“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” James 3:17 ESV

When we’re struggling to find peace in the middle of our circumstances sometimes the only thing, we can do is to acknowledge God and realize that he is with us and thank him for the gift of his presence in the form of the Holy Spirit. We can ask the Holy Spirit to guide our lives, and our thoughts and guard our hearts through every situation. We can ask him to produce in us a fruit that outweighs our frustrations and the circumstances we face. 

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” Romans‬ ‭8:5-6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I recently heard that 80% of our self-talk is negative!! That’s an awfully high percentage of negative untamed thoughts rolling around in our heads, isn’t it? This tells me we are berating ourselves, doubting ourselves, being downright mean to ourselves and sadly everyone we love or meet entirely too much! And remember, those thoughts quite often become actions. Think about when you decide you don’t care for someone, you think bad thoughts about them and look for them to make mistakes or say something you don’t like. (I’ve discovered when you look long enough and hard enough you will find what you’re looking for). This adds fuel to your negative fire, and you start feeding yourself more and more negative thoughts about that person until you can’t look at them without getting mad. All this without them doing a thing. It’s all been done in your head! Do you realize we could flip this by putting all our efforts into looking for something positive? We need to ask ourselves why so many of us thrive on negativity. It’s not good for us! 

I googled how many thoughts we have in a single day, it’s over 6,200 which means we have close 5,000 negative thoughts a day! Joyce Meyer knew what we needed when she wrote a book about the ‘battlefield of the mind’. And Steven Furtick with ‘crash the chatterbox’. Both authors encourage us to be aware of our thoughts and how to shut them down or drown them out with scripture and positivity. We really, really need to take all those thoughts captive and turn them into fruit-filled ones. We cannot allow these poisonous thoughts to run rampant in our heads any longer. They are damaging us, our relationships, our loved ones and everyone else around us. 

“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,” 2 Corinthians‬ ‭10:5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

We are coming out of another year of covid, racial tensions, and political unrest. If that isn’t enough negativity, we can add our own specific issues to that list too. Sickness, divorce, loss of a loved one, addiction, and a crazeeeeee thought life …. you get the picture. 

I thought for 2022 we could decide to focus on the positive areas of life. We can choose to change the internal dialogue from negativity to positivity. I’m really going to give this a try because I know that my inward dialogue totally affects my outward perspective. I believe if I will recognize my negative self-speak and flip it for a positive scripture or sentence or just shut it down through prayer and conversations with Jesus, I can totally change my interactions with others and put positive vibes out into the world instead of giving off negative ones. I believe this is a chance to change the world! Lofty ideas? Perhaps. It’s worth it especially when it is proven negative thoughts cause anxiety, fear, stress, depression even suicidal thoughts. In contrast positive thoughts can literally change your reality over time. Making you happier, more accepting of people and circumstances, stress free, anxiety free, no longer living the Vida Loca! That’s what I want. So, I’m going to do all I can do to shut down negativity to create more positivity. 

“By holding a positive and optimistic [word] in your mind, you stimulate frontal lobe activity. This area includes specific language centers that connect directly to the motor cortex responsible for moving you into action. And as our research has shown, the longer you concentrate on positive words, the more you begin to affect other areas of the brain.” ~ Andrew Newburg, Mark Waldman  (neuroscientist)

“If we change our words, we can change our world. This means that if we change our inner stories and ideas about ourselves, we can also change our bodies.” “Quantum physics and neuroscience will tell you that matter is influenced by energy, and that energy can be thought patterns and emotions, as well as physical energy” ~ Andrea Gardner

Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Author: GOD

This year I’m committing to looking for the good in all circumstances while having a positive inner dialogue!

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23