How to Become a More Positive Person

Thank you again, Mr. Horton, and Happy Sabbath, Brother. Recently I attended a webinar given by a gentleman known as Dr. Alan Zimmerman. Dr. Zimmerman has a doctorate in communication and psychology. He was a university professor for 15 years before starting his own training and consulting business in 1985. He's a very smart man. He's a gifted speaker. I've read his articles for years. This was the first time I had an opportunity to listen to one of his webinars. The webinar was called, Ways to Become a More Positive Person.

What struck me about the webinar, the point that my mouth dropped as I continued to listen to it, is how biblical his main points were. Now, he didn't use scriptures. He didn't use the kind of Bible inspeak that we use because he was providing a webinar to a secular audience, primarily business people. But I was stunned at how biblical his main points were, how they tied in with so many scriptures.

So what I'd like to do today is give you the main points that he gave. Only I've fleshed in some of the scriptures and comments that I think will reinforce the main points that he had of his webinar. I hope they can help all of us. Today I found his webinar to be very inspiring and more so when you tie together the Word of God into his main principles.

So here's the first thing that he started out with a comment that he made. He said, stop the negatives from entering your mind. Stop the negatives from entering your mind. Let's turn to Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23 and see a proverb that reminds us of the importance of not dwelling on the negative. The challenge, brethren, is we're all human beings and by default most of us are wired to be negative. We are wired to see the dark gloomy side of life. It reminds me of a Ziggy. I saw a Ziggy cartoon many years ago.

There was a universe and there were two little worlds and Ziggy's on one world and the other world's over here. In the other world the caption is, here is where all the fun is. And over Ziggy it said, here's where you are. There's just a tendency for us to be negative, to think that we're missing out, that somehow things aren't quite good in our lives or quite fair. Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 23, the proverbs say, keep your heart with all diligence.

In other words, what's in your heart? Be careful what you allow inside your heart and your mind. For out of it springs the issues of life. What we allow in our hearts, whether it's something negative or positive, eventually comes out. It springs forth. Out of it comes springs of the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead. In other words, don't live in the past. Don't be looking backward to all of your mistakes. And all the bad things that have ever happened to you, it says, let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you, not to the side of you, not to the back of you, to regret your past, but to look forward.

Verse 26, ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established. I'm going to read this from the New Century version of these scriptures. It says, be careful what you think because your thoughts run your life. That's a pretty powerful statement from that translation. How we think up here runs our life. If we're thinking negative, the results of our life are going to be negative. The fruits of our lives are going to be negative.

The relationships in our lives are going to be toxic. But on the other hand, if we're thinking positive things, if we are an abundance person, and after all, aren't the fruits of the Holy Spirit all about abundance? If we are an abundance person, that also runs our life but not in a negative way.

In that case, the thoughts run our life in a positive way. Again, this translation, New Century version, verse 24, don't use your mouth to tell lies. Don't ever say things that are not true. Keep your eyes focused on what is right and look straight ahead to what is good. Be careful what you do and always do what is right. Don't turn off the road of goodness. Keep away from evil paths. So, brethren, your mind is like a garden.

And like a garden, you know that whatever you put in the ground will come up. I mean, unless it's mis-packaged or mislabeled, you know, for example, that if you plant beans, you're not going to get carrots. If you plant beans, you're going to get beans. So, whatever you put in is going to come up. And you know something?

Your mind works the same way. Whatever you plant into your mind eventually is going to respond and grow. And not only that, but you know, you don't plant a bean to get another bean. Right? That's not very productive. That's not multiplication. You don't plant a bean to get another bean. You get lots of beans. And with normal sunshine and rainfall, what happens?

Multiplication takes place. And again, brethren, our mind operates in the same way. One thought that may have been planted in your mind some 50 years ago may be still controlling you today. That one thought planted 50 years ago that was untended, multiplied, and became rooted in your character and in your thoughts and in your mind and may still be controlling you today. And we'll see, as he says, the way to stop the negatives from entering our mind is to learn to turn things off and to learn to tune things out. To learn to control what you are allowing in your mind, what you are allowing to take place in your mind.

