Father God, I thank you for this opportunity today – that we can freely gather to worship You. We ask that you would open our ears and our hearts to hear from you. We pray that your name will be glorified…
We are all going through something which feels negative right now. Maybe it is negative, in fact each of us are probably working through more than one thing.
Do any of you sometimes sit there and think – (while the chocolates are being passed around). ‘Man, I wish I had something to celebrate – all I have is 5 big problems that have no solutions’
I must be honest this happens to me from time to time. Did anyone have that thought or similar this morning? If you did and you are feeling brave enough – put up your hand and I’ll give you a chocolate. You don’t have to tell us, or me, what you are going through. I just want you to have a chocolate, because what you are going through right now, really sucks and chocolate will make it a little better!
A few months ago, I, with quite a few others here, attended the “Believe the Best” seminar with Em Tyler. She unpacked some crazy stats and scientific insights about our brains and how we think. One of the stats she mentioned was that 80% of our thoughts are Negative. And we don’t just think these thoughts once but we keep thinking them over and over again. This is what scientists call Rumination. Rumination involves repetitive thinking or dwelling on negative feelings and distress and their causes and consequences. The repetitive, negative aspect of rumination can contribute to the development of depression or anxiety and can worsen existing conditions.
I recently decided that I wasn’t happy at my job. Now that sounds like I woke up one day and had a change of heart, and was saying, “Well starting from now – I don’t like my job”. That’s not what happened – it happened little by little over a period of a month or maybe even more. Just like an alcoholic doesn’t decide to become an alcoholic overnight. The Christian band Casting Crowns has a song about this called “slow fade”.
Something happened one day and I fixated on it for the next few days. Something else happened a few days after that and I added that to my rumination and so on and so forth. I had taken offence to little things my boss had done. The saying goes ‘Making mountains out of mole hills’. I know for a fact he didn’t do it on purpose, and in fact, I know what he did wasn’t as bad as I had made it out to be. But in my mind, as I replayed it over and over, I took more and more offence and became more and more upset. I know I am not the only one who does this, and I know we’ve probably been doing this since our early teens.
Dean mentioned last week how our thoughts effect of our lives. When our heads are full of negativity and anxiety, I can guarantee that we will be having a hard time in our prayer lives. Work life is probably a bit bumpy too, and your social life will also be affected because we’ll start to withdraw.
Gideon, Mighty Warrior
This negative thinking is not something new, it hasn’t come about in this generation only.
In the book of Judges chapters 6&7, the Israelites are in trouble again. Chapter 6 starts with “Again the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord. For seven years the Lord gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press to keep it from the Midianites. (Hiding, on edge looking over his shoulder. It really wasn’t a good time for the people of God, Its totally understandable for Gideon to be feeling a bit negative at that point).
While he is busy in the winepress The Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior”.
How does Gideon reply?
“If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?” “The Lord has abandoned us” His response shows us how he was thinking. I can just imagine it, busy doing his thing with the wheat muttering to himself about how God has abandoned them and how he doesn’t care about them. Then God says to him “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” Gideon responds by asking. “Lord, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest and I am the Least in my family.”
I am not good enough – a lie we have all believed at some point or another.
In answer to Gideon’s question, the Lord said, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites”
And He did, God was with him and he rescued the Israelites from the Midianites with only 300 men. There were a lot of Midianites – earlier in the chapter it says that it was impossible to count the men and their camels.
Moses and the burning bush
Even further back than that, we have Moses. Exodus chapter 3 – Moses is in the mountains looking after his father-in-law’s sheep when God appears to him in the form of a burning bush. The Lord says to him “Now go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt.” Moses replies “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Again, I am not good enough – even people over 3500 years ago were struggling with this negative thought.
The Lord said to Moses “I will be with you.”
You know the rest of the story – Moses goes on to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and then around the dessert for 40 years. One of the most loved leaders the Israelites ever had – when he died the people mourned for a whole month, in their culture it was usually just a week.
When we are thinking we are not good enough – God is saying “I will be with you”
The Bible is full of these stories – Joshua chapter 1 – I’m sure Joshua had similar doubts when God told him he was taking over from Moses. God said to him “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you, Be strong and courageous.”
