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"For God so loved the world that He gave His onlyh begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
(John 3:16 - NKJV)
"For God so loved the world that He gave His onlyh begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
(John 3:16 - NKJV)
SPIRIT BREAD WEEKLY
WHAT'S WRONG WITH BEING POSITIVE?
By Jerry D. Ousley
By Jerry D. Ousley
What’s Wrong with Being Positive?
By Jerry D. Ousley
As human beings, we often have the habit of operating on what we call, Murphy’s Law: If something can go wrong, it will.” I know, a lot of the time, it seems that this law holds true. But shouldn’t we be more positive than that? On the other hand, there are those who so insist on being positive all the time, even if they have to pretend that they are, and, well, frankly,
it is a little obnoxious.
This is especially true in God’s Church. One of the popular teachings of the prosperity movement is that we should always be positive. We should speak positive even when life is negative. Even if our entire situation is completely negative and there is absolutely no way our predicament can be viewed positively, we should ignore it and live as if everything is okay. But it isn’t. Doesn’t that border on a lie?
Still, we shouldn’t live like there’s something wrong with everything. And some people do. They can’t find a positive thing about, well, anything. It makes me wonder if perhaps that’s worse than being obnoxiously positive about everything? This person isn’t satisfied with any situation. If it’s raining, they say they wish the sun would shine. If the sun is shining, they say that if it don’t rain, we will be in a drought. If it’s cold they wish it would warm up. If it warms up then it’s so hot they wish it would cool off. I think you see the picture.
Here’s the thing; we should always speak the truth. If our situation isn’t positive, we shouldn’t lie and say that it is. The same rule applies in that, if the situation is positive then we shouldn’t speak negatively about it. What it is, is what it is.
“Okay, brother, you’re confusing me…” I know what you mean. If we have to be conscience about the situation, whether we are to be positive or negative, how do I chose? Maybe we should just not take a side. Of course, that’s ridiculous. It isn’t about a side but about who we are and what is right.
We hear verses quoted like Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” They use this verse to say we should be positive because God is going to bring us good no matter what happens. Be positive and speak positive. But they often fail to put this verse together with the preceding verses which talk about persecution. When we look at it in that light, the verse isn’t about prosperity but realizing that God will take our negative situation, which may include suffering and persecution, to make us stronger.
Also, Romans 8:31 which says, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Those purporting prosperity say that this means that God is going to bring only good things to us. But again, it is in the same context as the verse above. It means that despite good or bad that comes our way, with God on our side, even during suffering and persecution, we can endure. That is the real positive interpretation.
One more verse – 1 Thessalonians 5:18 which says, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” I know we’ve written about this verse before. But it always bears repeating. Many wrongly interpret this verse to mean that we should thank God for everything that happens to us. The good, the bad and the ugly. The real interpretation tells us that many things are going to happen to us. There are going to be good things. There’s going to be times when life is sweet and everything is coming up roses. In those times it is easy to give thanks to God.
There are other times when life throws bricks at us. We get sick. We find out we have a terrible disease. We lose our job and can’t pay our bills. We lose someone very close to us and it tears our hearts right out of our chest. Life doesn’t always feature blue birds and butterflies on our shoulders. Life happens.
What this verse is really saying is much more comforting that what many interpret. It is telling us that whatever happens to us, good or bad, we can praise God and give Him thanks in the midst of it. We aren’t thanking God for the bad things that happen, but we are thanking Him because He gives us grace to hold His hand regardless the circumstances in which we find ourselves. God gets us through. Even if we are facing imminent death, we can know that God is with us and waiting for us on the other side. We give Him thanks because we have faith in Him no matter what happens. That’s how we give thanks in everything because we know that God is with us in everything that happens to us.
That’s the positive side of being positive. To answer our original question, what’s wrong with being positive? Absolutely nothing if we are positive in the way God intended.
By Jerry D. Ousley
As human beings, we often have the habit of operating on what we call, Murphy’s Law: If something can go wrong, it will.” I know, a lot of the time, it seems that this law holds true. But shouldn’t we be more positive than that? On the other hand, there are those who so insist on being positive all the time, even if they have to pretend that they are, and, well, frankly,
it is a little obnoxious.
This is especially true in God’s Church. One of the popular teachings of the prosperity movement is that we should always be positive. We should speak positive even when life is negative. Even if our entire situation is completely negative and there is absolutely no way our predicament can be viewed positively, we should ignore it and live as if everything is okay. But it isn’t. Doesn’t that border on a lie?
Still, we shouldn’t live like there’s something wrong with everything. And some people do. They can’t find a positive thing about, well, anything. It makes me wonder if perhaps that’s worse than being obnoxiously positive about everything? This person isn’t satisfied with any situation. If it’s raining, they say they wish the sun would shine. If the sun is shining, they say that if it don’t rain, we will be in a drought. If it’s cold they wish it would warm up. If it warms up then it’s so hot they wish it would cool off. I think you see the picture.
Here’s the thing; we should always speak the truth. If our situation isn’t positive, we shouldn’t lie and say that it is. The same rule applies in that, if the situation is positive then we shouldn’t speak negatively about it. What it is, is what it is.
“Okay, brother, you’re confusing me…” I know what you mean. If we have to be conscience about the situation, whether we are to be positive or negative, how do I chose? Maybe we should just not take a side. Of course, that’s ridiculous. It isn’t about a side but about who we are and what is right.
We hear verses quoted like Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” They use this verse to say we should be positive because God is going to bring us good no matter what happens. Be positive and speak positive. But they often fail to put this verse together with the preceding verses which talk about persecution. When we look at it in that light, the verse isn’t about prosperity but realizing that God will take our negative situation, which may include suffering and persecution, to make us stronger.
Also, Romans 8:31 which says, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Those purporting prosperity say that this means that God is going to bring only good things to us. But again, it is in the same context as the verse above. It means that despite good or bad that comes our way, with God on our side, even during suffering and persecution, we can endure. That is the real positive interpretation.
One more verse – 1 Thessalonians 5:18 which says, “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” I know we’ve written about this verse before. But it always bears repeating. Many wrongly interpret this verse to mean that we should thank God for everything that happens to us. The good, the bad and the ugly. The real interpretation tells us that many things are going to happen to us. There are going to be good things. There’s going to be times when life is sweet and everything is coming up roses. In those times it is easy to give thanks to God.
There are other times when life throws bricks at us. We get sick. We find out we have a terrible disease. We lose our job and can’t pay our bills. We lose someone very close to us and it tears our hearts right out of our chest. Life doesn’t always feature blue birds and butterflies on our shoulders. Life happens.
What this verse is really saying is much more comforting that what many interpret. It is telling us that whatever happens to us, good or bad, we can praise God and give Him thanks in the midst of it. We aren’t thanking God for the bad things that happen, but we are thanking Him because He gives us grace to hold His hand regardless the circumstances in which we find ourselves. God gets us through. Even if we are facing imminent death, we can know that God is with us and waiting for us on the other side. We give Him thanks because we have faith in Him no matter what happens. That’s how we give thanks in everything because we know that God is with us in everything that happens to us.
That’s the positive side of being positive. To answer our original question, what’s wrong with being positive? Absolutely nothing if we are positive in the way God intended.