Overcoming Negative Thinking

Maria
April 29, 2003

Maria #146 DO 2700 8/90

Everybody's Dirty!—Only Jesus Is Good!

—Mama Counselling a Staff Member

1. You said you felt so "dirty & icky" that you didn't know how the Lord could still love you. Well, at some time or other, everybody feels dirty & icky. None of us feel like we deserve the Lord's Love. And if we're walking by sight & not by faith, going by how we're feeling instead of trusting God's Word, of course, we're going to wonder how the Lord could possibly love us or want us.

2. It's just a fact that we're all dirty & icky, all of us are. But God doesn't look on our sin. He's perfect, & He can't accept sin, but when He looks at us He sees Jesus. "Our lives are hid with Christ in God. We're crucified with Christ, nevertheless we live, yet, not us but Christ liveth within us."—Col.3:3; Gal.2:20. Jesus is our mediator. Jesus is the One Who gets us through to God. We're too imperfect, we're too bad, we're too sinful, that's for sure‚ but we're not too sinful for Jesus! As Dad has said‚ "You can never be too bad for Jesus, only too good!" (ML #312:10)

3. Jesus paid the price & took all our dirtiness & our imperfections & our sins on Himself. We're all dirty & sinful & icky & awful. If you want to compare yourself with me & say, "I'm more icky than you," go ahead, but that has absolutely no meaning for the Lord. We are all too dirty for God. And besides, I don't agree with you. If we're sinful at all, we're sinful. You can't accurately assess who's more sinful, only the Lord knows that. He's the One Who looks on the heart. But it doesn't make any difference to our Salvation whether we're more or less sinful than someone else. As long as we have been saved by His blood He's forgiven us—for past, present & future sins—and He sees only Jesus' righteousness.

4. The degree of our sinfulness doesn't really matter to the Lord; everybody's dirty & icky, & if Salvation & God's blessings were dependent on our own righteousness, we're all too dirty & icky for God! But thanks to Jesus, we don't have to worry about it or feel that it keeps us from God. It doesn't, because Jesus has paid the price for our sins‚ & we are no longer separated from the Lord because of them. And it doesn't matter if one person's a little more dirty than another. Who cares?—Certainly not the Lord. He says that even our righteousness is as "filthy rags"—Isa.64:6. Jesus is the only One Who's good & clean & perfect, & we're bound together with Him & we're one with Him, so God only sees Jesus‚ & it doesn't matter how filthy we are as compared to others. We're all His children & part of His Family, & He loves us all!

5. We can't base whether we are close to God or whether the Lord loves us on how filthy & dirty we are. That doesn't have anything to do with it. Once the Lord has made our hearts clean & Jesus lives within us, it doesn't matter how awful we are!

6. I think that's one reason why you have so many battles‚ you're always trying to earn the Lord's Love, but you know you can't because you know how dirty & icky you are. So you feel condemned & are always thinking‚ "How can I bridge that gap?" So you're constantly trying to do good things for the Lord or be good enough for the Lord. But He just wants to take you the way you are. I get the feeling sometimes that you try to be good enough for Him or earn His Love or try to be a martyr to prove how much you love Him or something, & then you suffer condemnation because you know your works are inadequate & you feel so far away from Him. You're going by your feelings instead of by faith.

7. You have to just get rid of all that self-effort & just realise, "Well, Lord, of course I'm dirty & icky!—We're all dirty & filthy & unrighteous & awful!" We all are. If you want to consider yourself a little worse than everybody else, go ahead. But we're all sinful & it doesn't matter if one's sinful in this area & one's sinful in that area, we're all sinful! In God's eyes, we're all in the same category of being sinful, the degree of sinfulness doesn't really matter. The Lord just wants us the way we are.

8. If you're worried about not being close to Jesus, do you know what kind of person He says He's really close to? (Family: To those with a contrite & broken heart.) Yes, it says, "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart."—Psa.34:18. So the more desperate you get, the more broken you get, the closer He becomes to you. If you want reassurance that the Lord is close to you, then have a broken heart. Then you know by the Word that He'll be close to you. It doesn't really matter if you feel it or you don't feel it. But often when we're in the most broken condition & in our most desperate situation, we feel it more too. We feel the Lord then because we're hanging on to Him for dear life!

