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Leading Yourself IN Success Part 4
From Ponder to Action
We always spend a lot of time talking about how we think because Proverbs 4:23 is the truth. Out of your heart spring the issues of life. The point of that is not to let what is in your mind show present itself your actions unless it is of Christ. Guarding your heart means taking those thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ before you act on them. This is a deliberate action taken every minute of the day. You commit to setting your mind on Jesus and renew your commitment every single day, every single hour, every single minute and every single second.
The commitment will only work if you are replacing your nopeful thoughts with hopeful ones. I hope that last week you tested out the waters. Did you attempt to at least recognize your nopeful thoughts (hopeless thoughts). The way to do that is to tag them as hopeless. Name them hopeless. Ask yourself if there is any hope within that thought, anywhere? If the answer is no, take it into captivity because it is hopeless and not worthy of any of your time.
There is hope for everyone including you. Your nopeful thoughts are robbing you of any hope that you thought you had. And those thoughts will continue to rob you of any future hope you will have. There is no sense in going forward in our discussions unless we deal with this. Are you ready?
I have told you this before, but it bears repeating – hopeless thoughts will not go away until you make them hopeful. A couple of examples might help here then we will move to how to transform them. What do you think when you look in the mirror. Just yesterday I said to my husband, “My old thought of my ugliness snuck its way into my brain.” I was getting ready to go out for dinner with my kids and my hubby when I looked in the mirror and saw ugly. I quickly changed that to my favourite saying, “You look like Jesus.” And walked away. I hadn’t seen that ugly thought in months. It took me years to get rid of it and I am not going there again. What do you say to yourself when you look in the mirror? You know you are created in the image of God, right? Then say, “Hello, Jesus.” when you look in the mirror.
What do you say to yourself when you get dressed? I have spent probably $50,000-$100,00, over my lifetime on clothes to make up for my face. I now buy what I like to wear. The problem with all of us is that we are so hung up on what other people say and think that we forget what we like. Who has God created us to be? Did He create us to be carbon copies of someone else? Certainly not!
So, let us get into how we are going to change our thinking. We know we all think bad thoughts at one time or another but what we really need is to NEVER camp on them. You will need to come up with a phrase, sentence or word that will instantly work to snap you out of that hopeless thought. When I started doing this for myself, I said, “Now, stop that!” this sentence was long enough for me because I was VERY dedicated to changing the way I think. You might need a longer sentence because it takes a few minutes to change your thinking. Your brain wants to go back to that bad thought but don’t let it. A lengthy sentence will help you leave that bad thought and switch it to a good one. You could memorize a verse, such as, Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Philippians 4:8 or make up your own sentence like I did. No matter what you choose to do you must do the same thing each time.
I cannot say this enough. Your brain will begin to recognize your BUZZ WORDS. It will be like pressing on a buzzer for your brain each time. It will learn what to do and you will be successful at modifying, transforming and thinking on good things rather than bad things. Now, go take a few minutes to pray about what you are going to do. Write out what you are going to say and make sure it is buried in your brain.
You will not regret the work you have done to make this happen in your life. The Lord wants us to have a sound mind, so we can do the things He wants us to do. A sound mind comes from taking the hopeless thoughts captive and transforming them into hopeful thoughts that last. They will not get in the way of our decision making or our problem solving. When you ponder your thoughts and act on the ones Jesus wants you to act on your fruit will last for all of eternity.
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Leading Yourself IN Success Part 3
If you think you CANNOT you WILL NOT
The issue with thinking badly is that you think yourself out of doing the things God wants you to do. There are so many scary things Jesus asks us to do and unless we are thinking appropriately we will refuse to do them. The problem with that is the people Jesus is sending us to help will not get the help they need. Can you risk that?
The other problem with refusing to do what Jesus has asked you to do is you forgo the abundant life He has promised you when you obey Him. When you forgo the abundant life you will also bring others down with you. You believe you cannot do the things God has asked you to do and you are not afraid to tell people God is asking you to do too much. He is putting undo pressure on you to perform. Immature Christians will believe that and disobey God so He doesn’t ask them to do what they are not capable of doing.
You can as long as YOU THINK YOU CAN
Before we discuss this, I THINK I CAN, concept I want you to know that Jesus will not ask you to do something He has not gifted to do. I love kids as long as their moms are with them. I have four of my own and I don’t want to work with kids. I can do odd jobs like be a clowning for a couple of hours but no more than that. I am a hit and run child entertainer. I know this. I always say “NO” when someone invites me to work with kids longer than two hours, more than once per year.
With that said, how hard is it for you to think you can do something Jesus is asking you to do? What Jesus is asking you to do is for Him but will improve your life. He asks you to change your thinking because you will not do what He wants you to do otherwise. The way we think has a huge impact on our life and on our witness to those Jesus sends to us.
Nopeful to Hopeful Thinking
You are capable of doing everything Jesus asks you to do because He is training you to do what He is sending you to do. He will not send you to speak to someone unless He gives you the words. He will not send you to do a work unless you are capable of doing it. His goal in asking you to work for Him is to give you hope and to give others hope. Yes, he does say no to you but it is because there is not hope for you in that direction.
In the Leading Yourself IN Success Workshop the third session “Nopeful to Hopeful Thinking” I will talk about sixteen different ways we think. Your goal in this session is to stop thinking “you cannot” and begin thinking “you can.” That is the only way you can gain the abundant life. As long as you open your mind to recognizing your nopeful thoughts, you will be able to swap them out with thoughts that are hopeful.
Pursuing Biblical Direction
On my podcast this week (Episode 18) I will discuss three of the sixteen “Nopeful” ways of thinking. What I don’t say in that is that a buzz word needs to be used to stop yourself from thinking nopefully and shock yourself into thinking hopefully. This week watch that podcast and know the three nopeful ways of thinking and begin to recognize them in yourself. Then when you begin recognizing them come up with a way to stop doing them. In Nopeful to Hopeful Thinking we will come up with a phrase or a word that will stop you in your tracks and help you reverse your direction.
When I first started doing this my phrase was “You better stop that!” My phrase was long enough for me to get out of the nopeful thinking but short enough to say it quickly. Now, then years later, I just say “Stop!” The goal is to stop yourself from thinking and change the direction of the thought.
You can do it
When you are living your life, this week watch out for the Nopeful Thoughts you have. If you journal, write them down. If you have a smart phone, create a note, and write it down. You do know your thoughts are not good but what you don’t know is how to stop it. You cannot stop what you do not know you are doing. Know what you are thinking, and you will be able to stop it. You can definitely to this.
Email me with any questions or if you want to just talk about something you are perplexed about working out. I will first off read you Scripture then I will give you the benefit of the wisdom I have gained by walk through my problems with Jesus. I saw a cup at my book signing yesterday that said, “Don’t tell God how big your storm is, tell your storm how big your God is.” Nough said…
