Are you guilty of “stinking thinking?” Before you answer, let’s define what “stinking thinking” is. According to Cambridge Dictionary, “stinking thinking” is a bad way of thinking, that makes you believe you will fail, that bad things will happen to you or that you are not a very good person. Can you identify with any of these definitions?  If so, let’s find out how we can change our “stinking thinking” and replace it with what God’s truth says about us.

According to some experts, our minds think between 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts in a day. That’s an average of 2,500 to 3,300 thoughts per hour. These same experts indicate that 70% to 80% of these thoughts are negative; some research even showed it could be as high as 98% negative.

Our thoughts are very powerful:

Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life. If you continue to believe as you have always believed, you will continue to act as you have always acted. If you continue to act as you have always acted, you will continue to get what you have always gotten. If you want different results in your life or work, all you have to do is change your mind. ~Anonymous

Our positive thoughts help us to make important decisions and solve problems, while our negative thoughts keep us dwelling in the past, reminding us of past failures, and creating fear about the future.  Worry is a negative thought and, most times, what we are worrying about never even occurs. I knew this was something I had to overcome. It felt like I had hundreds of “what ifs.” What if this happens, what if that happens, and my mind would come up with scenarios to all those “what ifs.” All of these scenarios where causing anxiety, fear, and sickness in my life. Once I learned that these negative thoughts were causing me harm, I started to replace them with positive thoughts and the truth about what God says about me. Putting my faith and life in God’s hands enabled me to conquer worry and negative thinking.  It doesn’t mean these types of thoughts don’t try to come back, but I’ve learned how to battle them when they do by speaking out the scriptures I’ve studied.

Look in the Bible for the scriptures that counter your “what ifs.” Replace your negative thoughts by filling up your mind with what God’s Word says. Psalms 139:14 says, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  This verse continues to say that God’s work in creating us is marvelous. God loves each one of us with an everlasting love as well as personally choosing us as His (Jeremiah 31:3, John 15:16).  In Genesis 1 and 2, God, your Creator, breathed His life into you and created you into His own image. Having God’s life, alone, should give you the confidence to fight those negative thoughts that pop into your mind.

When battling an illness or living with pain, our tendency is to focus on what the doctor or report says about our situation.  Our attention is on the pain and symptoms that are screaming at us. If our minds produce 60,000 thoughts a day or 2,500 an hour and 80% of those thoughts are negative, that means 2,000 times in an hour we are saying to ourselves that we are sick.  Can you imagine if you are given a bad report and 2,000 times in an hour you are repeating that diagnosis to yourself?  If you are awake for 14 hours, that means you’ve told yourself you are sick more than 28,000 times.

As a believer, you have been given the life of God inside of you and were created in the image of the Almighty God. Sickness and pain were not included in that breath of life that God gave you. Meditate on positive and healing scriptures and see yourself as God sees you. Search the scriptures for God’s promises and what He says about you and replace those negative thoughts with God’s powerful thoughts.

Change your Stinking Thinking to God’s Thinking!

~Donna Jones