Quite honestly, my thoughts on this topic are what inspired me to start this for you guys. It's a topic of our culture today that I believe will become more predominate as you grow up.
My dad use to tell me a lot about how the enemy comes as an angle of light.
2 Cor 11:13-15 says:
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness,whose end will be according to their deeds.
What does it mean to be an "angel of light"? It means to be a wolf in sheep clothing, to dress up in so much good that you think you are looking at the real deal. It's involves Satan's finest tuned trait, deception. In order to deceive most delicately and effectively, one must look the closest to the truth. Therefore, when we look at a lot of deceptions, we will find truths on the surface, they will parallel up with truths, but their core, their foundation and their purposes will be lies. The revelation of what lies beneath the surface will be thinking we don't want to have.
Today, it's very popular, and I see/hear it around me all the time, to discipline our minds and mouths toward positivity. The first obvious thing to do her is to recognize that there is indeed power here. It is powerful.
So, what is positive thinking? Well, quite simply it's being positive in your thought and word as life hits you along the way. This really plays out on two main levels: responding positively, and predicting positively.
Responding positively:
Many people have had crapy lives, for some reason, they have had one bad thing after another happen to them. Some, choose to sit in a victim mentality and never move forward because of what has happened to them. They often will blame their bad decisions or unproductive behavior on those who brought these negative things into their lives. Others, will be positive thinkers. They are much more pleasant to be around for sure (or so you will think for a while). They choose to not let bad rule their lives, they choose to make the best of things. They will say things like "I don't let that effect who I am" or "I had to keep making that mistake till I learned from it." Even on a daily basis they will look for the good in a bad day.
Predicting positively:
Here is where what comes out of the mouth of the positive thinker is crucial to them. Before a day unfolds, they are careful to speak well of it, and to speak as if great things will happen. They will look for good outcome as if it has all ready happened. If something bad is looking like it will happen, they will say things like "Well, let's not speak of that, lets speak as if it will be fine." They are afraid to speak bad things into existence , and they feel power to speak good things into existence.
Notice that as I write this, so much of is sounds good, right!? I mean, who wants to be around an "Eeyore" type all the time? Wouldn't we all rather be around positive people? Yes, of course. Yet, have you not noticed by now in your lives that overly positive people can be just as annoying as those "Eeyore" types. Either rant is exhausting! Many times we don't want to listen to the positive person when we just need to absorb that something was indeed bad, we want the freedom to speak the negative. We also feel that being positive does nothing to change our circumstances. It's almost as if we are being asked to play pretend and the energy that takes eventually runs out on reality. I'll talk more about this in a moment however.
Let's think about the power being generated here. For, truly, it is powerful. Both negative and positive thinking are very powerful in human thinking. But here is where the problem arises. Lets say two positive thinkers both want a job. If the power of positive thinking gets you where you want to be in life, if it truly works then we have a problem....
Who get's the job???? If you powerfully think positively that you want what I want, does the most powerful thinker win?
More on this tomorrow...I have a lot more to write for you on this topic.
