It's Not A Money Problem...It's A Mind Problem

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The HOLY SPIRIT wants you ready to learn about how to develop a Debt Free. . .Rich Thoughts Mentality….

It’s important to understand. . .that our mentality has nothing to do with how smart we are. Let that sink in for a moment.

The dictionary defines mentality as:

“a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations”

Let me say it another way……

Who you are is not determined by how you look, where you live, who your parents are, where you work or what you drive.

Who you are is a result of choices that you’ve made.

You are where you are and what you are because of the dominant thoughts you’ve allowed into your mind.

If you want to change your mentality…you have to change the way you think.

Proverbs 23:7 in the King James Version says:

“As a man thinketh in his heart so is he….”

Henry Ford once said:

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.”

Your Mentality Operates on Three Levels and all of them can be found in Proverbs 23…

 

THINK (verse 7)….what you think on is basically determined by what you focus on.

And what you think on is determine by what you allow into your mind

What should we think on? The answer is found in Philippians 4:8 in the Classic Amplified Bible which says:

“For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].

What kind of music do you listen to?

Do you prefer Gospel (urban, contemporary, southern), rock (hard, soft or classic), jazz (light, instrumental), country (pop or classic) … what’s your preference?

Regardless of the type of music you like or what format you listen to it in…you have a playlist. And you probably have more than one if you are like most people.

Think about this. A playlist includes things that you must enjoy … because you keep playing it over and over again.

You may even think you don’t … but I assure you that you do have a playlist. And it doesn’t just play melodies. Your mind is going to playing the memories you allow to play over and over and over in your head.

Have you ever walked into a store to shop and heard a song playing? Maybe it’s one you don’t even like but, when you leave; it keeps playing over and over in your mind? That is like a playlist.

Some believers even choose to have the wrong kind of playlist. For example, what believer (or anyone for that matter) needs to have these songs bombarding their brains or getting down into their spirits:

“Born to Lose”

“What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am?”

“It’s My Party and I’ll Cry If I Want To”

“I Got Friends in Low Places.”

“What Made Milwaukee Famous Made a Loser Out of Me.”

When you like a song, you play it over and over again. It may have a catchy tune but you need to think twice about what you are feeding your subconscious mind.

You are your own disc jockey. You decide what songs to play and you decide that by the choices you make….

What do you watch on television?

Last night I made a mistake, I was flipping channels on the television (I’m sure all my women listeners will be surprised to know a man was working the remote control) when I came across CNN. They advertise as the most trusted name in news. . .well, that’s a great advertising gimmick and certainly their opinion, but I trust no one puts their hand on the Bible when saying it.

After watching for 2 or 3 minutes, I realize that CNN should be renamed “Constantly Negative News.” But truthfully, they don’t share that mantle alone. Most all of the news programs are negative. The news media and their reporting reflect their bias. They look down their noses at anything that is wholesome and shall I say it: “Godly.”

I mean, come on, why else would they focus on a single murder case night after night? Maybe it’s left over from the Jerry Springer show mentality that they assume most of their viewers have.

Okay, I’m on a soapbox but hear me out.

You come home from work and you watch programming on television which ridicules Christian values, denigrates the role of fathers, minimizes the challenges of stay-at-home mothers and celebrates people with the morals of an alley cat.

Then we conclude our evening by watching the 10 o’clock news . . .where you learn how many people were indicted, arrested, convicted, robbed and murdered. Add to that a generous portion of political name-calling, corruption and scandals.

Then it’s off to bed for a peaceful night’s rest. Fat chance! You’ve just spent four hours filling your mind with more garbage than the local landfill or garbage dump. Your eyes may be closed but your subconscious mind is processing all the negativity that you’ve entered into your mental hard drive.

Cleanse your mind before you sleep.

Best way is to Praise God for what He’s done in your life during the day just ending. It would be a great thing to journal or simply record on your smart phone and create a document on your computer your daily praise reports.

Put good thoughts in your mind. The conscious is going to go out and the unconscious is taking over.

Victor Hugo, the noted author, once said:

“When you go to bed at night, have for your pillow these three things -- love, confidence, and joy. And you will waken in the morning with a song in your heart.”