Here's an example that he brought up in his webinar that I thought about, thought about actually a lot of times during the past month or so, how many times have we heard of some very sick individual walking into a mall or a school or whatever and killing a whole bunch of people?

We hear that on the news a lot today. It seems unprecedented that there seems to be such an occurrence of lone individuals with some grudge, something bothering them, going into a high school or going into a mall or going into a clinic or whatever and just killing a bunch of people. Well, way back in 1972, the Surgeon General of the United States issued the results of a two-year study and the report made it clear that there was a definite relationship between televised violence and antisocial behavior. Additional studies after that at Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin confirmed it.

They found that people who watched televised violence acted twice as violently as those who don't. Now, do you think Hollywood cares about violence? What they care about? It's ratings. They don't care about how violent something is. They don't care about how explicitly sexual something is, whether it's on television or cable.

They're trying to make money. They don't care about our children. They don't care about our social behavior. All they care about is what Hollywood has always cared about, and that is making the buck. But the point is, is when we allow these negatives to enter our minds. And there are over 300 million Americans now.

That's a lot of people. And we have generations after generations who have absorbed through television and violent games the fact in their minds that violence is cool. That violence is okay. That violence can be fun. And sadly, now they're acting out what they have seen repeated over and over again in our media. So again, his first point was stop the negatives from entering your mind. The second thing he mentioned was to avoid negative people. Don't be rude.

Don't be hurtful, but avoid as much as you can negative people. Let's go again to the Proverbs. We're already there. Let's go to chapter 22. Proverbs chapter 22, and we'll pick it up in verse 9.

The Proverbs say, He who has a generous eye will be blessed. A person who's kind and generous and giving to others. Sounds like a kind of a positive attitude to me. There are four people will be blessed. For he gives of his bread to the poor. Verse 10, cast out the scoffer and contention will leave. Yes, strife and reproach will cease. So when there's a negative person in your life or in your midst, mentally you need to cast them out because they're going to have... what are they going to create? Contention. That's what the Scripture says. Contention will leave. They're going to cause contention because that's what they do. That's what negativity always spawns. Contention. Yes, strife and reproach. Confrontation. Feeling like you've been pulled down. That's what negativity causes in our lives. Verse 11, He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king will be his friend. The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, but he overthrows the words of the Lord. He will be the faithless. He overthrows the words of the cynical, the words of the doubters, the naysayers, the negative. Again, the New Century translation says here in verse 10, Get rid of the one who makes fun of wisdom. Then fighting quarrels and insults will stop.

And again, that's what negativity does. It's a downer. It always pulls everything around it to a lower level. Say, for example, that you're in the lunchroom at work and someone's going on and on, griping about the company, griping about the company's managers, griping about the company's customers. Well, you may have to gently excuse yourself. You may have to say to yourself something like, I don't want to be rude and I'm not going to be rude here, but I have to leave. I just can't listen. I can't allow my mind to absorb all of these negatives today. I need to be at my best. And negative talk just pulls me down to that level. And then gracefully excuse yourself. That's what we need to do in that kind of a situation when you're around negative people. Again, when you avoid negative people, we're not talking about being rude or spiteful or obviously trying to avoid them as if they have some type of disease. And the scripture says we should treat all people with respect and dignity, but we can choose who our friends are. And we can choose how much time that we spend with individuals. And if someone is pulling us down, if someone is the kind of personality or the kind of character that pulls us in the wrong direction, then we need to gracefully avoid negative people. Another thing you can do that I've learned over the years that's served me well is to learn the art of changing the subject. I'll bet you that 99% of the people I changed the subject, I've become so good at it, they rarely figure out that I just changed the subject, that changed the whole mood in the discussion that was going on. Because you can learn to do it so fluidly and almost so naturally that they don't catch it. It's very rare, and it is very rare, but occasionally someone will say you just changed the subject on me, Greg. But there's an art to that. And if you're in a conversation that is head first, free falling down into a direction you don't want it to go, then change the subject. So I want to ask you a question. Who are the most negative people in your life? Which people create the biggest drag on your enthusiasm? You may have to avoid those people or reduce your exposure to them, and if that isn't possible or practical, you need to neutralize the negative impact they have on you. We'll talk about that in just a few minutes. So the second point was avoid negative people. And the only exception I would say to that is if that happens to be your spouse, then we have other issues we need to talk about. So I'm not implying that if your spouse is a negative person that you put him on the tree lawn tonight. That is not my point.

