Taming Your Negative Monster

November 5, 2014February 14, 2017 - Amy 9 Comments

It lurks in the darkness waiting to rear its ugly head. Close behind thoughts of doubt and pessimism. Hanging on the skirt tails of comparison. And just below the surface of low self-esteem.

It’s the negative monster and it will claw its way into ruling your life.

If you let it.

I could’ve titled this post “Taming Amy’s Negative Monster” if I’m being honest. I’ve lived with one for as long as I can remember. He’s probably about the size of big foot and carries around a big plate of you’re not good enough and this sucks. This little booger likes to manifest into my outlook on life. I’m talking glass half empty, worse case scenario, end of the world kinda stuff. If I don’t watch my attitude’s back, my negative monster will come out and find ways to take a simple situation and turn it gloomy.

Do you know what I’m talking about?

Negative monsters like to prey on things like comparison, discontentment, and other negative people. It’s hard sometimes to see how bad your attitude has gotten until it affects your relationships.

The Bible says:

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. – Proverbs 17:22

I don’t know about you, but I would love to be known as a person so cheerful that I’m like good medicine.

God has really been speaking to my heart lately about my attitude. I’ve almost felt scolded in a way. Do you ever feel that way? Like my daddy is telling me that I need an attitude adjustment or I’m grounded. I find myself saying things and almost immediately feel conviction in my spirit about what I’ve just said. I’m thankful for these moments in my walk with Christ. They are perfect examples of God’s work in me. He is forever perfecting you too!

Keep your mind on things that are: true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, and excellent, and worthy of praise. – Philippians 4:8

Basically, we need to focus our thoughts on God’s truth. This means recognizing falsehoods, pursuing the truth, and constantly reminding ourselves of the truth.

The things we say don’t just start by popping out of our mouth. They begin in our thoughts.

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

Paul is talking to the Corinthians here about the power of the enemy and spiritual warfare. He says to take everything thought captive and make it obey The Lord. We have to renew our minds.

But God looks at our hearts. Why do we have to work so hard on our minds? Because our minds can change our hearts! If the end goal is to have a pure and clean heart, we have to make our mind agree with the truth we know in our hearts. After all, the Holy Spirit himself lives there.

This is a constant battle that we will all be in all of our lives. The enemy doesn’t take a sick day. He wants to take your thoughts, your heart, and anything else he can get it hands on and destroy them. Destroying everything in its path along with it. This is why it’s so important to continually take negative thoughts and feelings and wrangle them like a one ton bull, bringing them fully under control of Christ.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. – Ephesians 4:29

Let’s be cognizant of the words we speak to others. Just like Paul says the Ephesians above, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. Don’t even let it come out of your mouth. Use your words to build others up.

A good man produces good deeds from a good heart. And an evil man produces evil deeds from his hidden wickedness. Whatever is in the heart overflows into speech. – Luke 6:45

Your positivity and your negativity all flow from the same place, the heart.

Everything single one of these things is something that I need to work on right now. This is one of my daily prayers. If you struggle with a negative monster, first all you need to tell that thing to beat it! Your heart is occupied viagra vendre. And then let’s look at some ways you can be more positive right now.

Pray about it. This one may seem obvious, but it took me a long time to actually do this. Telling God about your want to change shows that you heart is ready for a change.
Choose joy. 1 Thessalonians 5:16 says Always be joyful. It’s not always easy to do this, but choosing to be joyful rids the devil of his power. Take THAT devil!
Focus on the positive. Easier said than done, huh? If you can focus on finding positive in every situation, you’ll be surprised how much more positive that you actually find.
Say only positive things about yourself to others and about others. Back to the, “if you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all” rule. This applies to self-talk as much as it does speaking about others. Edification is always the goal.
Surround yourself with other positive people. In the past 2 years, I’ve notice how big of a difference it makes to be around others who are positive. It has changed me. If it means letting go of friends that bring you to a negative place, so be it.
Have an attitude of gratitude. No matter how bad things are, there are tons of things to thank God for. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says- Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. Change your grumps to gratefulness.
Have an attitude of worship. There is no greater joy than connecting with The Lord in intimate worship. Praising the One who created us and receiving His amazing love fills our hearts and no doubt gives us a supernatural positive feeling. Let it simmer there in your soul and then let is spill out to those around you.
Fact or Fiction? This is choosing whether your negative thought/words are from God (fact) or the enemy (fiction). Grab that thought, make choice based on if it’s God’s character and then act. Say out loud if you have to, “I rebuke that in the name of Jesus”.
Baby steps. Becoming a positive thinker doesn’t happen overnight. God spends our whole lives refining us. Any change for the better is a good one! Set small goals that are easy to obtain and celebrate your progress. Thank God for making you into a better person. That will help with your #6! 🙂

Do you have issues with negativity? Please tell me I’m not the only one!

21 Days of Affirmation: I Am Adequate

April 30, 2014April 29, 2014 - Amy 1 Comment

We’re on day 3 of 21 Days of Affirmation. I can honestly say that I feel like I’m making a little progress with these. As I’m putting together my thoughts on each of them, I’m learning new things about the character of God and even about myself.

It’s so cool! There may be people at Kroger who think that I’m nuts talking to myself, but oh well. I’m still accepted, so ha!