By filling the subconscious mind with edifying wholesome thoughts, they are acting while you sleep and becoming part of you of your thought process and response. Result: a more positive person.

What is the subconscious mind?

It’s like the world’s greatest computer. . .that is filled with remembrances, in which every impulse of thought through any of the five senses is classified and recorded, and from which thoughts may be recalled or withdrawn as letters may be taken from a filing cabinet.

If you’re filling your mind with negative stuff…then there’s no wonder you’re stuck where you are, doing what you don’t like, for people who rarely show they appreciate you, and feeling that you’re trapped.

It’s time to break-out of the Constantly Negative News (CNN), Communicating Bad Stuff (CBS), Absolutely Bleak Commentary (ABC), Negative Broadcasting Choices (NBC) and the Mentally Stinking Nightly Bad Comments (MSNBC) and move into something positive.

Would you let somebody walk into your home and dump garbage all over the floor? Yet we sometimes allow negative people around us to control our conversations.

I have a challenge for you. . .try going on a TV Fast.   That’s right, turn off the television for one week. If you feel you can’t go “cold turkey” then just do it for two nights, T.W.O. nights.

Likewise, go on a cyber fast. . .go two days without surfing social media. Ask God to help you get over the withdrawal pains. You know that if you experience withdrawal that alone tells you that you have a problem.

Instead of watching the negativity . . . tune into something positive, say the Word of God. . .or a motivational book.

Spend more time talking with your kids, your spouse, your parents or your best friend at church. But here’s the kicker, try talking IDEAS. Talk God’s WORD. Let everything that comes out of your mouth be POSITIVE.

Ephesians 4:29 in the Classic Amplified Bible says:

“Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk [ever] come out of your mouth, but only such [speech] as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God’s favor) to those who hear it.”

Think about the possible impact of this verse on your daily life.

Do you know what happens when you read positive things, listen to positive teachings? You begin to talk positive things . . . because your subconscious mind is receiving positive input.

You may be surprised that when you wake up, you begin to respond and react to every negative situation the devil and life throws your way with more positive responses. Being in the Word starts to generate good things. . .positive things coming out of your mouth and into your life.

Then, when you make your thoughts known to God, positive things will be manifesting in your life. Consider 1 John 5:15 in the Classic Amplified Bible.

“And if (since) we [positively] know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted us as our present possessions] the requests made of Him.”

Ok…so the first key to changing your mentality is to change what you’re thinking about….and what you’re thinking about is determined by what you hear and see.

The world is filled with negativity….it’s time to get rid of it….

Get rid of stinking thinking…mental halitosis.

Here’s a question….what kind of thinker are you?

Broke thinker or Debt Free Thinker?

Poor thinker or Rich Thinker?

Let me let you in on a secret…poor thinkers often think somebody is out to get them. The rules are stacked against them… that everything always turns out negative for them. The truth is behind the Henry Ford quote… what they expected they received.

SPEAK(verse 16)

Proverbs 23:16 in the Amplified Bible says:

“Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak right things.”

Proverbs 23:16 in The Living Bible says it this way:

“My son, how I will rejoice if you become a man of common sense. Yes, my heart will thrill to your thoughtful, wise words.”

“Think twice before you speak” became a popular expression for good reason. Our words will either plant the seeds of success or failure in the mind of another as well as have a bearing on our own.

Another powerful axiom is to always “Say what you mean”. . .but never be mean in what you say.

Matthew 12:34 in the King James Version says:

“. . .for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

Matthew 12:34 in the Classic Amplified Bible says it this way:

“For out of the fullness (the overflow, the [superabundance) of the heart the mouth speaks.”

Matthew 12:34 in the New Living Translation says:

“For whatever is in your heart determines what you say.”

Here’s a truth…nothing is coming out of your mouth that you haven’t first thought about. So what are you thinking about?

Let me ask you a question…are you in the habit of using negative or self-defeating words to express doubt, lack of confidence in yourself or fear about something you are facing?

How do you speak…

Do you speak broke?

Rich speech doesn’t say, “I can’t, if only, I know I should but …

Have you ever noticed that people who say “I should” never get around to doing what they ‘should?’… SPEAK THE WORDS YOU WANT TO BE TRUE.

