I am reading the book “The 4:8 Principle” by Tommy Newberry, which was recommended by one of my mentors. In it Newberry explains how we can take the verse Philippians 4:8, and apply it to our lives as positive thinking. At first glance I laughed at the thought of a ‘self-help’ book to help me find my joy.

Luckily, my ego has learned it best to remain humble so I gave it a shot and am learning wonderful techniques in order to be grateful for my blessings from God. I have always been a conspiracy theorist and glass half empty kinda gal. But as I read this book, a glimmer of hope started shining through my brick wall. “When you bring your thinking into the domain of your conscious, creative control, you will rapidly discover what an enormous advantage you have in sculpting the conditions of your life.” Can positive thinking really change the circumstances we have put ourselves in?
I had always been someone who scoffed at the ‘power of positive thinking’. Sounds a whole lot like a daytime talk-show host who is trying to take over the world if you ask me. But when I can see it from a Christian viewpoint it makes perfect sense. In order to see the blessings in our life, we need to be always grateful to God for those blessings. When we read the whine in David’s voice in some of the Psalms (“Why hast thou forsaken me?”) we, the reader, know that God never abandoned David and God doesn’t abandon us. Logically, we know this, but emotionally when we are in the midst of discontent and thus far from God we forget that we are the ones that strayed, not He.

 Deuteronomy 31:8 “God is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t worry.”

We need daily reminders of this fact; God is with us and He blesses us. I listed my responses in my personal journal to these questions from Newberry’s book over the course of three days and my peace of mind and light heart are all the proof I need to know the power of positive thinking is a real thing to strive for.

What are five of my strengths or positive traits?
What are five of my best achievements so far?
What five things am I looking forward to in the next seven days?
Try it for three days…what’s the least that can happen-that you end up feeling better?