PEACE OF MIND – 5 – The Negativity Loop The Negativity Loop

Welcome everyone to Redemption Church! We are worshipping the Lord and experiencing His promises in Plano Tx.
Thank you for joining us today in person and online. We are thankful for you.

Peace of Mind

We are in the 5th week of our series on mental health called Peace of Mind. And I want us to get to the message as soon as possible, but there is a problem in the church I have to handle.

Someone in this church has been talking bad about me. I have tried to ignore it and let it slide, but it has become a huge problem and I have to address it. I usually don’t public confront and call out people, but today I am going to…

Someone has been lying about me and here they are.

 

No one talks bad about me, Chris Fluitt, like me, Chris Fluitt. There are negative, nasty, and untrue things that I say about myself that I would never say about anyone else.

I have never looked at anyone else and said, “You idiot,” But I have often said that of myself.
I have never told anyone how worthless they are, but I have said it of myself.
I am known for my optimism and can do spirit when I talk to others, but inside my own mind I often tell myself “why bother? You are a failure.”

 

I wonder if you can relate. What do you say when you talk to yourself?

I am not talking about the reminders you give yourself to go pick up milk, and don’t forget to pick up the kids after school. I am talking about your ongoing SELF-TALK. What is it you say to yourself over & over again?

Today we are talking about Negativity in a message I have entitled
The Negativity Loop The Negativity Loop

 

“Loop thinking” can be described as feeling like a prisoner of your thoughts, being trapped in a series of emotions and thoughts that seem to repeat themselves over and over again.

What are your negative loop thoughts?

• When you look at your self – “I am always going to be a fat slob.”
• When you are in traffic – “Of course you are going to get in my way!”
• Your thought son money – “I am always going to struggle.”
• With your relationships – “I can’t really trust them.”
• When you do something wrong – “You idiot. You can’t do anything right.”

And the loop goes on. And the loop goes on.

What do you say when you talk to yourself?

 

God teaches us in His Word that what you say to yourself matters more than you can imagine.

 

Proverbs 4:23 (GNT) Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.

It is not just silly self-talk. It matters! It shapes your life.

 

Law of Cognition
Think -> Believe -> Feel -> Act

Scientists call this the Law of Cognition. Here is a simple version of this law…
What you think effects what you believe.  And what you believe effects how you feel. Ultimately how you feel effects what you will do.

When we see in the news where someone did something really bad, we often ask “How could they DO that?”

Attached to what they DID was how they felt… attached to how they felt is what they believed…. Attached to what they believed is how they thought.

 

I like this quote from Pastor and author David Tripp

“No one is more influential in your life than you are, because no one talks to you more than you do.” Dr. Paul David Tripp

We must change the way we THINK if we are going to change our life. Some of us are talking yourself into a life that you hate.

 

Your thoughts have incredible power

There is no question that this is true. Scripture tells us. Our experience informs us.

The biggest difference in success and failure in life is not… social economic, cultural, and systemic privileges… but how a person thinks.

Your thoughts can lead you to overcome any obstacle!
Your thoughts can burry you and convince you to not even try.

Your thoughts have incredible power
You have incredible power over your thoughts.

You do not have to be held hostage by your thoughts. You are not a powerless victim of your thoughts.

BY THE POWER OF GOD, you can change your thoughts. And changing your thoughts ends up changing the way you live.

Romans 8:5 (NIV) Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

Two ways of life present in this verse.
The flesh – not your skin, but a sinful nature. The Spirit – not a ghost, but God’s Spirit and will.
The difference between these two ways of life is the setting of the mind.

Is there any difference between these two lives?

Romans 8:6 (NIV) The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

How do you want to live? 
Destructive thoughts or thoughts that are full of life and peace?

 

Why are negative thoughts so powerfully toxic?

According to neuroscience there is a thing called negativity bias.

Negativity Bias – Negative events imprint on our brains more quickly and linger longer than positive ones.

-What spreads faster on social media? Something positive or something negative?

-On the news app what story gets the most clicks? The positive story or the negative story?

-When you give a presentation and you get 10 positive responses to your work, but you get 1 negative feedback… what does your mind dwell on?

 

You are wired for fight or flight when you are in danger. In stressful situations, God designed our brains to release cortisol into our blood system. It makes us more alert, focused, and ready to respond.

When we are in a constant negative loop we are always in a state of stress. Our body, our mind, our heart is overwhelmed by this constant state of emergency. Our bodies feel like they are in danger! We were not designed to always be ON EDGE!

The mind that is GOVERNED BY THE FLESH IS…. Death!   This is killing us!

Heart attacks on the rise.
The need for medicine for anxiousness all-time high.
Mental and physical exhaustion is high.

 

The negative… thoughts, people, news, feelings, memories, actions… we are exposed to it constantly.

 

In week 1 we showed you actual neurons connecting.

All these negative thoughts are connecting neural pathways in your mind.

