Encourage Yourself

For many years I thought of myself as worthless. Undeserving of anything good life had to offer. Even undeserving of life itself. I always felt hopeless and helpless. Over the years many things happened in my life that contributed to my negative thinking. One in particular, my parents divorced after many years of tumultuous marriage. Watching my parents’ marriage and divorce greatly impacted my life and my thoughts. I had no frame of reference on how to function like a normal and well-balanced person. Nor did I understand the concept of success in any aspect of life. Living off of government assistance, and trying to navigate life as a single mother with 4 children by the age of 28, was very difficult. Getting out of my negative and hopeless mindset was even more difficult.

When I became a Christian, I began to try to change my whole life. In the process, I did several things, I became more independent, obtained my GED, was able to get a decent job, and began living a better life. But oh this negative mindset! It has been so difficult to conquer. Praying and reading the Bible helped so much but many times I struggled with what to pray and how to apply the Word of God to my life. I began the process of changing my attitude, and my character. I stopped hanging around with negative people, and I sought out higher education. But I kept feeling like there was something deeper that I was missing.

After years of struggling to better myself, I felt like God revealed to me about bettering not just my life, but my mind, and my thought process. I felt impressed by God that He was going to guide me along the way, and soon I discovered something called positive self-talk, and a class that taught all about changing your mindset. I’ve always been intrigued by the mind and the phenomenal power of the human brain, so I eagerly took the class. I learned some new things about myself, my way of thinking, and even about God. In short, the concept is thinking and speaking positively, in order to change the way you have been negatively “programmed” because of past trauma or other situations that have happened in your life. I tried it and it worked! In essence, you have to unlearn old habits and learn new ones. By saying and thinking pretty much the opposite of what you normally would. I began to understand that if simply speaking and thinking positive things could change my way of thinking in such a profound and positive way, how much more powerful would it be to speak positive things right out of the Word of God and proclaim them in Jesus name! King David, a mighty man of war, whose life was being threatened by his own people as well as the fact that the enemy had taken all that he had, was discouraged to the point that the Bible says he encouraged himself in the Lord. How? David prayed and sought direction from God. That’s the first thing we should do, pray and seek direction from God, then search the scriptures for every encouraging verse you can find that pertains to your needs, and pray the scripture, believe the scripture as truth, and trust God to help you on this journey.

God cares about our minds and our mental and emotional well-being. The Bible says God has given us the spirit of power, love, and of a sound mind. God says that if we do everything in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, His peace will keep our hearts and minds.  In Philippians 4:8, God instructs us to think about good, pure, and true things, to name a few. God tells us to speak good, and not corruption in Ephesians 4:29. He knows the power our words have and tells us that if we speak life (goodness and truth), that's what we shall partake in; the same goes if we speak evil and corruption (death). Philippians 2:5 speaks of having the mind of Christ. And again of how being carnally minded brings death but being spiritually minded brings life. Over and over again we see in the scriptures that we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds. When we renew our minds, it manifests in our hearts and in turn changes our lives. All the negative things we were and did will change. The excuse of  “that’s just how I am” is no longer relevant, as things begin to change for the better and we begin to conquer things in our lives that we never thought we could. We can better understand how these changes happen as it is far better explained in Galatians 5:16-25, when we renew our minds through the Scriptures and then allow God to change our hearts and lives, wonderful things begin to manifest in our lives, such as joy, peace, and goodness. You can do this because God will give strength and the power to do this. Again, we refer to King David in 1 Samuel 18:14 where we see David was wise and successful because God was with him. God will be with you as well, as you seek Him first, He will do the rest. 

2 Timothy 1:7, Philippians 4:6-7

Philippians 4:8

Ephesians 4:29

Proverbs 18:21

Philippians 2:5

Romans 8:6-7

Romans 12:2

Galatians 5:16-25

Philippians 4:13, Isaiah 40:29

1 Samuel 18:14, Matthew 6:33