9. When we're only looking to Him we can then see Him a little better & even feel Him a little better. So that's a good verse for you to claim, "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart." When you're in that state & you know you've made a mess of things & you're sorry, that's when the Lord is nearest to you. In other words, when you are bad & filthy & covered with mud, that's when He's closest to you—not furthest away. Even if you don't feel it, you know it by faith because He said it, & if you know by faith that He's close to you when you're bad & broken & sorry‚ then you know that it doesn't come as a result of your somehow earning it.

10. You know He loves you in spite of how sinful & icky you are. In fact, He loves you because of it! He's closer to the poor dirty sinners than He is to the self-righteous perfectionists. So your idea that He doesn't love you because you're sinful & icky is directly contrary to the way things really are. He loves you because you're sinful & icky‚ & He has compassion & mercy on you. He loved us so much & died for us because we were sinners (Rom.5:8), & the weaker we are & the more we need Him, the closer He comes to us & tries to help us. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust."—Psa.103:13,14.

11. You should never look at yourself as hopeless or just not worth it or anything like that.

BELIEVING THE WORD!

12. You say‚ "Why would He ever want to be close to me?" I don't know why He'd want to be close to any of us! But He does, & He's said so over & over in His Word. You just have to believe the Word, "Faith cometh by hearing & hearing by the Word of God!"—Rom.10:17. You've read the Word & it's all there & it's been saying that to you for years & years now, but there must be something that's preventing you from getting the faith you need. Even though you've read the Word, you still feel, "Why would He want to be close to me?"

13. Why would the Lord want any of us? We're all in the same sinful category. It doesn't matter if some of us are a little more or a little less sinful than others‚ we're all in the same boat as far as the Lord's concerned! But the Lord knows that & He still loves us & wants to be close to us because Jesus came to save us, & that's God's plan.—He loves us! We don't have to know exactly why. I admit it's a little difficult to understand why He would want any of us. But He does, & that's what He says in His Word & that's what you have to believe. You just have to believe the Word, "Faith cometh by hearing & hearing by the Word!"—Rom.10:17.

14. But it seems that somehow you haven't gotten the faith from the Word that you should have. There's some kind of blockage there. Maybe your sins of negative thinking & bitterness have made it impossible for the Lord to get through to you like He wants to. You were reading the Word, but not really hearing it with the ears of faith. The Word says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. When you're listening to the Lord & also listening to the Enemy, you can get pretty confused, & the Lord says, "Let not that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord."—Jam.1:7.

15. But if you just really yield to the Lord & want the Lord more than anything else‚ He's going to show Himself to you. He says if you call unto Him He'll answer.—Jer.33:3. So we don't have to find out all the reasons behind things & analyse why things are the way they are. It's nice if we can sometimes, but if we don't have all the answers, I wouldn't worry about it too much‚ just go on from here.

16. You don't have to worry about why you haven't received faith in the past; the past is over & done with. The important thing is to start doing what you're supposed to be doing right now. Why worry about the past? It's over & done with. There's no reason to cry over spilled milk & there's no reason to condemn yourself. The Lord doesn't condemn you‚ He just wants you to turn around & do better now.

17. He just wants you to believe that He loves you‚ & He wants you to read His Word & believe it & receive it & yield to what He wants You to do. It's so simple, but I'm sure you can make it pretty complicated if you try to figure it all out. But that's really all you have to do; just read & accept & believe & obey & yield & claim His Word for you, & apply it to yourself.

18. The Lord probably gave you that prophecy & those verses when the Family was praying for you because He knows you can't weasel out of that. You can't say, "Well‚ this doesn't apply to me." I think that's often why the Lord gives us specific prophecies & messages‚ because those are directly for us, & we know they aren't for anybody else. It's wonderful, & is such a tremendous thing just to think that the Lord gave you that prophecy, direct for little ol' you, who thinks she's so dirty & icky & that the Lord couldn't possibly love her. He gave that prophecy for you, those words that He's never ever given exactly like that to anybody else in the whole World.—A message just for you!

19. That in itself shows how much He cares about you & loves you. So you can't weasel out of that & say that it doesn't apply to you.—You know those verses & that prophecy were directly for you! I'm sure the Lord never said those exact words in that exact order just like that to anybody else in the whole World. So that shows how special you are to the Lord.

20. How can you ever again doubt His Love for you?—He said such beautiful things!: "Behold, how oft I would have gathered thee to My bosom, but ye would not. Know ye not that I desire love & not sacrifice? Have I not likened My Church to the Bride of Christ? And have I not sought to take thee as My love, but ye would not. I the Lord am a jealous God, & I will have no other gods before Me.

