A group of friends sat on a wall looking out over to sea

 

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Contagious (1)

29 June 2019
‘Put off your old self…be made new in the attitude of your minds.’

Attitudes can be contagious. The people we spend time with can influence how we see things and how we feel. Would the people who are around us describe us as a positive or negative person? Would they say they felt better after spending time with us, or worse? If we’re not sure we’d like the answers to those questions, it’s time to do something about it. Paul says, ‘Put off your old self…be made new in the attitude of your minds.’ When we change our thought patterns, we can change our attitude. The Bible tells us to ‘be transformed by the renewing of your mind’ (Romans 12:2 NIV). That can seem impossible. When we’ve been thinking the same way for a long time, those thoughts can be hard to uproot and change. But the Bible gives us some advice: ‘take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ’ (2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV). To change our negative thoughts, we need to take the thought and then analyse whether it is a good thought or not (take a look at Philippians 4:8). If a thought we’re having doesn’t match up with those things, we need to change it. That’s when we need to be in our Bibles. We need to know verses that show us the truth. If we’re feeling insecure, we can speak out verses about our identity in Christ. If we’re feeling down, we can speak out verses about God’s joy and His plans for our future. The more connected we are to God, and His Word, the more positive our attitude will become. We’ll still have bad days – we’re human after all. But overall we’ll be more positive and be able to spread encouragement and positivity to those who spend time with us.

 

What Now?

Next time you notice a negative thought, write it down. Then try and think of the underlying problem (insecurity, jealousy, despondency etc.). Finally, find a Bible verse to counteract the thought.

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