How To Change Negative Thinking

And I realized that my main problem was in my thought life. I didn’t have control over it. All sorts of negative, upsetting, disturbing, frustrating thoughts, resentment, fear of failure, unbelief, doubt, indecision would come crowding into my mind. And I was having a continual inner struggle. I think it’s true to say that most people are like icebergs. That which shows above the surface is only a small part of the total personality. There’s things going on inside most people which don’t show above the surface unless you have discernment. This was certainly true in my case. My problem was in the realm of the mind. My mind was highly trained. It was the thing I’d relied on all my life.

And actually, the more intellectual you are, the more liable you are to have problems with your mind. Because you’re more prone to rely on it. And the Bible says,

“Cursed is the man who trusteth in man, and maketh flesh the carnal mind his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.”

Very often, the simple, unsophisticated person is not so prone to rely upon the mind and doesn’t have the same problems with the mind. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with being educated or trained. An educated and trained mind is a wonderful thing, but it’s an instrument. And you’ve got to be make sure who’s using the instrument.

Well, God showed me that I needed protection. And as I thought about this, I thought, well, there’s one piece that must be for the mind. It’s the helmet. And I read Ephesians 6:17, and it said,

“the helmet of salvation.”

I said to myself, well, now, do I have the helmet or don’t I? I am saved. Does that mean I have the helmet of salvation? Well, I had a Bible with cross-references, and I saw there was a cross-reference to 1 Thessalonians 5:8. So I turned over there and read these words,

“But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.”

And when I read the word ‘hope,’ I got a sudden, complete sermon.

I saw that there was one thing that had never been preached to me. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:13,

“Now abideth faith, hope, love. These are the three abiding realities.”

I’d heard many sermons on faith, a lot of sermons on love, and never one sermon on hope all my life. I had to preach myself the first one. And I came to see that this was what was missing in me. Now, faith in the scriptures is in the heart. Mental faith is not the faith the scripture deals with.

“With the heart, man believeth.”

Lots of people have got tremendous faith, but it’s in the mind. And it doesn’t do what heart faith does. That’s why they’re surprised when they say, “I believe,” and nothing happens. They do believe, but it’s in the mind. Now, faith is in the heart. So it’s not for the mind. But there is something for the mind. What’s that? Hope. And here’s the secret. What is hope? I define it as this: a confident, unwavering expectation of good. And that’s in the mind.

You know what I was? By birth and upbringing, I was a professional pessimist. I was born one to start with and brought up to be one. In my family, if you weren’t worrying about something, you’d have to be worrying about what you weren’t worrying about. I look back, my mother’s with the Lord now, but my dear mother was like that. She was worried if I wasn’t worried. Well, this had a deep effect upon me. When I was delivered from the demon of depression, then God showed me, now you are free to cultivate different thought reactions and patterns. Before, you weren’t free. But now you are. Deliverance doesn’t do it all. Deliverance sets you free, then you have to do it.

And I realized that when I was a pessimist, I was denying my faith in Jesus Christ. Pessimism is a denial of your faith as a Christian. You say, “Give me a scripture.” Only one is needed. Romans 8:28.

“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.”

All right, if you love God and are called, all things are working together for good. If all things are working together for good, there can never be a logical reason for pessimism. Every time you’re a pessimist, you’re denying the word of God, and you’re denying your faith in God and Jesus Christ. Well, I had to deliberately replace pessimism by optimism. It didn’t happen in a week, it didn’t happen in a month, it didn’t happen in a year, but it has happened. Today, I’m a trained optimist. I mean that. I trained myself to be an optimist. And every time I find that pessimistic reaction beginning to come back, I think, wait a minute, there’s no room for that. This is the helmet. It’s hope. A confident, mental expectation of that which is good.