Negative Thinking (Stopping Negative Thoughts)
Negative thinking is one of the most effective ways that the devil uses to sabotage people’s lives. People consumed in negative thinking find themselves circling around a negative cycle most or all of their lives, unless or until that negative cycle is broken. Negative thinking yields negative emotions that in turn give rise to negative behavior, and the cycle continues over and over again.
When your mind tends to lean toward the negative, you will realize that things in your life tend to fall apart. Your relationships will end up failing, you will be unable to relate well with people, and you will have a tendency to criticize and see the worst in others. People will start walking away from you and you will be left wondering why nobody wants to be close to you. When people get close and they experience your negative thinking and negative attitudes towards them or towards life, they will no longer desire to be your friend.
The spirit of sabotage uses negative thinking to frustrate your life. Negative thinking will make you sabotage your friendships, your marriage, your family, your relationships, your job, and many other aspects of your life. The negative thinking towards others will make you become angry and bitter at them and whatever friendship existed soon comes crumbling down. When you have negative thinking about life in general, you will easily become frustrated and give up. You will not be willing to try out new things because, in your mind, there is no need to try.
Many people are living with anxiety, depression, low esteem, and shame because of negative thinking. Negative thoughts about yourself will make you feel like you are unworthy and like you are below other people. You will feel like you are not beautiful, or capable of doing things on your own, like you are not at the level of others, and like you have to put yourself down. Negative thinking will create in you false humility that leads you to live below your capacity. Your sense of inner unworthiness will make you hate yourself, make you isolate yourself, and end up living a lonely unfulfilled life.
One form of negative thinking is whereby you believe that things have to work out perfectly. This makes you think in extremes. You think that if you are not perfect or extremely good at something, then there is no need to try that thing out. Negative thinking makes you believe that if you do not get perfect scores, or you do not perform extremely well at something, or if there is no assurance that what you want will succeed, then there is no need of trying. Negative distorted thinking makes you think that you must be a certain way or must get something or someone, and this drives you to do things that you would not normally do in an attempt to get what you want. You might eventually become desperate or obsessively try to get that thing or that person.
If you easily jump to conclusions about someone or something, it is highly likely that you have negative thinking. Negative thinking makes you assume negative things about other people and it makes you assume that something bad will happen in the future. When you assume negative things about a person, with time your feelings toward them will be negative and soon you will start treating them according to how you feel about them. When you jump to negative conclusions about people without any evidence of wrongdoing on their part, you end up sabotaging relationships. Assuming negative things about the future will make you live an anxious life.
Maybe you have a tendency to see only the worst in things, people, or life in general. Negative thinking will make you put aside the positive things about yourself and about others. When your mind is consumed with negativity, you will make a mountain out of a molehill and discard any good thing in yourself or in other people. Concentrating on the negative will lead you to develop low esteem and put other people down.
If you are a person who is too emotional, you will end up being led by your emotions instead of the Holy Spirit. Negative thinking makes people think that what they feel is true even when there is no evidence to support their feelings. Maybe you feel like your partner is unloving and you end up treating them in demeaning ways yet probably they are just going through a difficult time. If you continue in that direction, soon you will end up ruining your marriage. The spirit of sabotage has ruined many relationships. Many people are engaged in negative cycles where they are led by negative emotions and they end up sabotaging good relationships, only for them to regret it later.
Maybe you place very high expectations on yourself or on other people. In your mind, you think there is a certain way your life should be, or think there is a certain way other people should behave, or that there is a certain way life should be. Such high expectations of yourself, of other people, and of life will set you up for great disappointment. When you fall short or others fall short, then negative thoughts will torment you and you will coil back into a frustrated, bitter, self-deprecating corner. You have to remember that you and other people are human beings and you should be ready to extend grace to yourself and to others.
One negative experience does not translate into negative experiences in the future. Just because you failed in one thing does not mean that you will always fail in the future and neither does it make you a failure. Just because someone was unable to do for you that thing you wanted does not mean that they will always do that in the future and neither does it make them untrustworthy. Be gracious and give room for yourself and for others.
Negative thinking will make you blame yourself and others unnecessarily. You start thinking that it is your fault that that relationship failed or you allocate blame to the other person. Blaming yourself will only lead to a negative cycle of shame, guilt, and condemnation. Pointing fingers at others will lead to hostility and the ruining of your relationship with them.
Do not fall into the trap of negative thinking. It is important to examine yourself and take note of your thinking patterns. Examine the negative patterns that have been recurring in your life and search for the ways that negative thinking has been contributing to such patterns. The enemy is very cunning and he introduces negative thoughts to make you live a defeated life.
Negative thinking sabotages your life without your knowledge and leaves you frustrated and unable to achieve the purpose that God created you to live. It will make you ruin friendships and relationships, it will delay your marriage, affect your children and the coming generations, and make you have a negative and demeaning perspective of yourself such that you will be unable to take hold of what God has for you.
You will think that you do not deserve anything good in life and that eventually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because your emotions and behavior will follow what you are thinking. You will start behaving like a person who does not deserve anything in life, think that other people are better than you and that you cannot be able to do what others are doing. The Bible tells us that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
Do not allow the devil to sabotage your life with negative thinking. It is time to take your thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ. Learn to recognize your thinking patterns and challenge them with evidence of how things truly are and with the truth of the Word of God. Just because a thought pops up in your mind does not make it true. The mind is a battleground and the devil has defeated many people through the use of negative and false thinking. You need to be aware of the tricks of the devil and fight back. Do not allow the devil to manipulate you into accepting false and unreal thoughts. Do not live in the false reality of negative distorted thinking. It is time to sober up, think clearly, and see things for what they really are.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. 2 Corinthians 10:3–6.
It is possible to choose which thoughts you think and meditate on. Choose to think good thoughts. When your thinking pattern changes, your life will change.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things. Philippians 4:8.
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Originally published at https://www.vickysforum.com on September 24, 2022.
