I’m sure you have heard by now that by changing your thoughts you can change your life. But, as a Christian how do we change our thoughts? Christian affirmations can be a good place to start.
Christian Affirmations: Why Use Them?
Christian Affirmations are one of the best ways to plant God’s word in your heart.
We battle with bad habits and mindsets everyday. Some are so ingrained in us we don’t even realize they are there. While other bad habits or mindsets may be clear to us, lasting change is often fleeting. But by changing your daily thoughts, you can change your life. As Christians, we are on a constant journey to renew our minds. Being a believer doesn’t exclude us from faulty thinking, bad habits, and destructive behavior.
Effective change comes only when we change our thoughts and allow them to penetrate our hearts. The Bible tells us that it is what’s in our heart that creates our reality or present circumstances. Whether you want to stop procrastinating, build a healthy marriage, increase your self-esteem, create abundance and healing, gain more confidence, walk by faith, make clear decisions or possess more joy and gratitude it all begins with your mind.
Making the Best Use of Christian Affirmations
Many people use affirmations to change or alter destructive or limiting beliefs. Christian affirmations can be quite effective if they are used consistently for at least 30 days. It takes time for the mind to embrace these new thoughts or beliefs as its own. However, affirmations can be even more effective if you do the following:
Listen to the affirmations in a state of relaxation. I have heard by experts that affirmations are 1000 times more effective if the mind is relaxed while listening to them. A relaxed mind is more open to suggestions and less likely to resist what is being said. Therefore, for best result, try listening to affirmations following the relaxation session or when you are in a restful state, like first thing in the morning before getting out of bed or while drifting off to sleep at night. It’s still a good idea to play affirmations in the background while driving or doing daily tasks. Usually during these times the mind is more relaxed and open as you are concentrating on something else.
Affirmations are also more effective if you are aware of your core limiting beliefs and can cancel them out. Many of the Christian affirmations will use a phrase like, “I release the need to.” This is a form of canceling out a limiting belief. When we don’t cancel them out, it’s like putting good on bad. Our internal conflict may continue to exist. Jesus told us to put new wine into new wine bottles. You’d never plan a flower garden without first digging up the weeds. We need to do the same when planting new affirmations in our mind if we want them to have a fighting chance.
Recently I created an affirmation for a friend who was suffering mentally and emotionally. As I spoke with my friend I realized that she had a strong limiting playing over and over in her mind. It was “It’s too late.” I told her that until she addressed her core limiting belief the affirmations would not take hold. I suggested that for every 20 times she said her positive affirmation, she needed to cancel out the limiting belief at least once. So twenty times she was to say, “By Jesus stripes I am healed, spirit, soul, and body.” Then she was to say, “I cancel the lie that it’s too late.” I spoke with her several days later and she reported that she noticed her mind was calming down by using this system.
So how do we discover our limiting beliefs? Well that’s another article, but the best place to begin is to listen to your thoughts especially any thoughts that tell you why you can’t do this or that. This is your inner critic also discouraging you to live from the heart.
- Eliminate debilitating beliefs
- Renew your mind for passion and purpose
- Stop self defeating behavior
- Get a new outlook on your circumstances
- Plant good seeds in your mind
- Say goodbye to your inner critic
Play Christian affirmations while driving, sitting in traffic, working, cleaning, and relaxing. They will actually help you to change the way you think!
How to Use Christian Affirmations to Displace Unwanted Thoughts
In her book, Discovering Your Purpose, author Ivy Haley states,“It’s difficult to change your behavior unless you change the inner picture. Here you must be diligent and watchful: watchful by staying aware of what’s going on in your mind and diligent to deal with negative thoughts by scuttling them and consciously turning your mind to something else. It’s possible to change your attitude by refocusing your mind.”
Your successes in life all begins with what you believe. There is a phrase that goes something like, “if you think you can, you’re right. If you think you can’t, you’re still right.”
Changing Our Views To Positively Impact Our Lives
We Create Our Circumstances by the Words We Speak
The e-book, promoted with our titled “You’re Already Living the Life of Your Dreams,” points out that the life you’re living right now is the life that you created. If a thought gets in our heart and we begin to talk about it, we’re going to bring that very thing to past.The logical conclusion is to just stop thinking about what we don’t want to create. Right! Well yes, but for most people, it’s not quite so simple because these thoughts are not passing fancies, they’re actually embedded into our subconscious mind. They have become a part of our mental script. A genuine prayer or conscious act to change may work for a brief moment (remember those New Year’s Resolutions), but within several hours or days the old tape starts running again.
According to Haley, we make unconscious beliefs and assumptions about ourselves all the time: This is who I am. I can do this. I can’t do this. People think this about me. This will work. This won’t. Our beliefs are the soil in which we plant the seeds that manifest into our lives. Unhealthy soil creates thwarted seeds and stifled plants. “Give yourself a target and program your mind everyday through explicit, visual messages that this is your actuality,” states Haley. “Our subconscious mind can’t tell the difference between a real experience and one that has been vividly imagined,” she declares. Affirmations literally help you to change the way you think by changing the content of your soil. The more healthy your beliefs the quicker you’ll reject unhealthy ones.
