Turning a Negative into a Positive – Part 2

Posted On May 11, 2021

Conference Topic

Choosing my topic for this conference, Turning a Negative into a Positive, was in fact turning a negative into a positive. I had intended to google possible topics but couldn’t do that after my laptop was broken (story in part 1). So I resorted to television shows and studying my collection of quotes and scripture. I started by jotting a bunch of random thoughts down while I was watching the National Memorial Day Concert* on Monday night–I wrote “Prayer and Government” because the Lord’s Prayer was sung at the concert and I found that really encouraging, although ironic.

I wrote “Dealing with Adversity” because they had featured some soldiers who had been severely injured in war. That made me think of the para Olympian who recently took 2nd place in Dancing with the Stars by dancing amazingly well after having both legs amputated. These ideas led me to the topic of having a positive attitude and how that attitude makes it much easier to live in this increasingly difficult world.

Then I started going through my files where I keep inspirational stories, favorite scriptures and jokes. I found a series of old “Plus, The Magazine of Positive Thinking,” that I had forgotten I had. They were written by Norman Vincent Peale. I spent most of a day reading through them. Everything I was running across seemed to lead me to the same topic–Turning a Negative into a Positive.

*http://pbs.org This year’s concert airs on May 30 at 8 p.m. ET. It’s always one of my favorite shows of the year.

God Wants Positive Thinking Christians

It’s a great topic for all of us as we go through our assignment set forth by Jesus which is to go out and become fishers of men. How can we truly draw others to God if we aren’t positive with our life and all we confront? If we were negative, who would want what we claim to have–a wonderful relationship with our heavenly father who can, and will, provide us with whatever we need and far more than what we need.

A comic on America’s Got Talent this week really brought that home to me. Did you all see it? He was talking about marriage but what he said also applies to choosing to be a Christian. He said he wasn’t married. He didn’t think he ever wanted to get married because of what his married friends said. They said things like…”Well, marriage is great but it takes a lot of work.” And, “Marriage is not always great but when it is great, it is great.” He said, “Wow, can you imagine someone going to buy a car and they are told it will run but it takes a lot of work to make it run, or, it runs great part of the time but not all of the time?” He said people are going to have to do a better job of selling marriage before he wanted any part of it.

The same would apply to Christianity. If we are trying to sell it by telling others that it is great but it takes a lot of work and we don’t appear to be all that happy, why would they want it? We must show a positive attitude. After a person becomes a Christian, then they can find out that it is great because God holds us up when the times get bad.

Let’s Talk About Joy

So, let’s talk about joy. How many of you expect Christians to be full of joy when you see them? How many of you appear to be full of joy when others meet you?

My bible has this note regarding joy,

Joy. The word has a quick, poignant ring to it. Yet it, like other words, has been drained of meaning over the years, even tapped as a name for a dishwashing detergent. Nowadays joy is used most commonly for a sensation-like thrill. We think of joy as something you save up for months to experience and then splurge on in a moment of exhilaration; a trip to Disney World, a free-fall dive, a heart-stopping ride on the world’s meanest roller coaster, a hot-air balloon trip. Paul uses the word joy or rejoice every few paragraphs in Philippians but the joy he is talking about doesn’t vanish no matter what trials and disappointments we might experience. In fact, the most joyous book in the Bible–Philippians–was written by a man supposedly chained to a prison guard. Many scholars believe Paul wrote this book just about the time Nero began tossing Christians to lions and burning them as torches to illuminate his banquets. How could a rational man devote a letter to the topic of joy?

Despite all his hardships, Paul had joy in the Lord and told others about it. So must we if we want to truly become fishers of men and women. Here are some quotes and scripture I found regarding joy and rejoicing.

• When a man is gloomy, everything seems to go wrong; when he is cheerful, everything seems right! – Proverbs 15:15
• Sing to the Lord, you saints of his; praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. Psalm 30:4-5
• In that day you will say: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.‘ Isaiah 12:4-6
• But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23
• Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. Philippians 4:4-5
• If God be for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31
• Of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important – Author unknown
• But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.’ Luke 2:10
• A pessimist sees the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn’t see the clouds at all–he’s walking on them. – D. O. Flynn
• The joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10

A description I especially liked was by Melba Colgrove who says, “Joy is the feeling of grinning inside.”

