Are you allowing negativity to produce a pessimistic view of life that keeps you from listening and hearing God? How would it feel to banish that destructive threat? Give it a try.
MY APPROACH
I start by asking God to help me fight off pessimism before it prevents me from listening, hearing, and responding to him. Then I focus on these five steps to help me hear God when pessimism crashes over the wall of my life:
ONE
FROM: Overwhelmed and worry-centric confusion.
TO: Focus on God’s truths and promises.
TWO
FROM: Thoughts outside of God’s will.
TO: Taking every thought captive to Christ.
THREE
FROM: Focusing on earth.
TO: Thinking about heaven and eternity.
FOUR
FROM: Enemy controlling thoughts.
TO: Gratitude—our response to God’s love.
FIVE
FROM: Life’s glass empty or half full?
TO: Doesn’t matter. The content is God’s hope and love.
It doesn’t have to be a formal, step-by-step process like this one to keep pessimism at bay and hear God. The point is that we much be conscious of the threat and give it to God real-time, all the time.
“In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.” Psalm 18:6
