Focus on the Positive Billy Wolford “True Christians should always strive to have the right attitude. God wants His people to maintain a positive outlook all the time and He provides the tools to do so.”
sus Christ returning to establish His Kingdom. It’s easy to look at God’s Word and notice all the “thou shalt nots,” in- stead of the good that comes from obedience—the blessings that flow from living His way. Satan, the most negative being in existence, wants us tuned to his frequency. He wants us to think like him, act like him, be discouraged like him. He’ll use anything he can—even prophe- cy—to pull our eyes off the positive. Christian growth requires positive thinking. It requires trust that God will do what He has promised. With all the evil and trouble in the world David trusted that God would ful- fill His purpose. That same faith is available to us. today we must not become discour- aged. We can face our trials, tests, and difficulties with confidence. God’s Word is true. We can be posi- tive through all of it. Most people in the world today live in bondage through uncertain- ty, fear, worry, frustration, and an- ger. But God expects His people to be different. He has called us to a different way of life. We should have the most tranquil, peace-filled minds of all people—and God gives that peace as a gift. He also gives us the understanding of how to keep it in Philippians 4:8–9:
H ave you ever had an “except for” moment? You know “this is a great day - except for...” or “that was a wonderful experience, but…” I am sure everyone has but how many are we still carrying around? What is our focus? How do we present ourselves to oth- ers, what impressions do we leave? Do people think, “I feel uplifted!” Or are they crawling out from under the dark cloud we left behind? We can get stuck in the “except for” mindset. Everyone has had a bad week. Consider the following sce- nario: You have two cars in need of repairs, you fix it yourself and man - age to break more than you fixed. Allergy season hits at the same time causing no end of itchy water eyes, and to top it off you injure yourself while attempting to fix your ve -
hicle. In this scenario it would be difficult to maintain a positive at - titude. In such moments, it’s very easy to slip into negative thinking; focusing on only the problems, ig- noring the solutions. Our view gets tainted - we see what is wrong in the world around us, at work, in our relationships and sometimes even in ourselves. The struggle with our attitudes is real. God’s Desire Is that the mindset God desires for us? Quiet negativity can subtly creep into or slip into our spiritual lives. We can focus on fulfilled prophe - cy, times of trouble ahead, and the hardships coming upon the world. We get bogged down imagining pain, suffering, and punishment and miss the bigger better picture: Je-
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