Negativity Only Has One Purpose: To Destroy You

Negativity only has one purpose: to destroy you.

Human nature tends to focus on the negative. This is easily seen in the media – the public sits up and takes notices when well known people fail. However, for everyone who fails, there are thousands who succeed. There are more stories of failure shared than there are of success.

Negativity is powerful and can hold you down below your potential and cause you to miss out on God’s wonderful plan for your life.

POWER OF ATTITUDE: If you allow negative thoughts and attitudes (e.g. anxiety, fear, envy, anger, bitterness, resentfulness, un-forgiveness, pride) to grab hold of your mind, those thoughts will lead you to make negative decisions or cause you to have negative actions or reactions that will affect your life in negative ways. But if you develop and maintain positive thoughts, attitudes and actions, your life will become positive as a result. Changing negative thoughts to positive ones requires perseverance. Ask God to help you each day, study God’s Word, and study Jesus’ life as He is the ultimate example of how to live with a positive attitude.

RESPOND RATHER THAN REACT: When a situation arises that you normally would react negatively to, deliberately decide to respond positively. You can’t control the situation, but you can choose how you will respond to it. Use the gifts of hope and faith that the Lord provides us with to help you respond in positive ways. Whenever it’s possible for you to change a troubling situation, make the effort to do so.

BE ACCOUNTABLE: Blaming others or situations won’t make your life better. Avoid excuses for not changing yourself. You DO have the power to change. Focus on God’s promises to give you strength to grow and rely on that strength every day. Take responsibility for moving forward in the ways God leads you to move forward, and you’ll see your life becoming more positive. Have a fellow Christian you trust help you to be accountable. Allow this person (or persons) to point out when you are being negative, hold yourself accountable, repent, and continue to work toward positivity.

EXAMINE YOUR SOUL: Ask God to help you take an honest look inside your soul to identify what specific types of negative attitudes and thoughts are lurking inside: pride, fear, anger, sadness, jealousy, doubt, resentment, bitterness, un-forgiveness, low self-esteem, for example. Then confess the negative attitudes to God and repent of them, inviting God to transform you from the inside out. Going forward, each time you become aware of an unhealthy, negative thought in your mind, give it to God and ask the Holy Spirit to renew your mind so you can think the way He wants you to think – which will help you develop positive attitudes to fill your soul regularly.

"So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

“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.” (2 Corinthians 10:5)

God convicted me of my negativity and taught me that it was evil in His ears. The Lord is teaching me daily to capture every thought and make it obedient to Christ. I praise Him for the transformation he is making in me!