21. "For I look not upon outward trappings, but I look upon the heart. For there is thy communion with Me. This is what I desire‚ the union of heart with heart, that thy heart & My heart might be one, that we may be joined together as husband & wife. That thy heart might be single before Me‚ that thy eye might be single. Yea, I desire truth in the inward parts. For I have betrothed thee unto Me forever. For, yea, thou art Mine & I long for thy love. Turn not thy face away from Me. For only I can satisfy.

22. "Seek that which is above, mind the Heavenly things & not that which is upon the Earth. The things which thou seest are temporal but the things which thou dost not see are eternal. And, yea, I offer unto thee the eternal. Behold, how often have I longed to gather thee to My bosom, to hold thee & to cherish thee."

HOW TO BREAK THE NEGATIVE THINKING HABIT!

23. You really need to try to stop thinking so negatively about yourself. You may have a lot of problems, but I have complete faith that you're going to get the victory over all of them, even if it's going to be a tough fight. I know you're not a quitter, so you just have to make up your mind that you're going to fight & just keep doing it!

24. You don't have to believe this if you don't want to, but it seems to me that a major part of your problem is that you've become so used to responding to the Devil's voice & his negative input. In other words, when any kind of a trying situation or test comes up‚ you don't hear the Lord's voice first. He tries to speak first, & if He does get through to you‚ I don't think you listen. I'm not exactly sure what you do‚ but it's almost like your automatic response to any kind of situation is negative. It's almost like your first response in any situation is either a fear or a worry or a criticism or a doubt. Through that negativeness you've allowed yourself to become open to the Devil's channel, so that what you hear most clearly is his response to every situation. It's his negative responses that get through to you the clearest.

25. Those kinds of negative responses have almost become a habit with you now. It's just automatic for you to think fear or doubt or criticism or bitterness or envy. There's a positive & negative response to every situation, & you usually choose the negative. I'm not saying this to make you worry more, it's to show you that you just need to recognise that this negativity has become a habit.

26. To overcome it‚ you have to start consciously making a positive response to things. The same is true with any habit: If it's a bad habit that you want to break, every single time you fall into it you've got to jerk yourself up or let somebody else jerk you up, because you just fall into it automatically. You've got to say to yourself, "Oops!—That's the wrong response!"—And then go on the attack. Or somebody else has got to help & say, "Uh-oh, that's the wrong response! What's the right response?"

27. As things are now, you automatically get the wrong response first. So you've got to really work at it to change & correct that. The Lord's not going to condemn you for your habits, He's not going to blame you because you automatically do something, especially when you're trying to overcome it. You just need to catch yourself & say, "Oops! That was the wrong response!—This is the right response!" You've got to work on that every single time.

28. Every single time something negative comes into your head or out of your mouth you've just got to say, "Oops! That's the wrong reaction or response!—What's the right one?" You might have to think about it sometimes‚ what the right one is. You've heard about people who have been injured in an accident & are unable to walk any more; when they start to learn to walk all over again, it doesn't always come automatically. They've got to think about how to take each step & what step to take next. It's not always so automatic.

29. Your habit of negative responses & thoughts has become automatic over a period of years & years, but now you've got to work on replacing it with a positive habit‚ & that will take some real effort on your part. You'll probably get the automatic negative response first, but the Lord will check you. You just have to pray & really want the victory, then I'm sure the Lord will check you & help you overcome it.

30. So when you see that you've given the wrong response you just have to say, "Oops!—What's the right response? Oh, I see, this is the right response!" And then deliberately give the right response. And don't get discouraged when you fall. I've often had to tell Techi, "You don't need to be discouraged when you have the wrong response." For example, she's frequently been discouraged about her habit of daydreaming. She tells me‚ "I just do it automatically. I start daydreaming automatically‚ but then I catch myself!" So I tell her, "Don't be discouraged or condemned because you automatically daydreamed. Be thankful that you caught yourself, that the Lord checked you & you then tried not to."

31. So it's nothing to be discouraged about or to condemn yourself for, it's just the way it is when you're trying to change bad habits. When you're changing your thought patterns it takes a lot of work & a lot of time, & at first you're bound to automatically fall into the same rut or mind-set that you've been in for months or years or however long it's been. But with the Lord's help & His power—& also your will power—you've got to deliberately change that automatic bad response into the right response.—And the Lord will help you & the Lord will do it.

