I hope you're having a wonderful day. Happy Thanksgiving from me. And I pray that your time with your family be well spent and you're blessed to be a blessing. - Welcome to Mind Matters with Dr. J. A. Jones. Dr. Jones is the head pastor of the Faith Community Church of God in Orange Park, Florida. Relationships, finances, our spiritual life, whatever it is, our problems start within in our minds. Dr. Jones explores mental wellness through the application of God's word in our lives. It's just what the doctor ordered. Let's join him now and dig into Mind Matters because your mind matters to God. - Welcome back to Mind Matters where we're going to talk about the keys to healthy, fulfilling and a God-centered life. Today we're gonna tackle the challenge which we talked about last week as relates to an addiction to negative thinking because negative thoughts can be so ingrained in our minds that they feel impossible to escape or we may not even recognize it, right? Somebody else may recognize that you're a negative person and that's why sometimes people cut the conversation short or they don't spend a lot of time with you like they used to. No one wants to be around somebody, a spouse, a family member, a co-worker that are very negative consistently. So we're gonna help you today with part two of breaking addiction to negative thinking. I have a special guest with me, Cindy Jones, anything you wanna share with our audience before we get started today. - Glad to be here with you, Dr. Jones. - Yes. - And yes, like I said, this is a very good subject and one that many don't recognize that they are in or have. - Right. - A lot of times when we're around people that complain a lot and they're complaining about what they see instead of giving a good report of the good that is present and not realizing that they are being negative because of their thinking. - Absolutely. So last week we talked about understanding the roots of negativity, negative thinking that is and it is negativity and then there's dangers to negative thinking because it can impact your mental health, your relationships and even your physical wellbeing. So today we're gonna pick up on point number three, identifying and challenging negative thoughts. And we did ask these questions, ask yourself this, is this true? Is it helpful? Does it align with what God says about me? I'm talking about when a person thinks negative of themselves. - Oh, okay. - Right? I wanna start there because it's all about us recognizing and paying attention to what we give our attention to because if sometimes a person don't know that negative and if they don't know that negative, they really are doing that negative life very well, right? So here's the scripture, it says 2 Corinthians chapter 10, it says, "Casting down arguments and every high thing "that exalt itself against the knowledge of God, "bringing every thought into captivity "to the obedience of Christ." - That's a good, the obedience of Christ. How can I change my behavior? How can I change what has been said about me and how I think about myself? 'Cause a lot of times we think about ourselves based on what somebody has said about us. Well, this early childhood and then somebody else comes along later and they confirm that again or mention it again. And many times we don't realize that the enemy with that we have an enemy that knows how that thought or that comment affected us the first time and he will come back and have somebody else to say it again just to bring us down to diminish our self-esteem. So we gotta recognize that and if it is a fact, I ain't gonna say true, if it's a fact in our life, how can we change that? How can I improve myself to be better or not to be what they have accused me of, remember the enemy is an accuser of the brother? Yes. What they have accused me of being. Yes. And we can change that. Oh yes, yeah, yeah. Everything can be changed because life is about fluid. We are changing whether we recognize it or not, but we can choose to make the right changes to become a better person in how we're thinking about ourselves than we can look at other people differently instead of negatively, right? Here's a description Isaiah 26 and three. It says you would keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. Yes. I think peace comes when we know again who we are and who's we are and knowing that and staying connected to the true source of life which is God and his strength and God's wisdom that comes from the scripture. The Bible said wisdom is the principle thing, but with all our getting, we have to get understanding. Right. Well, I'm talking about whatever we have to do, we've got to get understanding. If we have to be in convenience and we have to stay up late, we have to get up early and read the word or have the right conversation with ourselves and sometimes we just got to talk to ourselves. Sometimes we got to talk to God. Well, yes, we talk to God then talk to ourselves. We got to do that. Because a lot of times the change can come just by asking him to change us. Okay, that's what you mean by talking to God. Okay, say it one more time. Sometimes we have to talk to God. We need to talk to him all the time. Prayer is supposed to be like breathing, you know. Prayer is supposed to be like breathing. Yes, they pray without ceasing. Yes. And so when someone says something negative about us or we thinking negative about ourselves, we can just simply ask God, Lord, change me. Help me not to be this way, you know. And he will, he will. Absolutely. He will bring it to our attention. 