Okay, the third point he brought up is avoid negative input. Avoid negative input. Let's turn to Philippians chapter 4 and verse 4 and see where Paul understood this very well.

This is a biblical principle. Avoid negative input. Philippians chapter 4 verse 4.

All right, to the congregation, Philippi. Rejoice in the Lord always. Let me ask this question. Is it possible to rejoice and be negative at the same time? I don't think it is. I think those are two contradictory mindsets, to be rejoicing and, I mean, truly rejoicing and to be negative. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing. Beautiful principle. Don't worry about things. Don't worry about your health. Don't worry about how you're going to pay for your retirement. Don't worry about things. In contrast, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. So, instead of worrying about something, say, pray about it. And say, you know what, God, here, this is now your problem. Father, I'm going to let you worry about this. I'm not going to worry about it anymore. That's, by the way, that's also an act of faith. Verse 7. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds through Jesus Christ. And then in verse 8, he says this. And remember, the point was, Dr. Zimmerman brought out, avoid negative input. Paul says, verse 8, finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true. So, don't let false input. Don't let lies and slander and exaggeration enter your mind. Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, not whatever things are shameful, because we want to avoid negative input. Whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue, if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things in contrast to negative input.

So, if you're sitting around to your computer at 8 o'clock at night, and you decide that you want to check out and see what the Dark Knight blog has to say about the United Church of God or anyone on earth, and you go to the Dark Knight blog and you read all of this puke, then don't be surprised if you're discouraged. Don't be surprised if you're upset. Don't be surprised if you're unsettled, because you've allowed negative input, a foothold in your mind. And he continues in verse 9, the things which you have learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, because Paul was primarily a very positive person. That's the only way that you could take a beating and get up and keep going forward, because it was primarily to have a positive mindset. And the God of peace and peace is with you. And the God of peace will be with you. Brethren, we have to avoid negative input in our minds, and that even includes a lot of what we call news in our society today. Most of the news that we have today is negative.

There's very little in the news that will inspire you or make your life better. That's why you need to control the amount of information that you allow into your mind. Dr. Zimmerman says CNN should be renamed to the Constant Negative News Network. So you may have to give up the evening news. And if you've listened to the evening news for Cleveland, it's quite discouraging. It is like the city list of all the perversions, crimes, and other sick things that went on in the city of Cleveland all day.

It's discouraging. It'll make you despondent. It is negative input. So again, you may have to give up the evening news, or you may have to reduce your exposure to some types of news if you want to be a more positive person.

Take a look at what Paul wrote here in verse 12. Same chapter. Verse 12. I know how to be abased, he says. I know how to abound. Everything and in all things I have learned, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

You see, Paul knew what it was like to have a good life, and he knew what it was like to have, oh, nothing but the shirt on his back. But he learned to look at life in a positive way, whether he was going through good times or bad times, because he didn't allow negative input to enter into his mind.

So what's the negative inputs that you need to avoid in your life? How can you avoid them? Let's talk about some of these things. And go on to the fourth point that Dr. Zimmerman brought out in his webinar. His fourth point was to avoid negative situations, avoid negative situations. And this ties in so well with the sermonette that we heard today. Let's go to 1 Peter, chapter 5 and verse 6.

Negative situations. Peter wrote, chapter 5 and verse 6. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, causing or casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Be sober. Be vigilant.