Finding Joy Isn’t Always Easy

Some of you might be having trouble experiencing joy because of problems you or loved ones face. Perhaps you are in pain or fighting a disease or depression. Maybe you have a loved one battling a drug or alcohol addiction. Maybe you work at a job you don’t enjoy or have a difficult boss. Maybe you feel like you are failing as a wife, a mother, a daughter or a sister. Maybe you let the problems of our nation keep you from showing joy. Maybe you are a worrier.

How do you change? How do you overcome these problems, or others, with joy? The only lasting way is through acknowledging God and the role he can play in your lives if you let him. To doubt, worry and become negative is an easy thing to do. Even the famous Norman Vincent Peale, one of the best known people for promoting positive thinking had trouble with it early in his career.*

*http://pealefoundation.org

Everyone has to Fight Negativity

He tells of an experience that dramatically changed him. He was a pastor during the depression pastoring a congregation of 200 in a church that seated 1600. Circumstances were making him feel hopeless. His wife, Ruth, confronted him. This is how he relates the conversation.

“You,” she said, “are not only my husband, you are also my pastor, and in the latter department I’m becoming increasingly disappointed in you. I hear you from the pulpit talking about faith and trust in God’s wondrous power. But now, I hear from you no faith or trust at all. What you need is a deep spiritual experience. You need to be converted.”

“I have been converted!” I expostulated.

“Well, it didn’t take,” she snapped, “so you had better get really converted.”

We sat in deep silence, broken finally by her statement that we were not going to leave that bench until I had found the Lord in such depth that I became a remade person.

“How do I do that?” I asked.

“Tell the Lord you are lost without strength, that you have no power within yourself, that you are humbly throwing yourself on His divine mercy, and that you are asking him to change you now.”

When I went back, the church was no longer dismal because I saw it in a different spirit and through new eyes. There were difficulties, but never again was I really down, and that old church became filled with new life and faith and joy and power and people.

We Must Be Renewed

That, my friends, is what we must also do. Be converted so that we and our churches become filled with new life and faith and joy and power!

Paul wrote in Romans 12:2 “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” And in Philippians 3:13, he says, “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.” He is telling us that it doesn’t matter what has happened to us, we can be transformed and become joyful as we look to the future.

If you have trouble maintaining joy in your life, there are many scriptures and books that can help you. One I recommend is, Every Day A Friday. How to be happier 7 days a week by Joel Osteen. He shares the results of a study that found that happiness increases ten percent on Fridays. People are excited about the coming weekend, so they decide to be happier. They make up their minds to have more joy.

We need to wake up each day and say, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” That’s from Psalms 118:24 and it doesn’t tell us to do that on Fridays. This is the day the Lord has made is every day. We have to realize that every single day is a gift from God. Once this day is gone, we can never retrieve it. If we make the mistake of being negative, discouraged, and grumpy or sour, we’ve wasted what he gave us. Some people squander year after year being unhappy because somebody is not treating them right or because they are not getting their way, or thinking that they have it worse than other people.

We All Cross the Line!

I recently retired after teaching high school for 19 years. I sure saw my share of students who felt sorry for themselves and showed no joy in their life. I think much of it was based on self pity and thinking they were the only ones who had such a rotten life. So, one of the activities I coordinated for the entire school was what we called Cross the Line. It was an activity that resulted in showing them that everyone has challenges in their life and we have more in common with others than we realize. I’d like to conduct that activity now with you, but I’ve added some questions that are more appropriate for a group of women.

If I read something that applies to you, stand up. Then look around to see who else stood. If it applies to you but you don’t want to publicly say so now, just stay seated. The questions go from simple to more complex.

