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Darkness is on the rise. Evil seems to just be abounding. So how is the Christian to live? What are we supposed to do?
Believe it or not, it all begins in the mind.
The Question That Changes Everything
Here's a question worth sitting with: Do you believe that the worst thing for a person is a lack of positive thinking or a lack of negative thinking?
In other words, which thing makes you healthier in all aspects of life—generating more positive thinking or eliminating more negative thinking?
Wait, what? You have to really let that settle in because there's a difference, and it's a good question.
The initial instinct is to think, "Well, to eliminate negative thinking, don't you have to generate positive thinking?" But no—that's not what we're getting at. They're two different things.
Now, the Bible says "Let your mind be transformed." Paul tells us that in Romans chapter 12. And the battle of scripture versus human-based psychology has been going on for years. So the thought might be, "Okay, I have used scripture against the battle of the power of positive thinking because there's a lot of benefits to positive thinking, but yet the same thing—it's crushed by walking in sanctification in Jesus Christ once you've been justified." There's been this battle for a long time.
But here's the thing—if you're talking about or looking at anything in the realm of reality, it's going to reflect biblical truth.
Turns out massive studies have been done on this. And it turns out that 70% of health increases based on thinking are generated by eliminating negative thinking. Positive thinking just doesn't do it.
The mind controls a lot of our health, a lot of our well-being—not just mental health, but physical health. Ulcers are just a common example from the 70s and 80s that we know worry and stress can cause. That's just one of many health concerns tied to how we think.
Positive affirmations have their place. Thinking positively has its place. But it's weak and it's lame compared to eliminating negative thinking.
It's amazing how some humanist-type studies will back up the Bible a thousand percent and they don't even realize it.
Gramster Rant: The Five C's That Destroy Your Peace
So how do you combat negative thinking? There are five C's.
1. Complaining
The first C is complaining. Complaining and murmuring. The Bible warns against it. When you start having a complaining and murmuring spirit, it is going to negatively affect you—both your mental health and your well-being.
Look, if you feel great, you don't feel fatigued, you feel wonderful, but you're just stewing on something and you're just in that negative vibe the whole day—you've ruined your day. Complaining leads to that.
And you've probably ruined somebody else's day too. Just saying.
2. Criticizing
The second C is criticizing. When you sit and just criticize everything, it doesn't do your spirit well. When your spirit is not well, your physical being suffers, your mental well-being suffers, and your overall general living life to the full is not possible when you are complaining and constantly criticizing.
Here's a real confession: criticizing other drivers on the road. It's a thing that can ruin a short or long trip. So what do you do to overcome this? When somebody's being a complete loser in the left lane, try to think, "You know what, they might have just gotten some word that something bad happened in their life. They could have gotten fired an hour ago. They could have just learned that they got a terminal illness." Who knows why they're dazed off at 50 miles an hour in the left lane on the interstate—instead of just assuming they're stupid or don't know how to drive or rude. Or as some might call them, "learner drivers." Put the yellow stripes on your bumper—you know that comes from NASCAR where the rookies have to wear the yellow stripes.
See, that's criticizing and also complaining at the same time. It's so easy to slip into.
3. Concerns
The third C is concerns. Now this one is a little more nuanced. The thing about concerns is when they're about stuff you can't control.
Cast all your concerns to him—we take it to the Lord in prayer, and that releases us. But when you have these concerns, all the angst about things beyond your reach, it doesn't do you any good.
Here's a confession—the biggest concern right now that's a real struggle is what's called the red-green alliance. If you haven't been following this, you need to learn the term. It's the Democrat communist (that's the red) and the Islamic militants (that's the green). Most of the Islamic colors, their flags and stuff, are green. Most of the communist colors are red.
The Democrats want to destroy our country. You can't argue that anymore. You can't say, "Well, I'm a moderate Democrat and so I have these liberal leanings, so I can't vote Republican." No. Those days died over the last two years. It is now full-on a red-green alliance.
How can the Muslim faith, if you know anything about it, go alongside the communist and the LGBT and all of that? They don't mix—except they have one common thing: they want to destroy the West. And why do they want to destroy the West? Because we have freedom of religion. Christianity and the gospel can be shared freely. Satan doesn't like that. The Jewish people are God's chosen people. He's going to show himself and reveal himself through them throughout all of history. Our Savior is a Jew, if you haven't figured that out. Messianic Jews sharing the gospel is really bad for the enemy. But all of us having the ability to share the gospel is what the red and green alliance wants to stop.
There are concerns. Concerns that delusion is coming over people that call themselves Christians. Major concerns about false conversions. True and false conversions—false conversions are ruining the visible church.
So what do you do with those concerns on stuff you can't control? Well, if you grind on it—"Why, Lord, does it have to be this way?"—that is not healthy. That's what even the secularists say. Having concerns like that is not healthy. So you take it to the Lord in prayer and you release it over to him, and then you get contentment with godliness, which is great gain.