Avoid negative situations. Why should we be vigilant? Because your adversary, the devil, talks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. If we give him an opening, we allow that negative input to enter our minds. We make ourselves predatory. We make ourselves capable of being devoured by that dark being of this universe known as Satan the devil. Verse 9, resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. He says, continuing, but may the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered for a while, perfect, established, strengthened, and settled you.

So we need to avoid negative situations. As they say in some treatment programs, avoid the slippery places. What are the slippery places? Well, if you struggle with gambling, guess what? Don't go and visit the horseshoe casino. Right? That's a slippery place for you. If you're struggling with smoking, then throw out all of your cigarettes. Just throw them out, get everything that even reminds you of smoking, and try to remove it from your presence. And then sit down and add up how much you've spent on cigarettes the last five years, and realize that you probably could have paid a year for your kid to go to college, or you could have done something really productive with that amount of money.

But make sure that you eliminate the triggers, avoiding the negative situations that will lead you to that. You have a problem looking at things that you shouldn't be looking at. Well, get rid of the premium cable stations, and if you eliminate HBO and Showtime and these other programs that show gratuitous nudity and violence, that will help you to avoid those negative situations. Looking at things on the internet you shouldn't be looking at? They have something called a filter, a block on your browser. Just change the filter to say that the content that your browser will only show is suitable for the right application, and you won't even accidentally be exposed to a lot of the stuff that is on the internet.

You simply avoid those situations that are triggers for you that make it all too easy for you to slip into negative behavior into a negative mindset. His fifth point, I'm going to use the exact words he did, and it's kind of harsh, I realize that. He isn't paid to be nice, he's paid to be a realist. So, his fifth point was, refuse to use a loser's language. Refuse to use a loser's language.

Let's go to Colossians chapter 3 and verse 8. Paul wrote this congregation at Colossae. He says, but now you yourselves are to put off all these. Some of the things, the very things spoken about in our fine sermonette today. Put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Why? As Dr. Zimmerman would say, because that's a loser's language. Continuing, verse 9, Remember when we were baptized, we went under that water, the old man was supposed to have died. Verse 10, and have put on the new man represented when we came out of the water of that baptism tank, leading a new life.

Put on a new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, for Christ is all in all. When Christ gives you his Spirit, it doesn't matter what your background, doesn't matter what your skin color, what language you speak, you are part of Christ. I'd like to read verse 8 from the New Century Version. But now also, put these things out of your life. Anger, bad temper, doing or saying things to hurt others, and using evil words when you talk.

The happiest people refuse to talk like a loser. They know that words precede results. Words precede results. And they know that if they talk like a loser, they end up losing.

George Shultz, who was the former U.S. Secretary of State, who was always involved in a lot of delicate negotiation with other nations, this is what he said. Quote, the minute you start talking about what you're going to do if you lose, you have lost.

That was his advice, as someone who dealt with some very difficult negotiations. You see, the person who will not acknowledge defeat cannot be defeated. If you have an attitude that God has called me, that God has given me his Holy Spirit, and if you acknowledge that and understand that, even the gates of hell cannot pull you under, because you know who resides within you.

As one of God's children, you were guaranteed the win in the long run. If you positively understand the power of that spirit that resides in you. That's why Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 15, after outlining in the whole book of 1 Corinthians all these problems this church has, incest, lying, people who won't work. I mean, he just blisters them through 1 Corinthians, and at the end of it, he says, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, he was a positive man, Paul was, and if you think negatively, you speak negatively, and if you speak negatively, eventually you act negatively.

So instead of saying, for example, that it's going to rain, it's going to be a bad day, say something like, I think it's going to be a wonderful day. Instead of saying, there's no way that I can pay these bills, say, God will work something out, and I will get away, I will get through this. God will work something out, and I will get through this. By refusing to give utterance to the negative, you are, in essence, conditioning your mind to be more positive. You are taking control of your thoughts rather than having your thoughts control you. Let's take a look at another principle that he had. Principle number six was to phrase things positively. Phrase things positively. Let's go to Matthew chapter 5 and verse 1. See how Jesus Christ did this. Contrary to human nature in a way that most of us are wired.

