good vs. bad

So lately I’ve been thinking about dwelling on the negative and the positive and what a difference that it makes.

The Lord has been teaching me about this concept and how bad I’m at it. I mean what is our first impulse to do when we hear bad news? We focus on the negative and don’t even try to find a positive. In fact it is culturally accepted if not encouraged to focus on the negative. And if you happen to find the positive you are usually ridiculed for being an optimist and a person who is unrealistic. If you turn on the news, you’ll find that most of it is bad, if not all of it. Turn on the radio, and most songs are about an ex bf/gf. When we talk about people, it’s usually never in a good light. If we talk about the past, it’s never in a good way.

We are a culture, a generation of negativity. Negativity sells. Which is probably why most of America is currently poppin prozac or lexapro or that anti-depressant with the weird looking cloud/bubble person. And we would say that we focus on the negative because that is all we see. That is our reality. But the Bible says in Colossians 3:1-3 “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God’s right hand in the place of honor and power. Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth. For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”

I absolutely 100% LOVE those verses. They are SO convicting but SO powerful.

See usually, if I’m having a bad day it’s because I’m focusing on all the bad things that happened that day or the day before or a day 10 years ago. Then suddenly I’m depressed and I have no idea why. (lol). But the Lord is teaching me to set my mind and thoughts on Him, instead of all the bad things in my life. There will always be bad things, circumstances, mistakes etc in my life. But if I choose to focus on the realities of heaven and not the realities of the earth, things in my life will start changing.

Recently the Lord told me to make a collage/mural of all the good things He did in the past two years. He told me to do this because for the past couple of months the only things I could think about was what He DIDN’T do in the past 2 years and how hard life has been lately. But because I’m a good little Christian girl I did (and am doing) what He said. So I sat down and made a list of all the good things He’s done in the past 2 years, big and small. And immediately I could feel the change in me, my attitude, the atmosphere in my room…and I realized how GOOD God is. So instead of complaining and whining to the Lord, I began to thank Him. And this little art project the Lord gave me is forcing me to see and focus on the goodness of Him and not the bad things.

So what I think is, if we can truly grab hold of this, it won’t matter what happens on earth, good or bad, our thoughts and minds will be on the realities of heaven. So when we go through tough things or difficult circumstances, we know Christ sits at the right hand of God in the place of honor and power. And all the principalities and authorities are under Christ and we have been set free from the kingdom of darkness. And we are no longer bound by our past, but have been given a new life and been made a new creation who are holy and righteous and blameless before God our Heavenly Father. And our Heavenly Father totally and completely loves us more than we could ever imagine. THAT is the realities of heaven, and THAT what I’m fixing my mind on.