Winston Churchill said many years ago, “If you cannot change your mind, you cannot change anything.”
“That is a true fact,” as my teenage daughter would say. Nothing is more habitual than the pattern of our thoughts. Nothing prevents us from progress like our thoughts. Nothing kills vision, ignores opportunities, and encourages doubt like our thoughts.
People of faith are often no different than people of no faith. We can easily become like everyone else. If we listen to and watch and read the same things, we are prone to all think the same. But no one is ever remembered for thinking like everyone else. It takes courage to be different – to think differently.
Where are the voices of faith in our world? Where are those who say, “This is what the Lord says, and that settles it!” Where are the people who think and talk courage. Where are the men and women of God who quote the Bible as their final authority? Where are the good news preachers in the era of bad news in which we live?
If you keep doing the same things, you can expect the same results. Now let’s adapt that to our mental processes. If you keep thinking the same thoughts, you can expect the same feelings and the same attitudes to prevail.
Realistically, trouble comes to our lives. It catches us by surprise. It momentarily takes our breath away. For all of us, this part is almost normal and to be expected – but then the challenge to manage our thought life begins.
Where are the voices of faith in our world? Where are those who say, “This is what the Lord says, and that settles it!”
Maybe you came to a conclusion based on your feelings that moment. Maybe you listened to everyone else in your circle. Maybe you just did what you always do and you thought the worst. “Pit thinking,” fear based thinking, pessimistic thinking and group thinking must stop! That thinking has never lifted a feather off the ground.
It’s time to change your mind, even incrementally – or nothing, absolutely nothing will change.
We live in a fallen world, ruled by the devil himself. Most nations are ruled by ungodly leaders. Economies are shaking, jobs are lost. Sickness will always be a part of human existence. This is normal for this dying world. But this does not need to be normal for the people of God.
We know and serve a supernatural God who knows no limits. He can change anything. He can overrule circumstances and answer prayer. He does hear and He does respond.
So what are we going to think? What will be our mindset?
Here’s some history from the Bible about this. Jonathan, son of Saul, was encamped along with his father’s defeatist army. The army was trembling in fear of the Philistines. At the bottom of the cliffs sat the fearful, panicked Israelites, knowing they were God’s people, but sitting there shaking in their boots. What a pathetic mindset for soldiers!
Jonathan said to his armor bearer. “Let’s go over to the enemy’s side and look things over. Who knows what God might do up there in that hostile territory!” Wow! Guess what? Jonathan led his armor bearer over the hills and they beat down the Philistines, causing such a panic that these two men routed the entire Philistine army.
One man, Jonathan, changed his thoughts from defeatism to possibility. In that mindset, he won a great battle. Everything changed. Maybe you need to change your mind! Stop listening to the mindset of this fallen, defeatist world. Let hope and faith rise up in your thinking processes. Who knows what God is doing behind the scenes!
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