I am a thinker, sometimes an overthinker. Last evening, as I was pondering my thoughts and feelings, I heard the Holy Spirit say, “poor perspective.”
Perspective is defined as an attitude toward something; a point of view; the way of thinking and understanding something; or a mental point of view.
Can I tell you something? God cares about the way we think and the way we think about ourselves. In other words, God was checking me about the thoughts I was having. Life has a way of challenging the way we think and feel about ourselves. Sometimes, we ponder thoughts that do not align with the will of God for our lives.
2 Corinthians 10:5 says we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Thoughts are suggestions. Just because you receive a thought doesn’t mean you have to accept the thought. God has given us the power to take every thought captive and cast it down when it doesn’t align with the will of God. The enemy presents suggestions to you and me all day, but through the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, we can discern what is from God and what is from the enemy. As I have been fasting, I’ve been studying one of the fruits of the spirit, “self-control”.
Self-control is the ability to control oneself in body, thoughts, emotions, and desires.
We may not have the power to control what thoughts come into our minds, but we have the power to accept or deny them. Your thought life is always transactional. Proverbs 23:7 says so a man thinks in his heart, so is he. What you accept in your thoughts determines what you think and feel about yourself. Your thoughts determine poor perspectives or rich perspectives. In Genesis 1:27 it says, so God created man in His image. So, what God thinks about you, is what you should think about yourself.
Romans 12:2 says, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Compare your thinking to fact-checking; check your thoughts against the word of God and where it doesn’t align you reject. Poor perspectives lead to dry bones. Poor perspectives lead you to think that God will not keep his promise, poor perspectives lead you to think that God left you desolate and without help. Poor perspectives lead you to believe you will not achieve your dreams and that this is the best you will ever have. Poor perspectives will lead you to believe that God doesn’t love you. Poor perspectives lead you to believe that you will always be defeated and on the bottom. Poor perspectives lead to you believing that you will be sick and not healed. Contrary to popular belief of the enemy, it is determined by the word of God that is a lie. The word of God says in Isaiah 55:11 so shall my word go forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper where I send it.
If you don’t know where to go, always go back to the word of God. It doesn’t change. The assurance of God’s word leads us back to the richness of his glory for our lives when we have faith and trust Him. Certainly, we will endure challenging times in this life, but we have the assurance of God’s word. His word performs, helps, transforms, renews, heals, restores, and revives.
Change the way you and you will change your life. Philippians 4:8 says finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever of just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think of these things. So, I encourage you as I encourage myself to guard your heart and traffic control your thoughts. Think what God thinks about you and feel what God feels about you. We are his workmanship. We are not perfect, but we can be whole in Christ. Be encouraged, blessings flow.