Dr. Zimmerman brought out that somehow or other, talking negatively about a situation, always seems to make things worse. But talking positively about a situation seems to increase energy and motivation and results in success and thankfulness. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 1.

To give you a little scene here. Jesus is seeing the multitudes. Who are the multitudes that he's seeing? They are lost and confused people with hundreds of problems. There are poor people there.

There are people that are mourning because they're depressed. They're mourning because they have no meaning in life. They're mourning because they're wounded because of life's experiences. He sees this bedraggled group of people standing out there. And how would you and I react if we saw that?

Would we react negatively to all that mess of humanity standing before him?

Chapter 5 and verse 1. And seeing the multitudes, he went up on a mountain and when he was seated, his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and he taught them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

You see, because Jesus Christ was positive, he said blessed are these people who are poor in spirit, who need God's spirit because the kingdom of heaven was designed for them. He didn't put it in a negative way. He didn't condemn them. He had mercy and compassion on them because he had a positive orientation in his life. Verse 4, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

It's a positive approach. They need God's help and intervention. Bless them in spite of their problems. Because of their problems, may they be blessed and be comforted.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Verse 6, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. He sees people who have big empty holes in their hearts. They say, what's wrong with you? What's your problem? He doesn't say that. He said, blessed are you if you were hungering and thirsting for righteousness. And if you're looking for answers, bless you, because there's going to come a time when that hole in your heart is going to be filled and healed.

So it's a whole different approach than most human beings would take in that situation. That is why, and we'll stop there, those are known as the Beatitudes. Otherwise, that's a shortened version of the beautiful attitudes in contrast to a negative attitude. Have you ever heard the story of the little boy who walks into a baseball field? He says, I'm the greatest hitter in the world. He throws up the ball, he swings, and he misses. Picks up the ball again. I'm the greatest hitter in the world. Throws up the ball, he swings, he misses. Picks up the ball. I'm the greatest hitter in the world. Throws up the ball, he swings, and he misses it. The bat even falls out of his hand. Bends down, he picks up the bat and the ball, and he looks. He says, I'm the greatest pitcher in the world. You see, because he looked at life situations from a positive perspective rather than a negative perspective. Kemmons Wilson was the founder of Holiday Inn. Anyone ever stayed at a Holiday Inn? I've certainly stayed a lot of them in my lifetime. And he demonstrated the ability to phrase things in a positive way when he was asked to speak at his former high school. Here's what he said during part of his high school speech. He said, quote, I do not know why I'm here. I didn't graduate from high school, and I never worked a full day in my life. So I'll give you the advice I follow. He says, just work half days. And it doesn't matter which 12 hours you work, the first half or the second half. Just work half days. The next point Dr. Zimmerman brought out that is very biblical, and I think will help all of us as we sense and understand that we have negativities in our life is use the displacement principle. Use the displacement principle. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 8 if you would. 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 8.

Peter writes, finally all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another. Love is brothers. Be tender hearted. Be courteous. Not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing. You see, that's a displacement principle. If somebody treats you in an evil way, bless them. Don't return. Don't react to that same way. Use the displacement principle. Knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

Let him turn away from evil, displace evil, and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. That's called the displacement principle.

If you think about it, what are we doing? What's this Christian life all about? Aren't we displacing the works of the flesh spoken up in Galatians chapter 5? Aren't we displacing those with the fruit of the Spirit? Isn't that what we're trying to do every day? You know, if you take a bucket of water, for example, and you drop stones in a bucket of water, the water rises in that bucket. The stones displace an equal volume of water.

And if you put in lots and lots of stones, pretty soon very little water is left in the bucket. In a simplistic way, your mind works the exact same way. When you put something positive into your mind, you displace something that's negative. When you begin to think selfishly, when you begin to react something in a negative situation, and you displace that with something positive, then you begin to change who and what you are. Pretty soon, if you do that long enough and consistently enough, you eventually have displaced it, and you've put positive things in your life.