We need to learn to take control of our thoughts – This is something that takes continual effort and intentional mind over matter thinking. We need to be able to hit the pause button, take a step back and make a level headed decision before we end up a month later practising a resignation speech in our head and stressing about how you are going to make money for your family.
We need to stop those thoughts at the ‘gates’ of our mind. Like at the airport while you are waiting to board the plane – you stand in a queue with your boarding pass and a ground crew member is standing at the gate checking your boarding pass. In the same way we need to be checking what’s going through the gate of our mind. Check the negative thoughts boarding pass and say “no, you’re not allowed in here. Out you go.” It sounds so easy but it’s not. We’ve trained our brains to not only allow the negative thought on board but we feed it and make it comfortable. Give it the first class treatment.
Romans 12:2 –
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
His good, pleasing and perfect will does not include recycling negativity in our minds all day every day. God does not want us to be a nervous wreck. There are times in our life when we will need to be in survival mode, but that is not a place to live for long periods of time.
2 Timothy chapter 1:7 says:
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline
Ways we can take control of the negativity in our minds.
1 Peter 5:7 –
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
I think there is a whole sermon right here on these three versus because they seem to be 3 impossible commands. Paul seems to just drop these in here and then moves on, Let’s have a quick look into these. I’ve found these excellent ways to combat negative thoughts.
Rejoice always – This is not positive affirmation stuff, putting positive energy out into the universe. We need to be honest with ourselves and others, about how we feel. He’s not saying we can’t be sad and we have to be robots with no feelings.
Paul also says in Romans 12:15 –
”Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep”
When we are in a difficult trial or if people have mistreated us – we have a choice to either crawl into a ball of self-pity or set our minds on things above – where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Pray continually – This isn’t a continual ‘formal’ prayer. It doesn’t have to be a loud spiritual sounding prayer. It doesn’t have to be full of scripture, but rather just ‘chatting’ throughout the day. I’ve shared this before. When I start feeling my self-going down a bad train of thought, I pray this simple little prayer ‘Jesus fill my head with thoughts of you’
When you are at work and the day is just “turning to custard”, say a quick prayer under your breath, it doesn’t have to be long. “Jesus please help” – that’s all.
Give thanks in all circumstances – We have so much to be thankful for. Take a quick look into your past and see what God has done in your life. Look back and be thankful for the times he said “No”.
When my wife had her miscarriage – I was not thankful for that. I was thankful for the support we received from this body. I’m thankful that we weren’t alone. Even in such a terrible time, there was so much to be thankful for. Let’s stop focusing on what we don’t have, and look at what we do have. Make a list every morning of 5 things you are thankful for.
Paul writes something similar in Phil 4:4-7:
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
I have been listening to an audio book called ‘Do the New You’ by Steven Furtick – in his book he talks about ‘mindsets’. These are like little sayings or mantras to get you thinking more positively. One in particular that I really like was this ‘God is not against me, but He’s in it with me, working through me and fighting for me’ Mantras like that are also effective ways to take control of negative thoughts in our minds.
Now listen, please hear my heart – I’m not saying the only problem in your life is because of your negative or unhealthy thinking. You may well be in a toxic work environment; you may be carrying around real hurt that is totally justified. You might have gone through something very traumatic and you can’t seem to get it under control by just repeating little sayings and prayers. Those are issues on their own that need to be handled and resolved in their own unique way. In those situations, I would 100% advise speaking to a professional.
Professionals can help you put more tools in your tool box. Also, please just don’t go see anyone. I’m sure the leadership would be able to help point you in the right direction. Don’t be scared – be strong and courageous.
Our first line of defense is Christ in us, and that’s why I suggest rejoice always, Pray continually and Give thanks in all circumstances.
If you find yourself going down a dark path with your thoughts and you are struggling to tell the difference between reality and the lies (It does happen the more you go over these lies in your head the more you believe them), you can pray this prayer that David prayed in Psalm 139:23-24: (If you are brave enough that is).
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
And then wait… shacking in your boots… for an answer.
God loves us, he doesn’t want us to be depressed or anxious. He wants us to be at our best, He wants us to be happy.
Bless you all.