32. That's how it is for everybody. Larry said it took him quite a few months to overcome his daydreaming habit. He said he was a terrible daydreamer, that he daydreamed all the time, even after he joined the Family. Until he read my Letters he didn't even know there was anything wrong with daydreaming. (See ML #1915, "Daydreaming," & Maria #49 & #50 in the BTH.) He said he was daydreaming constantly from the time way before he joined the Family up until that Letter came out. And it took him a long time to overcome it, it was difficult & it was a real fight. But he kept at it, & as a result he won.

REPLACING THE NEGATIVE WITH POSITIVE!

33. So you just have to face the fact that it's a fight & that you're going to have to really work at it to put an end to all those negative responses. You've got to replace anything that's a negative response with a positive response. Or if they're bad thoughts‚ you've got to put them out of your mind & replace them with good thoughts.—The same is true with jealous thoughts, or doubts or anything along those lines. You've got to fight to put them out of your mind & replace them with something positive.

34. When you're being besieged with negative thoughts about yourself, you have to do the same thing that Dad told Techi to do for her bad thoughts in his "Let the Light In" talk. (See ML #2657, GN 454.) You just have to substitute the positive for the negative. When a negative thought comes you've got to not only rebuke the Enemy, but you've got to push it out‚ blot it out‚ refuse to even think about it at all! Give no place to it & substitute something good in its place.

35. That's what you have to do for anything that is negative, any of the mind battles that people have—doubts‚ skepticism, jealousy, murmuring, arguing, bad thoughts, bitterness, any thoughts at all that are negative & that are not positive! You have to treat all those things exactly the same.—The same way that Techi had to treat those bad thoughts she was having. They would have taken her over & gobbled her up if she hadn't. You've literally got to put them out of your mind. At the very first inkling or first little tiny temptation you've got to resist it & block it out & not let it go any further! You've just got to keep doing that & keep doing that.

36. I know this sounds like such a simple answer, but it takes a lot of hard work. Techi's bad thoughts weren't a habit for her, they weren't something that she'd cultivated, but they just kept coming & coming. Those thoughts kept coming & she had to keep fighting them & she couldn't give place to any of them or more & more of them would have followed.

37. You just have to militantly try to counter the bad & negative thoughts or habits & replace them with something positive! You've got to really fight & resist them every time. And even if you slip up sometimes, you can't get all discouraged about it.—Just go back to working on it. That's how you break any bad habit.

38. You're probably not going to be able to break a habit like this very soon. During the early stage of her battles with bad thoughts I told Techi, "You're having a lot more bad days than good days now. But if you keep fighting, pretty soon you'll be having less bad days & more good days. Then after awhile you'll be having more good days than bad days." And thank the Lord‚ that's been the case. It was a long haul for her‚ for just a little girl. She had never really been in such fierce spiritual battles before. It was new & it was frightening. It was a real big fight & battle & she was very discouraged at first because most days seemed bad for a long time.

39. But now more days are good than bad & she's seeing that what I told her about that was true. She just kept fighting the Devil as long as it took, & when he saw she was serious about it & she was committed to not giving up, he gave up, TTL! The same is true with you & these battles you're having with negative thoughts about yourself & feeling you're too bad for the Lord. In spite of the fact you're sometimes up & sometimes down, & maybe more down than up, if you keep fighting, pretty soon you'll be more up than down.

40. The Lord will give you the power to pull through to victory, but it's going to take some work on your part. Like I said, it's not always going to be easy‚ so don't be discouraged or condemned if you don't get the victory over all these things right away. Nobody's expecting you to. It's just one of those things that's probably going to take some time. Nobody's expecting you to all of a sudden be 100% changed!

41. The only thing we want to see—as the Lord wants to see—is that you are yielded to the Lord's Will, whatever He wants, & that you're willing to work to accomplish those goals. You've got to be willing to work on these bad habits because it's going to take some effort to overcome them. But you've always been a good worker & you've never been lazy, so I think you can be a pretty good fighter & I think if you determine to make up your mind to do it, the Lord will certainly help you to pull through victoriously. The Word says‚ "If there first be a willing mind," He'll accept it.—2Cor.8:12.

42. It takes real work to get over negative habits & these negative thought patterns that you've developed about yourself & about others. Even though you've got a whole bunch of NWOs to work on, the Lord is able, & He's not limited by many or by few.—Ha! What a funny verse! (1Sam.14:6.) I don't know if that's very appropriate, but I don't know as many verses as a lot of people do so I guess the Lord has to use the ones I do know‚ even in funny applications!

