Speak Positively (4)

Sat, 4 Sep 2021

‘If our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace.’ Romans 8:6

Pessimism affects you spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. Negativity is directly related to heart disease, immune system deficits, and the ability to cope with physical pain. The famous Mayo Clinic conducted a 30-year study of 800 patients—and the results are telling. The pessimists’ risk of early death was 19% higher than that of the optimists in the group.

In Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, Dr Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania concluded that optimism and pessimism affect your health almost as clearly as physical factors. Have you ever said, ‘I’m sick to death of this’? Then do something about it—quickly! If you hold onto that thought for too long—it may come true. One of the great findings of modern medical science is that the words we speak don’t just affect others, they affect us too.

Indeed, sometimes they affect us even more! Words are powerful. You believe and internalise what you repeatedly say. That means you have the God-given ability to change your perception of your own abilities from limited to limitless.

Let’s be clear about what that does and doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean you can compose music like Bach or paint like Van Gogh just because you decide to and want to. But it does mean you can do whatever God has told you to do in His Word. Whatever He calls you to do, He will enable you to do. And that’ll happen when you line up what comes out of your mouth with what’s written in His Word.

Yes, we need to speak positively because life and death are in the power of the tongue Proberbs 18:21

Then why do pastors start their prayers like this?

Indeed...

"Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you." - Luke 6:28

"Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers." - Ephesians 4:29 (Edification: "building up" )

"Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse." - Romans 12:14

"But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh." - James 3:8-12

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Words (and thoughts), but certainly words matter:

"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” - Matthew 12:35-37

Citygal:
Then why do pastors start their prayers like this?

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But for the grace, mercy and righteousness of GOD with which He graciously clothes His own in the Lord JESUS, the CHRIST... mankind would have (since the fall) no righteousness of his/her own of which to even speak!

"But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities." - Isaiah 64:6-7

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"In those days Judah will be saved, And Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." - Jeremiah 33:16 (Also Jeremiah 23:6)

"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit." - Psalm 32:2

"Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” - 2 Timothy 2:19