4. Commiserating
The fourth C is commiserating. Do you know what commiserating is? It's when two people get together and they just pound on something. It's different than gossip. You could get together and commiserate about how bad everything is.
Here's an example of commiserating that really hurt—and "ticked off" isn't even the right word. It made me sad. Deeply sad. Commiserating about how awful Candace Owens has become. There's nothing we can do about it. It's sad that she still has a following of any kind. How can you be this big of a turncoat on everything and then just go on and get your three million likes so you can get your check for 50 grand this month? It just blows me away.
So when we commiserate, we've got to do that in a godly way. We have to come together and share concerns. And we've got to do that without criticizing—but still pointing out error. And we've got to do that without complaining.
All four of those things can kind of go hand-in-glove. And that comes from spiritual maturity. We all fail a little bit in all four of those areas because we don't want to get to the fifth C.
5. Catastrophizing
The fifth C is catastrophizing. Everything is a catastrophe. When you're catastrophizing, everything is bad.
"My car got under a quarter of a tank of gas and I didn't know if I was going to make it to the next exit. It was almost a catastrophe."
"It was the worst day of my life."
"Oh, what happened?"
"I ran out of gas."
Wait—the church was out of donuts when you got there? That's the worst day of your life?
That's what catastrophizing looks like. And you don't want to get there.
Salvaged by God Deep Dive: What Murmuring Really Represents
Now, before we get too far overboard on the right side, let's have that pendulum swing back into the middle a little bit.
This Isn't About Being a Doormat
This does not mean you don't point out error. This does not mean that you can't stand up for yourself. This does not mean that you're supposed to be the doormats of the world—because that's how it's interpreted by a lot of people. "Well, I better not say anything. Blessed be the nice. If you're a nice Christian, then Jesus will—the Bible says..." No. There's still a realism.
In fact, Second Corinthians talks about how our weapons are not weapons of the flesh. We don't wage war with weapons of the flesh. Rather, we tear down arguments. We tear down strongholds. We tear down opinions. We demolish them. We destroy those opinions that put themselves up against God. But by that, we're taking our mind captive and obedient then to Christ—not to the flesh, not to our own desires.
It's the intent of the heart. And let me explain.
When you have something to say and it comes across like a criticism or a complaint, but you're actually standing up for yourself, it comes back to the intent of the heart.
What Murmuring Actually Means
Biblically, murmuring is portrayed as the following:
A lack of trust in God. If your statements demonstrate a lack of trust in God, check yourself before your next.
A discontent with God's provision. This has been one of the major problems. There have been times of being stone cold broke. Then way more than enough. Then kind of broke again. Then quasi wealthy. Then broke again. It just seems like no matter what, money comes and money goes. That is the reality.
My retirement plan is the rapture.
Here's the deal: there may not be much money left right now, but there's been more fun than all y'all. A lot of stamps in the passports. Gone places. Supported missionaries. Done a lot. Tried to be generous, tried not to be stingy—just not money wizards.
During some of those down times, expressing discontent with God's provision—that murmuring, that complaining, that criticizing—did not help the spiritual walk. And it did not move God to make any changes.
The Testimony That Matters
But here's what's happened over the years of basically doing ministry since November of 1992: there have been huge deserts (1999 and 2000—Y2K almost killed us), then going all in with God again in 2002, ending up on the mission field in 2003. There have been times of mountain peaks, times of valleys, times of desert, times of green grass. But to not have trust in God and to be discontented with his provision is a problem in the Christian life. We need to be joyful.
Here's the testimony that spikes the football on the deal—in other words, this is the end zone moment: there's been an awesome time. Great friends. Some people who tried to cause hurt—enemies, even. All of this stuff. And yet never lacked for anything. Never went hungry. Never went homeless. Never went without transportation. Always been taken care of by God.
And so when you get this level of contentment, these five C's vanish. They go away.
Where does that contentment with godliness come from? It comes from being soundly saved and looking to Christ for everything. Picking up your cross every day and just basking in the fact that we are unredeemable—it's impossible with man. And yet God performs a miracle by reaching down and touching our lives and saving us because of the shed blood and the work of Jesus Christ.
When you do that, these five C's just kind of dry up.
Contentment with godliness is great gain. Put that on a t-shirt. Capital G, small W with a slash, capital C, small W with a slash, capital G, then the greater-than sign, then a small G. Contentment with Godliness is Greater than gain.
The Scriptures Back It Up
1 Corinthians 10:9-11 says:
"We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our own instruction on whom the end of the ages has come."
What's the context there? What are they talking about? They're obviously referring to Old Testament accounts.
