How to Overcome Negative Thoughts

An experience with negative thoughts. 

That night, I had just arrived at Blok M Terminal. It was already 8:30 p.m.; the bus bound for Bekasi had arrived.

That green bus with the words Mayasari Bakti was the one I was waiting for. Tired from work, hungry, and also thirsty, I decided to just get on. However, after boarding it, I realized, this was a green bus. A bus already worn out and aged. Dirty, filthy, and open to anyone. Usually street vendors and buskers.

Everyone who rode that bus was already used to the fact that the conductor would always let anyone get on. In fact, there was already a kind of unwritten agreement for the driver and conductor to let anyone trying to make a living come aboard and do whatever they wanted on their bus, sell things, or sing for money. Well, I do not like either of those, but what annoyed me most was the buskers.

I really do not like buskers. To me, why do they have to be here? Do they not realize that I need some peace and quiet? Work at the office has already exhausted me body and soul. Yet they still come, destroying the peace and quiet I should be getting. Even though I had already put on earphones and played music from my phone, I could still hear their voices.

That was when my heart spoke.Gery, if you think negatively and hate someone, have you not already murdered that person in your heart? Who are you, to feel higher than they are? Who are you? Are you God?

What is the problem with negative thoughts?

Thinking negatively is very easy, especially in an age when all kinds of information can reach us in a matter of seconds. Just open Facebook and count how many posts contain hate speech. Just open Twitter and see how often people get into Twitter wars. Look at Instagram too and check how many people throw shade, get shaded back, and keep trading jabs. The information age makes it easy for everything to enter our minds, including everything tinged with hatred.

Whether we realize it or not, our thoughts determine our lives. Good and spiritual thoughts lead us to a spiritual life as well. On the other hand, negative thoughts that are evil and full of sin will lead us to a life full of sin, deception, and destruction. Our minds are a battlefield between God and the devil. All day long, choices will keep being set before us: Right or wrong? Good or bad? Holy or sinful? Galatians 6:7 firmly says, “Do not be deceived! God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” Our minds are not neutral; they will follow whatever is “sown” in them. Do not be surprised if it is hard for us to think good thoughts when all day long we sow evil into our minds. The illustration is simple: I plant a mango seed behind my house. In 4-5 years, a mango tree will surely grow there. It makes no sense, right, if I expect a durian tree to grow?

It is the same with the mind. If we allow things like hatred, sexual immorality, lies, wickedness, or deceit to enter our minds, then those are the very things that will rule our minds.

How can we think holy thoughts in the middle of a sinful world?

But: this world is already corrupted and sinful. How can we think about truth when the world delights in error?

God wants all of us to live holy lives. More than that, He calls all of us to be His chosen people, a “royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9). And that certainly includes our minds. Yet we also know that living a holy life is difficult. Jesus Himself said that the gate leading to destruction is very wide, while the gate leading to eternal life is narrow and confined. Not to mention when it comes to taking up our cross and denying ourselves.

So great is the conflict between righteousness and sin that even Paul himself said, “What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” in Romans chapter 6. Earlier, he himself said that he had become a “prisoner of the law of sin” to describe how hard the struggle to live a holy life really is. That is the reality; the world is full of sin, and even our flesh always wants to sin, while we must strive against both of those things. Alexander Pope said,

“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, as to be hated needs but to be seen; yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, we first endure, then pity, then embrace.”

(Sin is a terrifying monster; because we ought to hate it, we must see it; yet because we have become too familiar with its form, we resist it, then pity it, and finally embrace it). How easily we stop recognizing sin as sin, simply because of time. It is no wonder, because sin will always lurk around us and pursue us, until we return to God.

So then, returning again to the matter of the mind, how can we possibly guard our minds from negative thoughts? Keep them holy and pure, when the devil and the flesh attack us every every moment? How can we remain holy in mind when we come across hoaxes or posts that are triggering on Facebook or WhatsApp? How do we stay clean when dealing with a boss who gets angry or offended so easily? Then, how do we remain pure when our spouse seems stubborn? How can we keep our holiness when someone we hate suddenly shows up again?

