Speaking positivity to ourselves and about ourselves is a scriptural idea. Paul wrote, ‘Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.’ Here are three ways we can do that: 1) Avoid comparison. Each of us has a different skill set. Each of us is unique. The way you do things might be different from the way other people do them, but that doesn’t make your way wrong. Comparison is unfair, and it creates negativity. There’ll nearly always be somebody who’s better at a specific skill than you are. But that doesn’t mean you should give up working at it, or that God thinks less of you – because He doesn’t. 2) Coast on hope. The Bible says, ‘Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping – believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, “That’s how many descendants you will have!”’ (Romans 4:18 NLT). And the psalmist wrote, ‘I should put my hope in God and keep praising him’ (Psalm 42:5 NCV). When the situation as we see it looks impossible and we can’t find a way out, we should allow ourselves to coast along on the hope we have in God and trust He’ll come through. It can miraculously transform our ‘I can’t’ into ‘God can’. 3) Act positively. 1 Thessalonians 5 encourages us to ‘Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus’ (v.16-18 NIV). Whatever’s happening in our lives, let’s make the decision to find something to thank God for and allow our minds to dwell on His goodness.

What Now?

Do you find that you struggle with doing any of the points in today’s reading? Find some Bible verses that speak into the areas you find most difficult, and focus your prayer time around them.