When you think a thought once it becomes easier to think it again. Your Negativity becomes a habit.

 

Negativity becomes a habit

What is your negativity habit?  Let’s identify it today so that we can change it.

 

Cognitive distortions (15 listed here https://psychcentral.com/lib/cognitive-distortions-negative-thinking#list-and-examples)

4 Areas of Negativity

Cynicism – a general distrust for people and their motives.

Your distrust of the motives of others often reveal your problem with your own motives.

Negative Filtering – seeing what’s wrong, while overlooking what’s good/right.

The kids were supposed to be back at 7… it is 6:55 they must have been in a terrible car accident.
My friend did not text me back, they must be angry.
I was not perfect on my strict diet today… I am a failure.

Absolute Thinking – Polarizing All or Nothing thoughts.

ALL _______ ARE __________.  Christians, Churches, Democrats and Republicans, Men and Women…

Blaming – Believing you’re always a victim.

You feel out of control, powerless, and too weak to change your life.

 

Can people change? This was the focus of a study.

New surgical procedure

They told people about a new surgical procedure and gave the rates of success and failure.

70% Success          30% Failure

This is the exact same procedure but there are different outcomes. 70% positive and 30% negative….

However, when they asked the people in this study if they wanted the procedure they asked one of two ways…

Half of the people they presented the procedure with the positive. “Do you want to try this procedure with a 70% success rate?”  How do you think they people responded?

70% Success          30% Failure
*Check Mark*

Predictably they reacted positively to the positive presentation.

The other half of the people they presented the procedure with the negative. “Do you want to try this procedure with a 30% failure rate?”  How do you think they people responded?

70% Success          30% Failure
*Check Mark*       *X mark*

The study was not on how people respond to positive and negative thought… that is predictable… the study was about could they change from positive to negative and negative to positive. If we change the narrative, will it change how they think?

They followed up with the people who said yes, they would be willing to have the procedure done with a 70% success rate. They then told them “Listen we have to tell you that there is also a 30% failure rate. Do you still want to have the procedure?”  How do you think they responded? Did they stay positive?

70% Success          30% Failure
*Check Mark*       *X Mark*
*X Mark*

They went negative and decided not to do the procedure.

Then they went to the initially negative and they said “Listen we understand that the chance of failure concerns you, but we also want you to know that 70% of these procedures succeed. Do you want to reconsider?”  How do you think they responded? Did they stay negative?

70% Success          30% Failure
*Check Mark*       *X Mark*
*X Mark*     *X Mark*

They stayed negative.

What does this mean?

Those that were initially positive moved easily to negative.
Those that were initially negative were resistant to moving to the positive.

Negativity Bias – Negative events imprint on our brains more quickly and linger longer than positive ones.

We are talking about trauma next week. Some of you have experienced something so negative in your life and it needs to be addressed. Those negative events imprint on us and we need God to help us.

A simple change of conversation changed people from positive to negative.
But it is not so simple to change people who have experienced the negative.
  -Same procedure.
  -Simple math.
  -stayed negative.

You will need more than a pep talk to change your mind and set you free from your negative loop.
You will need more than a simple explanation of how positive is better than negative.
You will need more than an inspirational poster with a kitty climbing a rope and text that says “hang in there.”

 

I believe that change in your mind is more SUPERNATURAL than NATURAL.

Negativity spreads so much faster than positivity.
The negative bias is real… but God is real and He is able to change you from the inside out.

 

I am closing.

I have a single simple story to share with you from 1 Samuel 30.

David is hit with more negativity than he can handle.

David is on the run from King Saul who is trying to kill him. It was already one of the most difficult times of his life…

1 Samuel 30:3-6* (NIV) When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. 5 David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 6 David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters…

 

While David and his men were trying to do good elsewhere, enemies came, and they burnt their homes and took their wives and children.

In the middle of this unthinkable negative event, it gets worse…

David’s own men blame him and plot to kill him.

David has enemies on top of enemies.
David looks around and sees no allies.

Some of you feel like this. Enemies on top of enemies and no allies to be found.
You have had good things taken and destroyed.
You have been blamed and others plot against you.

Here is what David did.

…but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God. 1 Sam 30:6 KJV

How did David do that?  What did David say? Did he sing, pray, or fall on his face and worship? We don’t know. We aren’t told.

In the following verses David does pray… but here, in the moment before, he encourages himself in the Lord his God.

I want to suggest that in that moment David SET HIS MIND ON GOD.  The mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
 

That story ends well. David and his men defeat that army and rescue every woman and child.

 

My final thought is this… It takes a lot of time and effort in the natural to overcome negativity bias. It is possible but very difficult to build positive neural pathways.

But if you will take your mind and focus it on God, He is able to change your thoughts and change the situation.

You can be encouraged in the Lord Your God today.

Break the negativity loop…

Come think on God.
Come speak His Word.
Come worship.
Come surrender.
Come receive something supernatural.