The context is shut your pie hole. The context is if you want to be destroyed, just complain all the time. God is not about murmuring. These are just a couple of many scriptures. The Old Testament is riddled with them. The complaining of the bad spy report in Numbers 14. When people complained, it displeased the Lord—that's in Numbers 11:1. On and on and on it goes.
Philippians 2:14 says:
"Do all things without grumbling or disputing that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world."
The Science Confirms It
There's actually some science behind this as well. There's research showing that complaining literally weakens your brain. Every time you focus on what's wrong, you elevate cortisol—you've heard about cortisol, it makes people gain weight and all that stuff, you don't want it too high in your body. When you're focusing on things that are wrong, it raises your cortisol levels and reduces the brain's ability to adapt.
The problem isn't the problem. The solution to the problem is the problem. It's how we think about things.
This goes hand-in-glove with scripture when Paul says transform your mind. It's not just to be a better Christian—it's to be a healthier servant so you can serve Jesus better.
There are actually more than 600 mentions of the mind in the scriptures. You couldn't possibly go through them all in one sitting. But when you take it in its totality, you come to the realization that our walk with Christ is a battle for the mind.
Thinking rightly over and over—God is telling us how to think, what to think. Because when you think on those things that are good and right and true, those things that he has said, you get a right perspective. That's why he says "consider yourselves dead to sin." He tells us to be alert and sober-minded because the devil is going around seeking who he can devour.
There's verse after verse after verse where God is asking us to check our mind.
Right On or Way Off?
"If you think the right thoughts, you can change reality around you."
WAY OFF.
Now, some people will take those mind scriptures and just pervert them. There are counterfeits everywhere.
What This Is NOT
This is NOT the power of positive thinking. That really comes out of "new thought"—the idea that whatever you think, that's going to become reality for you. If you think good thoughts about your life, you're going to have a good life. No. This is not that. That is not a biblical principle.
This is NOT manifestation. The idea that you can manifest reality around you by thinking the right things or saying the right words is not biblical in any way, shape, or form.
There is a truth about speaking into your life, speaking truth into your life—but it's not a magic genie spell. It's not "I'm gonna speak this reality and what I bind in heaven I'll bind on earth and bind on earth I'll bind in heaven." Yes, you can speak truth into your life, but you've got to have the right context. You can murmur your way out of God's blessing—of course the Bible says that. Words matter—but not at the level that some people are teaching. They're taking it far out of context.
Not to the point where you're going to change reality.
The NAR and Hyper-Charismatic Deception
This is something that the NAR and the hyper-charismatic movement will try and tell you—that if you think the right way, then things will work out for you, and if you're not thinking the right way, things are not going to work out for you. They carry that into healing and prosperity. Those are the two big things.
There was someone the other day who claims to be one of those teachers, and she said, "I'm a neuroscientist and here's the reality: when you think things, there's this energy that comes out of your brain, and when energy comes out of your brain..." Like you have power outside yourself to make the reality around you different.
Here's the problem with that. Does your brain emit energy? It absolutely does. But not to the point where you're changing reality. That just does not happen. In order for that to happen, you would have to totally disregard a whole bunch of other physics and scientific realities to believe that your brain's going to change something.
You can train your brain to focus on certain things so that inwardly you will be more contented, inwardly you'll be more happy, inwardly you'll be more generous. It's to change you inwardly—not to change the physical world around you.
Because the reality is the Bible tells us that this world is fallen and it's spiraling downward faster and faster until Jesus is going to come and burn it all up anyway because it's corrupted. Everything is subject to entropy, including the physical world around us.
Getting Scripture Right: Context Matters
People are not interpreting scripture accurately. They're not. And when you take it in little chunks, it's easy to get off base. Some stuff is self-evident. But other stuff, you need to look at it in context.
The Good Samaritan
The Good Samaritan is not about being generous. It's not about taking care of those least fortunate. That is not what it's about.
The Good Samaritan story is about Jesus setting the bar so high for salvation that if you think you've got something, you really don't. "This is the level of what it takes." And it was staggering to that audience. If you know that audience, he was not talking about taking care of the least.
The Widow's Mite
The Widow's Mite has been used to try to get people to fill the offering boxes, to call in on the share-a-thon, to do some of these things. But that is not what Jesus is talking about.
At the end of Luke 20, he's talking about being beware of the scribes and Pharisees—they basically want to take advantage of you, they want to look good. Then he starts chapter 21: "Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts in the offering box. And he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins."
Luke 21, starting in verse 3:
"And he said, 'Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them, for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put all she had to live on.'"
Then Jesus goes on to describe the foretelling of the temple's destruction and about the persecution coming.
Jesus was lamenting that this widow was so deceived that she would put the last of what she had in the offering box instead of choosing to live on it. Not the other way around.
This was not "Oh, look at how great that widow is." This was "Look at how sad it is that this widow is taken in by this garbage religion." He was pointing out that this widow is giving everything she has into a corrupt system that wasn't going to get her anywhere, get her anything.
