Our scripture this morning is Philippians 4:8 (NLT).
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
Paul encourages the Philippians (and us) to focus on the blessings God has provided and not the awful things we have done to His creation or our current circumstances. When we focus on the negative, we tend to go that direction in our thinking and behavior. That’s not the mindset Jesus taught us.
Being optimistic is often laughed at these days. People ask “How can you possibly find good in what goes on in our world?”, usually followed by “Didn’t you hear about…” and off we go. It is way too easy to get drawn into the downward spiral of negative thinking.
We can’t rectify things on our own. We need His love and care and we need to share that with everyone, especially those who are suffering from “negative syndrome”. I have seen people in bad situations with a good outlook come through their issues because of their faith. I have seen people with a poor outlook project that onto what they think and do with equally poor results. God wants us to be happy not because of what we have here but because of what He has promised us in eternity.
Heavenly Father, we are sorry for the times we despair about our world and sink deeper into the negative thought that allows evil to flourish. Help us to be transformed by Your love and carry the Good News to everyone. Amen.