Finding Success by Repetition
The success in using affirmations is repetition. When you find yourself dwelling the same troublesome thoughts and depression, anxiety, or other toxic emotions begins to alter your mood, turn on your Christian Affirmation CD and let God’s word displace and attack every fiery dart of doubt and fear. Play the CD in the background at a low volume while you’re getting ready for work in the morning, at the office, driving in your car, doing your housework, and falling asleep. Before long, the affirmations will become a part of your new mental dialogue. When a destructive or negative thought tries to surface, your mind will automatically affirm God’s word and it will override your old conditioning. With affirmations, you’re not focusing on your old thoughts, you’re planting new thoughts that will eventually displace them.
Your Life Becomes What You Think
Proverbs 23:7 tells us, “What ever a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Matthew 12:34 declares, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45 emphasizes, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. So in short, what we think about, we talk about, and what we talk about we manifest, whether good or bad.
For example, you may have difficulty paying your bills on time. You begin to worry about (think or dwell upon) how you are going to make ends meet. You get around your family and friends and all you talk about is how in debt you are. No matter what you do, your debt seems to increase. It becomes a vicious cycle. It’s like the more your think about your problems the bigger it becomes.
You think about debt. (think)
You talk about debt. (speak)
You create debt. (manifestation)
The same holds true when we focus on the negative in our relationships, jobs, friendships, and more. When we dwell on our problems or lack, in reality, we’re living in a state of insecurity and fear. Fear is the opposite of faith. The Bible tells us that “without faith it is impossible to please God.” Instead, the scripture tell us to speak those things that are not as though they already were. Before something can manifest in the tangible world, it must be created in the spiritual world. That’s why Jesus said, whatever we bind on earth is bound in Heaven and whatever we loose on earth is loosed in Heaven. There is a direct connection between what goes on in Heaven and Earth. Everything we see first began with a thought that we nurtured with our attention and words.
If you find yourself battling with the same old bad habits or unhealthy behaviors chances are your mental script needs an overall. If our thoughts control our behavior, then we need to replace unhealthy thoughts with healthy thoughts by focusing on what we want to achieve instead of what we lack. Focusing on lack produces more lack. Therefore, if you are in debt, think about God’s abundance and overflowing blessings in your life. If you are fearful, fill your mind with scriptures or affirmations regarding God’s protection and safety. If you are doubtful, build up your most wholly faith with scriptures attesting to God’s faithfulness. If you are having problems in your marriage, instead of belaboring what your partner doesn’t do, meditate on thoughts that will create a healthy and loving relationship. It will change the way you see your mate. Christian affirmations, if listened to consistently for a period of time, will help you to change the way you think resulting in a change of behavior.
Using Christian Affirmations to Recreate Your Life
Christian affirmations are positive statements that you tell yourself to believe. They can help you create the life that you want because your actions are governed by your thoughts. You will find the most powerful and beautiful affirmations from God’s own book, the Holy Bible.
Be Strong and Confident in Life
“I can do all things through Christ.” Norman Vincent Peale, a world renowned lecturer and author of many books call this verse from the Bible as “the seven magic words”. Many times you are faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles in life. Saying this affirmation constantly to yourself will give you the realization that there is nothing you can’t do with God by your side.
Have Peace and Contentment in Life
“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” This verse from Psalm 23 of the New Testament of the Bible can bring so much peace to one’s heart and mind especially in times of trouble. It creates the feeling of assurance that you are always safe with the Lord. You know that He will never let you go astray from the path of righteousness if you follow Him.
Be Healthy and Overcome Diseases
“I am the Lord that healeth thee.” What a consoling affirmation for people faced with illness. A visit to the doctor can scare you out of your wits. Or he may sap your energy with his frightening findings about your health. God promises healing to those who seek Him. There are so many stories of miraculous recoveries from life threatening diseases which are attributed to faith. What is indeed impossible with man is possible with God. Even doctors acknowledge that they are merely instruments of God. Spiritually healthy people are healthier according to findings. They also recover faster from sickness compared to those who don’t practice their faith.
Delight in God and Get the Desires of your Heart
“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” This beautiful verse from Proverbs 37:4 brings cheer and joy. Just like a loving father, God bestows blessings to those who love Him. God wants you to be happy because you are His child. When you have a joyful heart because of loving the Lord, you radiate this joy to other people. Positive feelings can result in so many good things and more happiness in life.
Positive affirmations cost nothing unlike synthetic drugs used to treat depression and other psychological problems. Why not try them? They can make your life more meaningful. You only need to believe the truth behind these words to help you create the life you want.
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