Do not magnify the negative

Few people are optimistic by nature. Many of us are pessimistic and we emphasise the negative things more than the positive things. We see the bad in everything and often blow problems out of proportion and fail to see solutions. Consequently, we are stress-spreaders and we tend to bring out the worst in others as well as pushing them away.
Unfortunately this disease of emphasising the negative grips Christians too. It takes more than salvation to cure it. Some of the great passages in the Bible that should inspire optimism and hope in the Christians are used to depress and discourage them as the negative side is overemphasized.
The passage in Matthew 14 is a good example of how we preachers emphasise the negative in our sermons and inadvertently dampen the spirits of the believers instead of inspiring them to attempt the impossible. Verse 29 of Matthew Chapter 14 reads, “So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.” I am fully persuaded that this account of Peter’s walking on water was recorded mainly to show us that human beings can do the impossible if they walk in obedience to God’s word. Do you realise that of all humankind that have ever lived or are still living on earth only one man walked on water? And that one is none other than Peter. He attempted the impossible and succeeded in doing so.
Instead of us giving some standing ovation to a man, as human as we are, who did the impossible we unfairly stress the next verse which talks about Peter’s sinking in water. This next verse says,”But when he looked around at the high waves, he was terrified and began to sink” (Matthew 14:30). It is true that he began to sink when he looked at the boisterous waves but is it not equally true that he did walk on water?
We desperately need deliverance from the half-empty glass mentality and begin to view the glass as half-full. We need to be freed from the bondage of the ‘I can’t attitude’ and adopt the ‘I can outlook.” A can-do outlook on life helps to achieve goals in record time and make friends and life-business associates along the way.
 It was one of America’s greatest motivator, Zig Ziglar, who said, “Everyone enjoys being around someone who is a solution-finder and who looks for the good instead of the bad in everything.”
 And yester-year’s great evangelist, TL Osborn, lamented this error of magnifying defeat. In his living classic book Healing the sick, he wrote “Much has been said and preached concerning what Christians need and what Christians ought to have; about what they used to possess and the things they cannot do; of their defeats, their failures, and their shortcomings.
Very little has been said about  what Christians can do and of the power that they do have. Common sense would tell us that greater stress should be placed upon the message that encourages believers to attempt the impossible.”
He further said, “I know that Peter began to sink when he got his eyes off the Lord: but why magnify his failure? I would rather commend him for walking on water even for only a short distance. I would try to convince him that he could do it again, perhaps adding that the next time he would not sink at all.”           
You may have failed in many things most of your life but a history of failure does not mean that victory is not possible.  When we align ourselves with God, no matter the defeats of the past, victory is not only possible but assured. Perhaps you were fired from work and all you see ahead is a life of gloom and doom. Reverse your thinking, and begin to believe God for a better job with better pay and better working conditions. Maybe you lost your spouse and you fail to get over the loss. Change your focus from loss to gain; why don’t you trust God for a replacement? Isaac lost his lovely mother  Sarah, and was sore grieved, but he soon found comfort in his wife Rebecca.
You may have survived a fatal accident and you constantly relive the shock of it but if you discover instead the reason why God spared you gratitude and hope will fill up your heart.
Yes, it is very painful to go through the devastating effects of divorce but you cannot cling to that painful past event. Accept that it happened and acknowledge before God your contribution to the mess and choose to enjoy your newly-found freedom.
– Mairos Mubvumbi is the founding pastor of Hope In Christ Ministries.
You can send your prayer request to him on 0772889766 or mairos78@yahoo.co.uk