From Pastor Bhojraj Bhatta: Are we afraid of positive thinking?

September 1, 2013

Are we afraid of positive thinking?

Whether we like it or not, there is tremendous power in positive mental attitude. If we honestly examine the successful people in the world, religious or nonreligious, they all share one common trait; the positive mental attitude. The forerunners of modern day positive mental attitude; people like Napoleon Hill, Vincent Peale, William Clement Stone, Robert Schuller and the likes have unequivocally attributed their inspiration for PMA to the teachings found in the Bible. An American psychologist and philosopher of 19/20^th century, William James, said, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes”.[1] True to his discovery, the uncountable volumes of self-help books have come into existence from writers, philosophers and thinkers who recognized the power of human brain. Equal numbers of people have helped themselves by applying the principles found in these books and teachings.

If there is any opposition to positive mental attitude and the power of human mind; it has come from the theologians who are wary of making man the sole creator of his own destiny by tapping into the power of human mind. The emphasis on the power and the possibility of human mind appears to rob God his involvement in human affairs. However, the proponents of positive mental attitude hardly think like the way some of the skeptical theologians presume them to be thinking. Stone died at the age of 100 in September 2002. Just before he died, in his last interview he is reported to have said, “A positive mental attitude is necessary for achieving worthwhile success. We in America know what it is for us, for we have inherited the tenets of the Judeo-Christian faiths on which our Constitution, laws and customs have been based…Strive to understand and apply the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you)…Believe that any goal that doesn’t violate the laws of God or the rights of your fellow men can be achieved.”[2] Stone acknowledged that the Bible was the “greatest self-help book”.

Talk about S. B. Fuller, one of the seven children of a black tenant farmer in Louisiana. Poverty was the lot in life and Fuller started to work at the age of nine. But he had a remarkable mother who instilled in him a different spirit; she refused to accept poverty to be her lot in life but she could do nothing about it. So, she began to talk to her son about her desire to overcome poverty. She would often say to him, “We shouldn't be poor, S. B., and don’t ever let me hear you say that it is God’s will that we are poor. We are poor --- not because of God. We are poor because father has never developed a desire to become rich. No on in our family has ever developed a desire to be anything else”.[3] Years later when Fuller became a very successful businessman with huge amount of wealth at his disposal, Hill asked him about his success. Fuller said, “You see, I knew what I wanted, but I didn't know how to get it. So I read The Bible and inspirational books for a purpose. I prayed for the knowledge to achieve my objectives. Three books played an important part in transmuting my burning desire into reality. They were: 1) The Bible, 2) Think and Grow Rich, and 3) The Secret of the Ages. My greatest inspiration comes from reading The Bible”.[4]

We could go on and on in listing the people whose lives and destinies were forever altered for the better because they read the Bible and took its teaching seriously in matters pertaining to their heart’s desires. Long before the modern science, the Bible had declared the power of positive mental attitude which in the biblical terminology is none other than faith in the promises of God. Faith and trust in the power and the promises of God produce the positive mental attitude whereas the fear and doubt in the power and the promises of God produce a negative mental attitude. The positive mental attitude adds value to life and living whereas the negative mental attitude subtracts all positive qualities from life and living.

When we read the Bible from a positive frame of mind, it has the ability to inspire us to greater heights and the verses like Ephesians 3:20 allow us to break free from all limitations that our environment might have erected around us. In fact, the environment in which we grew up could have greatly influenced us in developing the kind of mental attitude we might have acquired. If we do not evaluate our worldview and perceptions, we might not even know what kind of mental attitude we exhibit in a day today life. Jesus said “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matt. 6:22-23). In verse 21 Jesus talks about laying up treasures in heaven and in verse 24 he talks about the impossibility of serving two masters. Between these two realities, he puts the role of our eyes. Certainly he is not talking about the physical eye looking at some objects or person. With all possibility, he is talking about our worldview; the way we perceive our surrounding. He is asking to see if we value our eternal life or the temporal one; whether we gravitate towards God or towards the material possessions? The answer will be determined by our mental attitudes we have developed over the years; the eyes from which we interpret the world around us. If we have unhealthy eyes; unhealthy perception of the reality, then our body or the material existence is going to be unhealthy as well. The way we see ourselves from our mental eyes, that is what we shall be and therefore, we need to be selective in allowing certain things to enter our mind. If we see evil and negativity in others, we shall reflect the same. But if we see good and positivity in others, the same shall be our reflection. If a person can never imagine of breaking the cycle of poverty, poverty shall be his lot in life. If a person can never see goodness in others, no good person shall come around that person. That is why Paul tells to be careful in what we allow to enter our mind; he said, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil.4:8). Paul knows that our minds have been negatively influenced to think on the opposite of what he has suggested, but if we have to overcome the false, dishonorable, unjust, impure, ugly, and condemnable thoughts in which there is nothing good or praiseworthy, then we must replace the negative with the positive. But because human mind is so weak, it cannot change itself and that is why we have been given the very mind of Christ; “we have the mind of Christ” (1Cor. 2:16). If we can begin to interpret the world through the mind of Christ, there is nothing we cannot do. We can love the unlovable, forgive the unforgivable, and believe the impossible. Our fear will change into faith and worry into the wonder of God’s amazing grace in caring for us. When Jesus said, “Everything is possible for him who believes” (Mk. 9:23); with the positive mental attitude that believes in the miracle working power of God’s word, there will be nothing impossible that we cannot see happening.

So, instead of simply criticizing the motivational authors and speakers, people like Joel Osteen, Rick Warren and others, we need to realize that these people are running away with what we could have had enjoyed long before had we truly believed in what God said in his word. Instead of fearing the power of human mind, we should celebrate the God-given ability to imagine; after all God can do more than we can ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20).