Positive Thinking Is Neither Focusing On Sweetness Nor Denial Of Negative Truths

Truth Is Always Positive At Its Root And In Its Fruit...Always! Jesus made some very comforting and positive promises to all of His disciples which included believers of all generations. One of those wonderful promises was to comfort, encourage and reassure us in our fears, sufferings and death. This positive promise is in John 14:1-3 "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." What a wonderful promise. It is a positive promise of help from God, from Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It is a positive assurance of our eternal future with Him in heaven. When Jesus encouraged His disciples to overcome their "troubles" by "believing" in God's ability to help them through their trials and ultimately into the very presence of God, that was "positive thinking". And when He promised them He was going away to "prepare a place for them and then return to Earth and take them to heaven", that was positive thinking. Though positive thinking is always positive, the subject of the thinking may include some very frightening facts of truth. And truth, whether encouraging or frightening, is far more important than pacification, conciliation, appeasement or compromise. These things may purchase temporary physical peace, but seldom, if ever, result in truth. It is the truth which purchases freedom and secures spiritual peace."And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32. An example of that kind of positive thinking is found in Jesus' teaching His disciples about the positive aspects of the last days and the hardships which would accompany those end-times prophecies. The content of Jesus' words may seem negative but these are also positive promises ... positive thinking. Things are going to get better after they get worse is positive thinking for believers. Matthew 24:1   And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.   Matthew 24:2   And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. Positive!  Matthew 24:3   And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?  Those signs, though negative in nature were positive as indications of the return of Christ, the resurrection and rapture of the disciples. That is positive thinking. Jesus answered the question with five important facts .... First "And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." Matt.24:4-5 Jesus was not thinking negatively but positively. Second "And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows." Matt.24:6-8 These "sorrows" may seem negative, but they are positive. Third "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another." Matt.24:9-10.  Yes this "affliction" is horrible but true and yes, positive. Fourth "And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." Matt.24:11. Negative for those "deceived", but true and positive for true believers. Fifth "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." Matt.24:12. "Iniquity" is negative; "cold love" is negative, but the love of God in the hearts of Christians lives on and on, and that is positive. I can't cover all of the other end-times prophecies here, but they continue down to what we know as "The Blessed Hope". the return of Jesus Christ to gather His true believers unto Himself. "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Matt.24:30-31.  That, my friends is "Positive Thinking" for true believers in Christ ... and unbelievers who will hear the truth of it. And only negative to unbelievers who will not hear. RB