STAND UP IF…

1. You have a dog
2. You have a cat
3. You live on a farm
4. You live in town
5. You are an oldest child
6. You are the youngest child
7. You are an only child
8. You are adopted
9. You have ever felt you disappointed your parents
10. One, or both, of your parents is deceased
11. You are married
12. You are divorced
13. You are widowed
14. You have never married
15. You are a mother
16. You are a grandmother
17. Someone in your family has a disability
18. You are living with a disability
19. You have chronic back pain
20. You have arthritis
21. You’ve been treated for some form of cancer
22. You experience hot flashes
23. You, or a member of your immediate family, has suffered from a mental illness
24. You have been treated for depression
25. You have ever been made fun of for your height, weight, complexion or the size or shape of your body
26. You have ever stood by and watched while someone was hurt and said or did nothing because you were too afraid
27. You ever wanted to speak out because you thought something was wrong but were too uncomfortable, shy or afraid to say something
28. You have had a close friend die
29. You have had a child die
30. You grew up in a religious household
31. You grew up in a non-religious household
32. You ever wished that you had been born to different parents
33. You never knew one, or both, of your parents
34. You have doubted that God cares about you
35. You have ever been made fun of because of your religious beliefs
36. You have ever felt alone, unwelcome or afraid
37. You have felt alone, unwelcome or afraid in the last month
38. You have felt alone, unwelcome or afraid in the last week
39. You think people really don’t understand who you are
40. You are scared of your future
41. You are surprised by who stood up on various questions today
42. You learned something about someone else that you didn’t know
43. You learned something new about yourself

No Excuses

We cannot use our experiences in life as an excuse to not have joy. As you can see, everyone has struggles, challenges and doubts. God allows them so that we will draw closer to him for comfort and strength to overcome them.

I’m fortunate to have had an earthly father who instilled in me a love and joy for life. He taught me to appreciate so many things and I can honestly say that at age 97, he died with a happy, unburdened heart. But that is not to say his life was easy.

He had no siblings to play with. His mother left him and his father when he was about 11. He had what my mother termed as an evil step-mother, followed by a wonderful woman whom I called Grandmother. He had three daughters but never the son he wanted, as his son died shortly after birth.

He had a botched surgery to remove a tumor from his throat when he was about 55 which adversely affected his speech and ability to easily chew and swallow food. When he was 80, he suffered a severe mental breakdown and later had to care for my mother who was suffering from dementia.

How was he able to keep his strong faith in the goodness of God and keep joy in his heart? After reading some of his writings and hearing him talk, I know that he was motivatred by the example of his grandmother. That reminds me of something I read in my collection of inspirational words this week.

There were four clergymen who were discussing the merits of the various translations of the Bible. One liked the King James version best because it is more literal and comes nearer the original Hebrew and Greek. Another liked Moffatt’s translation best because of its up-to-date vocabulary. Still another liked the New International Version because he said it was the easiest for him to understand.

The fourth minister was silent. When asked to express his opinion, he replied, “I like my mother’s translation best.” The other three expressed surprise. They did not know that his mother had translated the Bible. “Yes, she did,” he replied. “She translated it into life and it was the most convincing translation I ever saw.”

Turning a Negative into a Positive Allows You to Turn Others to the Joy of the Lord

How this minister’s mother lived had a great impact on his life. How my great grandmother lived had a great impact on my dad’s life. Whether we choose to be positive and filled with joy impacts our families every day. Whether we choose to be positive and filled with joy impacts all who come into contact with us during each day.

May each woman here today live a life that exhibits the most convincing translation of the bible anyone has ever seen. A translation of unfathomable joy and love. May we express our gratitude to our Almighty God by reeling in others because they want what we have–JOY–A GOOD MEASURE, TAMPED DOWN, SHAKEN TOGETHER AND RUNNING OVER.

Let’s pray. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to be here today where we can renew our spirit, resulting in a great joy. Help us to share our great joy with those who are joyless. Help us to share with others that only true, lasting joy can come from a personal relationship with you. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen

Ending Comments

I hope you’ve enjoyed this message from seven years ago. I would love for you to comment below and to also share my blog with others.