By Karen Y. Stevens

 

This week I decided to read all the passages that I underlined in my Bible.  

I told myself I could not read them all this week, because I’ve underlined half the Bible.  

I remembered my Mother always said to me, “Karen, don’t say you can’t, because you have already made up your mind not to even try.”  

I did notice a pattern with these underlined passages.  I was underlining more of the admonishments, than the encouragements.  

I have heard three different Pastors this last week talking about positive thinking.

They weren’t all titled that.  They were disguised as “What’s Happening in your Soul”, “The Secret Power”, and my favorite, “How to get out of the Matrix.”  

One Pastor was saying we should be mastering our life, not our life mastering us.  Life should not be happening to you, but you should be creating what’s happening in your life.  He went on to say our soul is where we have our feelings. Success in life is going to happen in your soul first because you are what you think.  So, your flesh should line up with your soul, or your spirit, in order to be successful.

The next Pastor approached it at a different angle and just said we need to speak out loud to ourselves, that we are loved by God and we are successful in Him.  

The third one was on those same lines, but looked at it more thru Einstein’s theory; “Doing the same thing over and over again will not produce different results.”  

So, in order to change your circumstances, change your thought process.  

All of these Pastors basic message was that this process will change the way you think, therefore changing your outlook on life, not necessarily your wealth.  

Third John 2 states: “ Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”  

John was saying we need to prosper in our soul first, then everything else.  Which means we should be spending more time in God’s word than at the gym. Yay!  Not that we should not do these physical exercises, but we should be doing more for our soul, than for our body.  

We should be exercising our minds in order to control our thoughts, and in order to control our thoughts, we need to change our exposure to our surroundings.  

By changing the people you hang out with, the things you watch, etc., you change your circumstances.  

Hang out with encouraging people, not negative ones, and be an encourager yourself, so people will want to hang out with you.  

Have you ever wondered why people flock to confident people?  It’s because they believe in themselves, and they are upbeat and positive.  We can be one of those people. All we have to do is tell ourselves “we can” and believe it.  

We should be telling ourselves every day that we are smart, successful, prosperous, happy, funny, loved, etc.  If we don’t tell ourselves this, who will?

Try it and see if your outlook doesn’t change.  

And thank you to all who sent prayers and encouraging notes from last week’s article!  Ya’ll made me feel much more positive!

 

 

Karen Y. Stevens is the founder of Orange County Christian Writers Guild.