YIELDEDNESS IS NOT ENOUGH!—YOU'VE GOT TO FIGHT!

43. I didn't expect to talk to you about all of this right now. I didn't even know you were going to be here & I haven't even been thinking about it particularly‚ but I guess the Lord just wanted to help you to know that we don't expect you to get a total victory in all these areas immediately & to suddenly be perfect. Nobody's perfect & nobody's going to be perfect. But it's enough that you just want His Will & you want to be yielded to Him in whatever He wants & that you're determined to fight to do your part. He'll do all He can but you've got to do your part too.

44. No matter how yielded Techi was to the Lord—& she was very yielded—those bad thoughts kept coming & kept coming, & if she hadn't fought them‚ she would have never gotten a victory over them. Those thoughts weren't even her fault, so it didn't matter how yielded she was to the Lord, if she hadn't actively fought the Devil against those thoughts, she'd be a wreck. They would've kept coming & kept coming constantly & she probably would've gone crazy.

45. So it's not always enough to just be yielded to the Lord. You've got to determine to fight the Devil at the same time. And that usually takes a lot of work & a lot of effort, & often a lot of time as well‚ especially when you're trying to break bad habits. So you just have to make up your mind that you're going to do it.

46. Remember, nobody expects you to suddenly be perfect, or that you're not going to have any setbacks. When you're trying to break bad habits, you more often than not do the wrong thing as an automatic response. But as you keep fighting, after a while you'll see a little progress. Then more progress & more progress as you continue to persevere. But at the beginning I'm sure it's going to be pretty discouraging for you. And the Devil will do his best to discourage you & try to get you to give up. So you've just got to determine that you're going to keep on fighting.

TRIALS & TEMPTATIONS "COMMON TO MAN!"

47. Look at all the people you know who have gone through major trials & breakings & rewirings, who have pulled through & made it. They also had to face a difficult fight, a terrible struggle. Their trials & breakings were just as hard for them as yours are for you.—Perhaps not exactly the same, but just as difficult.

48. The Lord isn't picking on you & making it harder for you than He makes it for others. In their times of big breakings, the tests & trials seemed just as difficult for everybody else as you feel that they are for you right now. I'm sure that others felt their trials were just as bad for them & just as hard & they felt like giving up just as much as you do. They felt like it was just as difficult for them to get the victory & that they weren't going to make it, just as much as you do.

49. But God's Word promises, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man" (1Cor.10:13), & I think most of the temptations & things that we go through, other people have gone through them in their big breakings too.—Even though they're not always exactly the same things. Maybe they don't always have as many things to overcome, but even one or two things for them may be just as difficult & just as traumatic as the many things are for you.

50. I think everybody feels like it's the end of the road for them when they're going through their big breakings. Everybody feels like there's no more hope & everybody feels like giving up & everybody feels like they're going to die & all the worst things that you can feel; everybody feels that during their big breakings. But the Lord's got to put you through all that to get you to where you'll just look to Him & nothing else will matter.

51. So when you feel all alone & forsaken & like you're the only one that's going through this, & you feel like you're going through it worse than anybody else because of all your sins‚ just remember, many others have felt the same way.—And they have pulled through victoriously. The Lord's not going to make it any harder for you than you can take, & it's just as bad for others when they're going through their breakings & testings.

52. So at least you can feel like you have lots of company in sorrow. There are lots of people who have gone before & made it—most of the people that I know of. So that should be a big encouragement to you. Amen?

53. No matter how bad our people's situations have been‚ no matter how bad their problems have been, they've all come through victorious & they've all been much happier in the end. In fact, they've been very thankful & happy that it happened. The lessons they learned & the spiritual growth that resulted made it worth it all.

54. I think everyone who fights & perseveres & really wins the battles is a good sample for all of us.—Because when it comes our turn then we can say, "Oh, look at them!—Remember what they went through, but look how they won the victory!" The Lord says we comfort others with the comfort wherewith we are comforted, & part of that comfort is, "Look, I made it. The Lord helped me through it, & I'm sure He'll help you through it too!"

