There Is No Doubt
Sickness, bad situations in life,family, or friends may cause one to become pessimistic, or a negative thinker. It is always unfortunate and heart breaking to hear of a family that may have, at one time, been faithful members in the Lord’s church, until a horrible situation occurs. Perhaps the losing of a spouse, children, loss of a job, or hatred shown towards them. Instead of believing that everyone is against you and that God is not on your side, you may begin to become a negative person. However, with a strong faith in God, this
mind set may rarely enter the picture in the portrait of a Christian’s
life. Positive thinking should always be found in the Christian’s way of thinking.
The Bible, itself, is looking towards something positive in every book, every chapter, and every word, in that, it shows man that there is hope for a Redeemer. In Genesis 3 and following, at the fall of man because of disobedience to God; redemption was set in motion. Moses records, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise thy heel” (Genesis 3:15). Mankind could now begin to see light at the end of the dark tunnel of sin. Jesus Christ was to be that Light (John 8:12). We must remain positive in our faith in God. During Job’s life, when he was going through his hardships, he remained positive. If he had not remained positive that God would help him, then he would not have written, “For I know that my redeemer liveth…” (Job 19:25). How many today are forgetting about God during hard times? Are we remaining optimistic?
Two of the spies that were sent into Canaan, Caleb and Joshua, were positive people. When you look at Numbers 13:26-33, the rest of spies were negative in their report. However, “Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, ‘Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it’” (Numbers 13:30). He was that faithful, positive person, and because of this, he was allowed to go into the land of Canaan, even though the majority of the Israelites were not able (Deuteronomy 1:36). How many of us are“Caleb’s”?
In the New Testament, Joses was called Barnabas by the apostles, which means son of encouragement (Acts 4:36). You cannot have a negative person being an encourager. Barnabas gave his life to
spreading the gospel, along with Paul. He was an encourager. We need tobe encouraging people all around us. Positive thinking always surpasses negative thinking. There is no doubt that God will be with us, if we continue to live for Him. “If God befor us, who can be against us?” (Rom.8:31). “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Phil.4:4).
Stephen