I just want to give you an example here. There's a glass of water. Just to show you that I spare no expenses to have the most articulate props available for the Church of God congregation. That might be our life, and the water is the negativity. Well, I get in my prayer every day. I go to Bible study. I go to Sabbath services regularly. I love my wife and tell her that I love her. I work hard on the job. I root out those wicked things that are in my heart and mind through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I fast occasionally. I meditate often. I attend God's holy days. Eventually, what happens if I would keep this up? You can probably see the water flowing out of the side of it. Eventually, you are displacing the negative with the righteous things that God wants us to have in our hearts and minds. That's the displacement principle. But, brethren, we need to understand that the reverse can also be true.

I don't need to come to church anymore. I'm not being spiritually fed. I don't need to read the Bible. So that's the principle of displacement, and it works both ways. And it can work to our advantage if we understand that we need to displace negative things with positive things.

And that's why we should put positive things in all five of our senses. Sometimes people ask me why I like to grow flowers. I like to grow flowers because flowers are a positive thing that affect my senses. That be around things of beauty, be around things that are natural and organic, uplift me. They lift up my heart. They make me more positive. And we need to surround our lives and use that displacement principle to replace the negatives in our side, our hearts and minds by doing and thinking the positive aspects of God's spirit.

Let's take a look at the last area today. Area number eight. Dr. Zimmerman said that it was important to say affirmations every day, several times a day. This is part of the displacement principle. Affirmations. Affirmations that God has called you. An affirmation that God has something special planned for your life. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 3, and we'll see something that was a personal affirmation of Paul. If he could have a personal affirmation, then why shouldn't you and I have a personal affirmation?

1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 3. Paul writes as he begins this book, which is going to be very corrective as I mentioned earlier. He says, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the will of God, and sausse knees our brother to the church of God who is at Corinth, and to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of the Lord Jesus our Lord, the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and our anniversary.

Here's his positive affirmation. Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He says to the people of God, I pray that you will receive favor, that you will receive unmerited pardon from our great God, and that he will give you a sense of serenity and fulfillment and peace in your heart. How do I know this was one of Paul's affirmations?

Because virtually every book he ever wrote, Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, you go to virtually every book he ever wrote, he says those exact same words to begin every one of his epistles. Grace to you and peace from God our Father to the Lord Jesus Christ. And, brethren, we need to have those kind of affirmations throughout the day when we're going through a difficult time.

It's absolutely critical that we stop during the day and we say a short prayer of positive encouragement. One that I've used for many years is, thank you, Father, for your calling and grace. Very simple, but it's very meaningful to me. Another thing we could say is a refrain of Paul. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's through Christ that I can do anything.

That's a positive affirmation. A healthy person spends minutes a day exercising and feeding his body. A truly positive person spends a few minutes every day feeding his mind with those kinds of positive affirmations from the Word of God.

And I encourage you to do it. One final scripture. Numbers 13 and verse 30. Numbers 13 and verse 30. We all know the story of the spies being sent to check out the Promised Land. And of the twelve, ten came back with a negative comment about the land. And their comments were about, oh, the people are bigger than we are. They're stronger than we are. There is no way we can conquer the Promised Land.

Wah, wah, wah. They're negative thoughts, negative attitudes. But there was someone there who was different. And thankfully, this is a very positive name given to a lot of children in our 21st century. Numbers 13 and verse 30. Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, in spite of all the negativity that had already been said, let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.

And brethren, we too are well able to overcome any thought that tries to stop us from the kingdom of God. Through God's Spirit, we can overcome anything. So let us overcome negativity in our lives. And let us begin to enjoy the potential that God has given us to be positive and a productive people and a people filled with faith, rather than doubt or discouragement or skepticism. Let us demonstrate to the world that we are a people of faith because you and I are well able to overcome it. Have a wonderful Sabbath day.