 Number 7 July 2008
The Bible is the original positive thinking manual and God is the original positive thinker. He gave humans the freedom to choose between right and wrong knowing that most of the time we would choose the wrong. He gives us the choice to accept or reject Him knowing that far more people will deny His existence than will accept His unending love. He wants us to expect the best and live as if the best will happen. When things don’t go the way we planned, we should deal with it and continue with our high expectations. That is the example He has left for us. Even when man was at his worst, God looked to a future and saw possibilities. He saw so many possibilities that He allowed His Son, Jesus, to die for all men. Even with the knowledge that many would choose the wide gate
(Matthew 7:13-14). Most of the examples of great faith in the Bible are also examples of individuals that were positive thinkers. Noah (Genesis 5-6) continued to preach righteousness to a generation that would not listen and prepared the ark for an event never before seen. Gideon went up against the Midianites (Judges 7) with only 300 men. Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 13-14) were willing to stand up in the face of resistance from all of Israel and see a future with possibilities given to them by God Himself. David was willing to face Goliath when the army of Israel coweredThe concept difficult to reconcile about how we think is we each have the ability to choose how we are going to think. We get to choose to view every situation positively or negatively. Two shoe companies sent sales representatives to Africa to look into the continent for a new market. One called back and said, “Bring me home. We can’t sell shoes over here. Nobody wears them.” The other called back and said, “I need help. The market is wide open. Nobody wears shoes yet!” We regularly deny ourselves the ability to see the wonderful potentials in life because we choose to see the frustrations and difficulties.
We have to start by understanding that God has given us the ability and the right to control our minds. Then, we have to exercise that ability and right by learning to replace negative thoughts and attitudes with positive ones. I believe that this is part of what Paul was talking about in Romans 12:2 when he tells us that what makes us different from the world starts with how we think. Next, we must concentrate on looking for the positive. No matter what you’re looking for, if you look hard enough, you will find it. If I try to find all the faults with my brethren, I will only see the negative. If I am looking for the positive attributes in others, that is what I will see. Finally, we should practice positive praying. This, according to James 1:5-8, is a prayer that expects to receive the best from God. Notice I did not say we always get what we want, but we always get His best. Above all, we can never quit. If we quit paying attention to the way we think, our old, negative attitudes will return.When it comes to our attitude, whether we think we can or we think we can’t, we’re right. God wants us to be positive thinkers. His men and women of great faith were positive thinkers. Paul wasn’t lying when he wrote
Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” We either believe this or we don’t. Our attitude will show forth in our thoughts, words and actions.