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. -Philippians 1:7

Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. -2 Corinthians 3:5

The Philippians verse up there are words from Paul. He is speaking to all of God’s people and stating that we all share the same grace that comes straight from the Father. And I love what it says in 2 Corinthians about our competency. We ARE adequate to God. Not because of our own righteousness, but because of HIS.

Your worth should never be measured by anyone’s standards but God’s. And He says that you are adequate. This affirmation to me is a lot like being accepted. I need to remind myself that I am both. Praise God for His approval and love!

Day 1- I am accepted.

Day 2- I am totally forgiven.

Day 3- I am adequate.

How have the affirmations been going for you? Even in you haven’t joined in the challenge, just reading them might brighten your day and remind you of some much needed encouragement.

21 Days of Affirmation: I Am Totally Forgiven

April 28, 2014February 14, 2017 - Amy Leave a comment

It’s day 2 of 21 Days of Affirmation! How has it been going? Have you been saying your affirmations? I have been saying them aloud and there are times when I think yeah, this is actually believable and other times it’s just words coming out of my mouth. But the point is to get the words out of your mouth so they can be spoken over you. Good job for sticking with it!

We have redemption in Him through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. -Ephesians 1:7

He forgives all your sin;
He heals all your diseases. -Psalm 103:3

He adds: I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts. -Hebrews 10:17

Of all the affirmations that I can say, this one is one of the most believable there is for me. Just like it says there in Ephesians 1:7, through His blood, we are forgiven. Sometimes I think that we make mistakes here on earth and our flesh longs for fleshly forgiveness. We may feel guilt or remorse for doing something wrong and ask for forgiveness from a person. Sometimes we may get it and other times we may not. In that time no matter what happens here on earth, Christ has forgiven us.

Not assuming you are a compulsive sinner or anything (cough, we all are, cough), but chances are you probably sin each day not even realizing it. The absolute beauty of God’s amazing grace is that even those sins that we do not repent for or acknowledge have been cleansed by the blood of Christ and completely forgiven. That’s so amazing I could jump up and down right now just thinking about it. But I won’t because the neighbors downstairs really hate when I do that.

We are given such mercy. The ultimate approval has been given to us. So much so that He says he will never again remember our sins. FOR REAL? Have you ever had one of those friends (maybe even back in high school) that held a grudge against you? Sure they might eventually start talking to you again. They might even be your friend on facebook, but will they ever really forget the issue they had with you? You’ve heard that saying “I can forgive, but I’ll never forget”.

Nope, not with Jesus. He said that he will never again remember our sins viagra. Now that is one incredible friend. Who cares about Johnny Johnson back in 10th grade anyhow? Jesus totally forgives me!

Lets work on claiming this very affirmation for ourselves because it’s huge.

The challenge: each day that I post a new affirmation, say them to yourself OUT LOUD at least 5 times that day. This can be when you first wake up, when you’re driving down the road, when you’re laying down to sleep, when you’re feeling low, when you’re feeling great about yourself, or at anytime you please. Even if all 5 have to be said in the same minute! There is power in words.

Day 1- I am accepted.

Day 2- I am totally forgiven.

New Series: 21 Days of Affirmation

April 23, 2014April 23, 2014 - Amy 2 Comments

I’m starting a new series today on something that I have always found difficult. If you’ve ever felt down on yourself or sought to really dig in and change negative thinking, you may have been told to say affirmations.

Affirmation, (noun)- emotional support or encouragement.

This is one of those things mentioned in Gary Chapman’s book The Heart of the 5 Love Languages. Words of affirmation is a biggie in that book. And he explains that some folks receive love better with sweet words. So your partner would benefit from knowing that so they can speak your looooooooove language.

But what about ourselves? How can we truly show that we love ourselves if we speak negativity about ourselves? I will be the first to say that I struggle with putting myself down on a regular basis. I have trouble actually believing positive words about myself, but straight from the Bible, these are the ultimate truths. This is precisely the reason that I wanted to do this series with you. It’s probably more for me than you! I would love for you to join me in challenging ourselves to speak these truths over us each day.

Each time a new affirmation is posted, add that one to the list! And at the end of this little challenge, I pray that you begin to believe these truths about who are you are not only to yourself, but to Christ. I’ll be sharing some of my thoughts about each of the affirmations and I’d love for you to give me yours as well. Let’s get started!

To the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he has made us accepted in the beloved. -Ephesians 1:6

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! -Psalm 139:17

Even though we fall short of perfection (which is ok you know!), by His grace, we are completely accepted. It’s extremely hard for me to accept that I am accepted. If that makes any such sense at all. But the fact of the matter is that no matter what we have done and no matter what we will do, God will always have us.

His thoughts are always on us. They can’t even be numbered! It’s kinda like being in that beginning stage of love. You know, when you’re on the phone saying “no, YOU hang up”. God feels that way about us all the time.

When someone else says something bad about us behind our back.
When we wake up with nappy hair and stinky breath.
When our jeans fit too tightly.
When we were speeding the other day on I24. (this may or may not be a true story)
And even when we are hard on ourselves (which I am all the time), God still accepts us then.

How can we ever be worried about rejection with a love as amazing as that? I am going to ponder this very affirmation each day through this series.

Do you have trouble with feeling accepted by others? Do you find comfort in the fact that the only person’s acceptance that we need to worry about is God’s? Leave me a comment!