Surrender, not give up

Thankfully God still gives us a way out. He knows our suffering, He feels what we go through, so that we can have hope. As it is written in the book of Hebrews,

“For the High Priest we have is not one who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses {...} He has been tempted, yet without sin.

-Hebrews 4:15

Jesus has already experienced suffering and temptation first, so that we can look to Him when we are tempted. Jesus understands and knows what we feel, because He too once felt it. The difference is that He succeeded in escaping all those temptations because He was able not to sin; indeed, He was the One who was then sacrificed to redeem the sins of mankind.

Fighting sin cannot be done alone. I may still fall into sin, but Jesus did not. Therefore, what can I do? Of course, surrender to Jesus! “We take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). The best way to conquer a mind full of sin is to surrender it to Jesus, because He is the only One most able to give us power over sin.

Jesus has already triumphed over every kind of sin, including negative thoughts and even hatred. That is why surrendering to Him is the first choice we must make. Ask for strength every time the temptation comes; then He will surely help us.

Surround the mind with the Word of God

Once again, the mind is a battlefield. The war begins when things from outside start entering our hearts and fighting to control them. But the real question is: which one will we let win? The mind of God or negative thoughts?

David, as a man who was close to God, knew that he had many responsibilities in his life, whether as a shepherd or as a king. Yet he also knew that God had to be first in his life. That is why, in the book of Psalms, we can find expressions of his love for God, and also for His Word.

“How I love Your law! I meditate on it all day long.”

-Ps. 119:97

David gives a perfect example that we must place the Word of God as first and foremost, all day long. The best way to protect our minds is by meditating on the Word of God, every day. By taking time in His presence, we will first be filled with His Word, making it easier to reject evil thoughts. The presence of God will certainly protect us from every attack of the devil. If we take refuge in Him, God Himself promises that He will protect us (Zech. 2:5).

Focus on what is good

Have you ever heard the term ‘blinders?’ Blinders are actually a kind of eye covering placed on carriage horses, so that the horse does not wander off in every direction. This makes it easier for the driver to direct the horse according to his will, so it does not stray carelessly to the right or to the left. A horse wearing blinders has already been conditioned to walk according to what it sees; because it can only see the road ahead, it keeps moving based on what is before its eyes.

That is what happens to our minds. What happens in the mind depends on what enters it. Read crime news all day, and we will surely become afraid because of how much evil surrounds us. Read gossip every day, and we will surely be driven to judge the celebrity whose name is mentioned. Follow politics every day, and our minds will surely be filled with negative thoughts, all the things that are “wrong” with our country.

So how can we have good thoughts? Focus on good things as well. How can we have spiritual thoughts? Focus on spiritual things as well. As it is written in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any virtue and if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things.” Like the horse mentioned above, we must discipline our thinking to think about what is true, noble, just, pure, in short, everything that pleases God.

Today, we can live through a very good day, whatever the circumstances, or a very bad day. What determines it? Our minds. A good day is not determined by how many good things happen; it is our minds that determine everything.

Stop negative thoughts and start thinking rightly

As Christians, the battle is everywhere, especially in our minds. Almost every day the devil will try to bring us down and influence us with all kinds of cunning schemes, and of course the mind will be his primary target. What is in our minds will become our lives. That is why Proverbs 4:23 commands us to guard our hearts (minds) “with all vigilance.”

Having holy, godly, and spiritual thoughts is a radical and countercultural step in the midst of a world fierce with hoaxes, hatred, sarcasm, and suspicion. Are we willing to decide to be different, by making the Word of God the source of our thoughts?

Our minds are such a great power; what we think will become our lives, and what we do with our lives will become our destiny. No one, not even God or the devil, can change us apart from our own decision. Let us decide to think about what is pleasing before God, so that His name may also be glorified.

-Gery Respati-