Speak to those things that are not as though they were… Romans 4:17.

What you think about you, you speak about and what you speak about you bring about.

Apply and COMMIT (verse 12)

Proverbs 23:12 in the New Living Translation says:

“Commit yourself to instruction; listen carefully to words of knowledge.”

If you seriously want to change your direction….it won’t happen sitting in front of a television.

How will they know, unless a preacher be sent….

Well, you can hear all the preaching you want….but if you are not learning, applying and committing…it won’t change your life.

You will never be any better or higher than your best thoughts.

African proverb that says:

“If there is no enemy within, the enemy on the outside can do us no harm.”

Worry is just troubled thoughts….

In Job 20:2 in the New International Version Zophar said:

"My troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed.”

Worry is an obsession, a mania, hallucinatory state usually super induced by -- dare I say it -- unbelief.

Worry never righted a wrong, dried a tear or lifted a burden. On the contrary it has slain tens of thousands. The cure for worry is a heart of faith.

People are probably more careless with their thoughts than anything else.

It’s important to understand….All rewards in life are for right thinking and acting. If we think right we will act right. No one can enjoy living unless he has a positive state of mind.

Sow a thought … reap an action.

Sow an action … reap a habit.

Sow a habit … reap a lifestyle.

Maintaining a positive attitude puts you in a position where you can overcome practically all of the negative things that come your way in life.

Jesus was the greatest positive thinker that ever lived.

Hebrews 3:1 in the New International Version says:

[Jesus Greater Than Moses ] Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.”

Ephesians 4:23 in the New Living Translation says:

“Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.”

Never, at any time, get yourself into a negative state of mind, or allow a friend to lead you to a point of agreeing to anything that is negative.

Have ever picked up something really hot that would burn you and cause an injury?

What did you do with it?

You dropped it … in a hurry!

I remember once some years back when I saw something in Jeremiah 29:11, I’d never seen before.

”For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”

God knows the “THOUGHTS” that HE “THINKS” toward you. I find it interesting to note that He didn’t say the thoughts He thinks about you. No, He said, “The thoughts that He thinks toward you.”

The Master of Universe is sending thoughts your way.

In our daily lives, we’re besieged by thoughts from every direction. . .many of them negative, I might add since we live in a sin-filled world.

Here’s a fact! You can’t have a negative thought and a positive thought at the same time….your brain doesn’t work that way.

Changing where we are in life. . . requires us to change our thought life. Where do you get your information from? Who do you listen to?

A Pastor friend of ours made this profound statement. If I know who a person is listening to … I can tell you where they are going.

We have to think about His Word. . .speak His Word and Act on His Word. . .to change our minds. . .and ultimately our destiny.

Isaiah 48:17 in the New Century Version says:

“This is what the Lord, who saves you, the Holy One of Israel, says: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to do what is good, who leads you in the way you should go.”

The nature of any adversity we face should never keep us from doing good for others, especially, those who are brothers and sisters in the Lord.

There is no question in my mind that doing good for others is a major part of the divine fulfillment of our purpose.

In other words, the reason you’re breathing on planet earth. . .is so you can do good for the people God puts in your path. Proverbs 3:27 says:

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in the power of your hand to do so.”

And here’s the bottom line. . .you will never know when the good you do for someone will affect the world for generations to come.

Have you ever heard of Edward Kimball, J. Wilbur Chapman or Mordecai Ham?

Let me ask you about these three other men.

Have you ever heard of Dwight L. Moody, Billy Sunday and Billy Graham?

Of course, you have. As Paul Harvey would say. . .here’s the rest of the story.

Sunday School teacher Edward Kimball helped lead Dwight L. Moody to Christ;

J. Wilbur Chapman was converted at a Dwight L. Moody evangelistic meeting;

Billy Sunday was converted at a Chapman meeting;

Mordecai Ham was converted at a Billy Sunday meeting; and Billy Graham was converted at a Ham meeting.

You’ve probably never heard of Kimball, Chapman or Ham. . .but they became the change God wanted them to be and it resulted in Moody, Sunday and Graham becoming they change God wanted them to be.

You may never know the full benefits of the good acts you do here on planet earth. . .but they will be known by all mankind in heaven.

When you become the change . . .things will change.

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