Have you ever found yourself spiraling down, down, down, into depression, discouragement, and despair? When that happens, the source is always counterproductive (usually negative) thought patterns, aka “stinking thinking”!

But don’t despair over despair! What gets us down can also get us back up again—that is, our thought patterns. Just knowing we’re not stuck with wrong ways of thinking, gives us hope.

As a “fellow traveler” on the road to consistently productive thoughts, let me share with you some things the Lord has shown me about wrong ways of thinking and how to reverse those:

1. Mindreading and jumping to conclusions—causes anxiety and anger, even resentment if not dealt with.

“They said/did this, therefore…(what we think they’re thinking)”  Or, “This happened, therefore… (the conclusion)”.

We overcome this by:

• Remembering there will always be a basis—some fact—but facts don’t necessarily equal or add up to the whole truth! For ex., in Gen. 32—when Jacob’s messengers told him Esau was coming to meet him, with 400 men!  This made Jacob “greatly afraid and distressed”, based on fact and past history.  The last Jacob had seen Esau, he’d cheated Esau out of his birthright, Esau had threatened to kill him, so Jacob had escaped.  But in reality, Esau came to Jacob to reconcile, let bygones be bygones, and brought the 400 men to guard and escort Jacob safely home!
• Scriptural truth—”marinating in it”—let the truths soak in until they change your mindset, attitudes, and thought-life. Picture yourself in a vat of blue dye—what color will you turn? Blue! Now picture yourself in a vat of bright-colored dye, and what color you’ll turn. Soaking in Scripture is like sitting in a vat of Holy-Spirit-colored “dye” for a while— it makes us turn “Holy-Spirit color” in our perspective and thinking!
• Mind renewal—remove the old, rotten, counter-productive thinking and replace it with what’s life-giving and positively transformational (Rom. 12:2, Phil. 4:8). When we first bought our house, the inside was painted in old, dingy, ugly colors. We removed and replaced all that— One could say we truly “re-painted” from ugliness (pun intended)! It became vibrant, cheerful, and new.

It also helps to keep a journal of what the Lord is showing us through His Word and other things as we go about our day, and refer to it       daily and weekly, even yearly, by date.

• Finding out the truth—asking outright, if need be, without accusing or assuming. For ex., something we’ve all experienced—when someone doesn’t respond to our messages (text, email, etc.), it can be tempting to think they dislike or disrespect us. But, if we really can’t think of a good reason why (they’re overloaded, ill, etc.), ask them, kindly, giving the benefit of the doubt, if they got our message. Maybe they didn’t or it got buried! And remember how many times we haven’t responded for reasons other than disrespect and dislike!

• Cognitive restructuring— a fancy term for changing our automatic thought-patterns. Brain scientists have proven that we have “ruts” in our brains from thinking certain ways often or all the time. Like well-worn paths on a trail, our “thought feet” naturally follow where they’re used to going or fall into the “ruts”. But we can “rewire” our brains by “digging a new trench”, as Mark Batterson puts it. It takes conscious effort to intentionally change our thought patterns like that, but it can be done!

2. Mind feeding— can include what happens when we look at or hear what others are, have, or are doing. This makes us feel like we’re missing out, and causes a lack of contentment. It also causes us to mistrust the Lord. We overcome this by:

• Gratitude—thankfulness for what and who we have— the Lord, relationships, etc. Keeping a daily “thanks journal” and/or “Box of Blessings” to write periodic notes in helps.

• Stop comparing—it’s senseless/”w/o understanding” (2 Cor. 10:12). It’s better to empathize— go deeper, find out what’s really going on in people’s lives, “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” (Rom. 12:15). 

• Trust the Lord that He’s not withholding good from us—Eve had that problem—the devil convinced her, and later Adam, that the Lord was holding out on her, so she needed to get what she needed independently. That’s how sin entered the world and how it enters our hearts!

In Part 2 we’ll look at Mind “Bleeding”, the third main category of counterproductive thought patterns, and how to overcome that. We’ll also tie everything together as we see how to take every thought captive and the benefits of a right and productive thought-life. Stay tuned!