MAMA'S PRAYER

55. (Prays:) Lord bless her, in Jesus' name, & give her strength tonight, & courage & the will to win. You said, Lord, that all things are possible to him that believeth. So give her the faith that comes through Thy Word, through hearing Thy Word & receiving Thy Word, believing Thy Word, that she can conquer & she can win & that she's going to, Lord. Help her know that He which hath begun a good work in her will perform it unto the end. Just help her to hold on to that & the goal that You Yourself have said to her so directly in that beautiful prophecy‚ to be married to You & to be close to You, Lord‚ & in close communion with You. Help her to keep that in sight, Lord, to set that as the goal so that nothing else matters.

56. And Lord, help her not to feel that she has to work like a self-works trip, trying to prove herself or earn it. Help her just to yield herself to You & give everything up to You, Lord, & let You do the job. Help her to look to You for help. Then help her also, Lord, to do her part & fight & resist the Enemy‚ be willing to fight the Enemy when these doubts & fears & all this negativity comes in. Help her, Lord, to keep in mind the goal of being one with You, being in communion with You, & to eliminate all the negative things that interfere with her relationship with You & clog up that channel to You.

57. Help her‚ Lord, to just see You & You only.—To look to You & not to fret about what she's going through or even what other people think about her or even what she thinks about herself. Help her just to cast all her fears & worries aside & just see You & what You want for her, & to strive for that goal, Lord. Bless her & strengthen her & encourage her tonight & give her a good sleep. Keep her safe in Thy care, in Jesus' name. TYL!

(Later to Peter:)

58. Once someone has formed these bad habits‚ they've got to break them. In a sense, you almost have to pay for your sins that way. When you've accumulated all these habits & negative ways of thinking, it costs something to change them‚ & you've really got to work at it. It takes quite a bit of blood, sweat & tears to change them. Of course, you couldn't even do it if you didn't have the Lord's help, but He can't do it without your help either. What you sow you reap, & bad habits are usually things that take a lot of effort to break.

59. That's just the way it is. There's no easy solution. Of course, the Lord will make it much easier than it would be if you were just trying to do it in the natural without His help. But it can be a hard fight, & you're even going to feel like giving up sometimes. It's like I told Techi a while ago, "Right now you're having more bad days than good days. But pretty soon, after awhile you might be having as many good days as bad days, & then if you keep going, after awhile you'll be having more good days than bad days."—And thank the Lord, that's what's now happened with her!

60. At first it can seem like a discouraging prospect in some ways, because of all the work & all the time & effort it usually takes to break such habits. But on the other hand, it's very encouraging to see that if we put our will on the Lord's side & we'll work on it‚ then He'll give us the strength & He will help us to win the victory in the end. We just have to be willing. So Lord help us to always have the will to win‚ the will to fight, no matter how long it takes to change our bad habits!—And sometimes we'll be surprised at how miraculously quick our change may be!

61. I'm also reminded of that verse, "Christ in you, the hope of glory"—Col.1:27.—"Which Hope we have as an anchor, steadfast & sure." It's not in us, we can't do anything, we don't have anything of ourselves. It's Jesus that God sees, Jesus is the Mediator, He's the One Who gets us to God. We're all dirty, icky, filthy, terrible‚ awful sinners! We're stained, polluted‚ besmirched, corrupt, defiled, contaminated. It doesn't really matter if somebody thinks they're a little more dirty‚ icky‚ filthy, terrible, awful, stained, polluted‚ besmirched, corrupt‚ defiled or contaminated than somebody else! God can't stand any of it, all He can stand is perfection & holiness & purity, & that's what the blood of Jesus gives us in His sight, PTL! "Not having our own righteousness, which is of the Law (& filthy in God's sight!), but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith!"—Phil.3:9. PTL!

Quiz Questions

  1. What kind of person is the Lord close to? How do we know that? (8,9)
  2. What are at least two things you can do to help break the habit of negative thinking? (26-30‚33‚43-45)
  3. What sort of process do we go through in trying to break bad habits like negative thinking? Do we always get a quick victory? (38-42,59-60)

Related Pubs

For further reading & study on subjects mentioned in this Letter, see: "The Benefits of Backsliding!" ML#312 (Vol.3); "We've Got a Lot to Learn!" ML#2054 (Vol.16); "Kicking Bad Habits & Winning Victories!" ML#2639 (GN 448); "Just Let the Light In!" ML#2657 (GN 454); "Just Say Yes to Yourself!" (WND 350, Pg.1); FSM192, "My Deliverance from Bitterness & Negative Thinking!"; "Marvellous Marriage," Pg.153-154: "Your Inner Conversations."

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family