Thank you, readers, for growing with me over the last year. Thank you so much for reading and sharing my articles as well. I’m grateful for the opportunity to get to know you and I am blessed and encouraged by your interaction with me.
Now those of you who know me know that I’m a pretty upbeat guy. I like to roll with the punches and just be happy. Unfortunately, their is another side of me that is a challenge—it’s the side that seems to feed off of negativity. I can be happy all day long, but then the moment someone is negative in front me, it becomes like an addiction—I can’t get enough and need to have more of it.
Do you feel that way, too? Has negativity got its hold on you? I am reminded of the words of the apostle Paul here in Romans:
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
-Romans 7:15-25 ESV
So back to the negativity addiction. As I mentioned, I can be doing great. Reading my Bible daily, being a good husband and father, loving God and loving people. But then, suddenly, like a huge boulder falling off a mountain, I am struck and weighed down with negativity. The enemy, Lucifer if you will, comes at me with many fiery darts, screaming horrible thoughts against people that love me.
But you know what? I remember that none of those things matter, it’s not about what I’m doing that makes the enemy come at me like a roaring lion—it’s all about who I am to the Creator of the universe. I am a child of the most high God. Scripture is pretty clear about the men of God who battled depression, struggles with lust, struggles with the fear of man, or even hatred toward their fellow brethren. If you read through your Bible, you will find many examples of this. I am not alone in this and neither are you. Many have gone before us and serve as a witness to God’s saving grace and an encouragement to us in our daily living.
If you struggle with this negative addiction, understand that God is always present for you. If you have surrendered your life to Christ, abide in him. Yes, the devil will come after you. Yes, even you may become your own worst enemy, but “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
This new year, surrender to God your struggles and addictions, and rest in the strength and power of his Holy Spirit to rescue and comfort you. I am praying that 2017 will be your most blessed year yet.
- God Must Submit to Me, Right? - January 30, 2018
- Are you Passing the Litmus Test for Salvation? - September 13, 2017
- Say Hello to 2017…and Goodbye to 2016’s Negativity - January 1, 2017
