Is Stinking Thinking Holding You Back?

I would like to ask you a question, do you have thoughts that defeat you in your prayer life or hold you back in areas of your life? My dad shared a story with me that I thought was rather odd when I first heard it but it really started ministering to me when I applied it in areas of my own life. Let me share his story with you.

My dad was at Sam's club the other day looking at a book that he wanted to purchase for me. He put back the book that he was reviewing and reached back to the center of all the books and chose a fresh book that had not been opened. He wanted to get me a fresh copy that was not damaged. When he gave me the book, I noticed that the book was damaged quite severely on the top and some of the pages were actually torn. My dad looked at me with surprise in his eyes because of his effort of trying to get me a good book.

My dad shook his head and said that he wanted to share something with me that has been going on for a good portion of his life. He told me from a young age that he always felt that the choice he made would always be the wrong one and whatever he got would be damaged or defective in some way. If you blindfolded him and gave him a choice between 100 things and only one of them was damaged, he would choose the damaged one. He said that was going on when he purchased my book.

After he shared that story with me I started to think of areas of my life that my thoughts were holding me back. Do you have areas in your life that are holding you back? I was sharing this with a friend and she told me, "that's silly, how can thoughts affect anybody's life?" Shortly after that she made a statement that made me laugh. She was looking at a dessert on the menu and said, " if I ate that, it would go straight to my hips." I smiled, looked at her hips and asked, "so, how many of those desserts are in those childbearing hips?" (Remember when you make a statement like that to duck, because there's a menu coming your way.)We may not want to see it in our own life but many of us have thoughts that are holding us back.

Once we realize the thoughts that are holding us back, we can make conscious choices to break those thoughts and start speaking what God said about the situation instead of what's been programmed in our mind. I would encourage you to find a Scripture for that particular situation and meditate on it like it says in (Philippians 4:8) "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things."