When you read through the entire passage, the entire context, Jesus never says, "Oh, look at this wonderful woman. She's going to be blessed." That wasn't the tone. He's saying, "Doesn't it break your heart when you see this? Look at this poor woman." These other people are giving out of their abundance and they're all something one way or another. But look at this poor lady—how she's been so deceived that she thinks she's got to give the last of her resources.
That's where people get confused when you take it in context—what the message actually says.
The whole New Testament opens up to the fact that little prayer-ism, little believe-ism, and just keep living the way you want to and Jesus is going to save you because you can't out-sin the grace of God—that you're really generating a false convert. Just like you're generating a false offering when you use the widow's mite to try to guilt people into giving.
A Word on Money and Blessing
Now, here's something that needs to be said because it's easy to make it sound like money doesn't matter—like we don't care, like we're being flippant. No. God wants us to use money wisely. It's a gift from him and he wants us to use it well. It's better to laugh than cry when it's gone. Hey, more is probably coming.
But here's the truth: if God gives us more and we're not ready for it, that wouldn't be a blessing. So trusting him for his provision and he never lets us down.
The Prosperity Lie
This was a common teaching particularly in Jesus's day among the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the religious people. Of course, they were wealthy—and the people that were putting their money into the tithe were oftentimes impoverished, but they're giving what little they had. And then these Pharisees and Sadducees were just living pretty lavish lifestyles.
God is not pragmatic like this. Jesus dispelled this completely—the idea that if you are wealthy, you're blessed by God. If you are poor, obviously you're not blessed by God.
Wrong. Run. Do not listen to people that propagate that lie. It is just simply not true. The Pharisees tried to do that and Jesus completely demolishes that idea in a couple different areas.
You can't say it doesn't really matter, let's not care about our money. And you also can't say, "Well, I have money, therefore I'm blessed." Or, "We don't have anything right now, therefore I'm cursed from God." That's just not the way it works.
But it's what you do in those situations. And these five C's—complaining and murmuring, criticizing, concerns, commiserating, and catastrophizing—they're kind of hard words to say, but they all change how we think. They all change how we view things and ultimately then how we act.
Think on These Things
Philippians 4:8 says:
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
Some translations say "dwell on these things."
So you're dwelling, you're thinking on what? What is honorable, what is just, what is pure, what is lovely, what is commendable.
The Power of Genuine Encouragement
When you start thinking good about people—one of the things learned early on in communications and sales and networking is that you need to find something lovely about the person you're meeting. And if you can mention it, it endears you to them subconsciously. It's part of a manipulation game that people play. But when you do it for so long, it becomes a thing where you just want them to feel better.
You're walking through a checkout counter and the cashier has long nails that are painted immaculately—you think she doesn't want somebody to say something? Or their hair is done in such a way where you say, "Hey, your hair looks kind of cool." The countenance on that checkout person changes every time.
"Hey, those shoes are really cool, man." Even saying that to a guy—it's kind of like, "Well, thanks, man." Nobody wants their shoes to be uncool. If they're wearing shoes that are trying to be cool, mention it to them. You'll be surprised how it'll change things.
That's what we're talking about—just looking for things to be positive about. And that's not the power of positive thinking.
Now, you can take this to a manipulation level where you're just playing games with people and you couldn't care less about their shoes or their fingernails. That's not what God is talking about.
Growing in Contentment
We're talking about things that you can dwell on, that you can think on, that you can talk about, that you can be interacting with people on, that will actually grow you spiritually. And what does that mean? It means you grow in contentment with godliness. And then you get great gain—regardless of what your bank account says, regardless of your relationship status, regardless of how well you know the scriptures. Regardless, regardless, regardless.
You have this great gain. And when you lay down at night and you put your head on the pillow and you sleep the sleep of the just, there is no better feeling. And that is a gift from God because we pick up our cross every day and we trust him with our future.
That's not something that you cross a goal line and keep forever. It's a constant coming back to get that victory day after day after day.
Final Thoughts
In a world that is subject to decay and entropy, where things get darker and things get harder, there is always something to be thankful for. And the biggest thing to be thankful for is if your name is written in the Lamb's book of life.
This is not our home. This is not the end. There is so much more to look forward to because Jesus himself is our reward.
As the days get darker—and it does admittedly get more difficult to focus on those things that are good and true and right—when you know the Lord Jesus Christ, you know that he is your reward. And all those who put their faith in him will be brought to him in a glorious eternity.
That alone is worth overcoming whatever we need to overcome here on earth.
Isaiah said it the best. Chapter 26, verse 3:
"You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you."
You can know that the God of the universe cares for you. You can trust him. And whatever light and momentary troubles we go through here on earth, they will eventually one day be completely forgotten.
So focus on those good things—the good things of God—and it will carry you through.