Soul Blockers: Negativity, the secret sin

What can hinder us from becoming whole and living free in Christ? There are many of these soul blockers, attitudes or thought patterns that entice us away from our true calling in Christ. Isn’t it easier to hide ourselves in darkness where no one will see the real you and me.

I grew up with a very negative father and as much as I hated his attitude and as much as I didn’t want to be like him I has to admit that I was. Since I was a very young girl I had to deal with the assumption that my “real” father wanted nothing to do with me. This left a wide open door for demons to whisper in my ear “you’re no good”, you’ll always be second best”, and “no one really loves you.” The outward cries of negativity from my dad solidified this negative self perception and eventually a negative attitude. By the time I was eleven my sister came along and proved I really was second best. I carried these feelings through my adult years until one day at the age of 43 a fellow grad student said to me “you really are a negative person aren’t you”. This pushed me from the happy go lucky person I really was to my very being accused of being negative. You see, I was not a negative person but when I had no control over negative circumstances I became filled with negative thoughts.

This was my first confrontation about my negativity. I had hid it well or so I thought. No one talks about this secret sin, and who wants to admit it. Even the church doesn’t deal with this problem. People are allowed to continue in their negativity as if it were the core of their being, never addressing or confronting the deeper issue. It’s not who we are in Christ, this is a lie from Satan. It is something whispered in our ears by the enemy and we can beat it.

Only days after my confrontation I was listening to Joyce Meyer, finally someone was dealing with these issues that I was finally acknowledging myself. The key verse in her lesson was Romans 12:2 (NLT)

Let god change you into a new person by changing the way you think.

…a renewing of the mind. For weeks I would quote this verse every time I had a negative thought. At first it was hundreds of times a day, minute by minute I’d repeat “Jesus renew my mind”. After three weeks it was down to a few times a week. Then the challenge came. My car broke down and when I got home I received a major blow that could have shook this new core but I stayed in the word and got though, positive attitude in tack.

Do I still struggle with negativity even after ten years? YES! I still fight the good fight and as Philippians 1:6 says (NLT):

God who began a good work in you will continue his work until it is finally finished in the day when Christ returns.

Well he hasn’t returned yet so I still struggle although considerably less often. When I’m tired, stressed or physically weak it can still be a source of shame.

Remember, a negative attitude doesn’t mean you’re a negative person. It is not who you are. Christ wants us to be free from anything that blocks us from living the full life in him.