'Cause this point we're on is identifying and challenging the thoughts, the negative thoughts. So the way we challenge it is what does God say it's about us? And if we notice what's going on or someone accused us of being a certain way, we can say, Lord, change me. It's that I won't beat that way anymore. And then God will bring it to our attention so we can change. Absolutely. And that's why I like these questions that I have. Is it true? Is it helpful? Does it align with what God says about me? Because challenging your thoughts is like being a detective. It can be, right? You gather evidence, examine the facts and determine whether that thought holds up under scrutiny. Most negative thoughts won't stand a chance when you bring them to the light of the truth. That means when you bring them to prayer, when you bring them to the Word of God, when you bring them out, you got to address them, right? So just imagine your negative thoughts or as annoying friend who's always pessimistic, right? I used to have a friend like that, especially in school. I mean, he was always negative, negative, negative. I said, oh my goodness, got to get away from him. Go to the ball field or get out of the classroom or whatever, you know? Because that person always want to find a negative, you know? And I was just saying, man, stop it. And I don't got time to hear all that drama. Don't be talking about me like that. And big lips, egg head. You should call me all type of name. I was bullied, right? Nobody ever was bullied, but me. I know, I know, I know, I know. But think about it, it's like being, you know, in a beautiful garden where I like to talk about gardens and I know you do too as well. But only focusing on the ugly patch of dirt, but you got a beautiful garden. But you only focus on the patch of dirt instead of enjoying, really enjoying the flowers that is blooming, right? Because there's no garden that's perfect. That's nothing that's perfect. That's only one person, that's God. - Right. - Right? All right, and that's important. All right, let's move on. Can we move on? - Before we move on. - All right. - Just remember that everything that is seen is subject to change. - Do you really? You're sure about that? - Everything that is seen is subject to change. - I agree, I agree. - And so the word tells us we walk by faith and not by sight. - Yes. - And what is your acronyms for faith? - Yeah, forward action, entrusting him. - Yes. - Forward action, entrusting him. - So we can put some action to making a change in the way that we think, - Yes. - Even though we may not see it at the moment, but by faith, we are changing. - Yes, yes. - We are changing. We can change our thoughts. - Absolutely. Now the fourth thing is this, replacing negative thoughts with God's truth. Because once you identified and challenge your negative thoughts, the next step is to replace them with positive truth-based thoughts. Because this isn't about positive thinking for its own sake, just to think positive, right? But it's filling your mind with what God says about you and your situation. - Yes. - The scripture said in Ephesians chapter four, verse 23, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind." Man, I like that. - I faith, I faith. - I like that. - Forward action, entrusting him. - And John chapter eight, verse 32 says, "And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." - Yes. - So we have to replace negative thoughts with God's truth, which is this word, pretty much, right? Because sometimes you got to think of our mind as a computer. When a negative thought pops up, it's like a virus trying to corrupt your system. Replace it with God's truth, and you'll be installing the best antivirus software there is, period, right? Because nothing can overcome the truth. Nothing can overcome the word of God. Nothing can overcome it. - This word is truth. - Right. - And so we live-- - Absolutely. - Around a lot of facts, but that doesn't make it true. No, facts doesn't make it true. I like that and I wanna flesh that out shortly. That is true. Oh my goodness, I love that. All right, I don't wanna go down a different trail here. I wanna stay on point, but that's true though. That's true facts are facts, and we can look at it from a different perspective, and it's so important. All right, let's move on. We talked about number four, right? Thank you for tuning in to My Matters, and we are discussing something that's so important in how to break the addiction to negative thinking, because a lot of people don't know how to do certain things, and hopefully we have given you a blueprint, and we have given you a layout on how to move forward from negative to better thinking, right? 'Cause a lot of times people are thinking very badly, but you can go from bad to better to best. That's my formula. You can go from bad thinking to better thinking, and you get to the best place. So it's important for us to understand that as we move forward in replacing negative thoughts with God's truth. The fifth one is this. Developing a habit, it's so important, right? Habits are key. Developing a habit of gratitude and positivity. I think that's so key to have that incredible understanding. So before I say that, I really wanna go back for a second as it relates to negative thoughts with God's truth. Do you ever have a playlist? - Yes, as a matter of fact, that is on my agenda to make a good playlist of Christian songs that people can dance to. - What the, that people can dance to? Okay, I like that, okay? - Yes. - Yes, people can have a good time. 'Cause in Christian music, you got all types of songs and beats and so forth. You don't necessarily have to go to the world's music to have a good time. - Absolutely. - Okay, and as we are talking about negative thoughts and positive thoughts, Christian music has those good words in it, good programming. So yes, I am going to put together a good playlist so you can have a good time too. - Absolutely. And I know you love music and I do too as well. I used to play professionally as a trumpet player and a baritone player in the United States Army band. So I played in different places, obviously listening, heard all types of music that can be heard or played. So I'm a musical guy as well and I do like that, but I'm glad that you're gonna put together a playlist because so I think that's important, right? And a lot of times people have their own mental playlist is looping in their mind, you know? That's what we call a loop as well and that's important to know as we move forward in this episode. (upbeat music) - Dr. Jones is the pastor of Faith Community Church of God in Orange Park, reaching a heart and world with the love of Jesus. We thank you for listening to Mind Matters and we encourage you to show support for the many community outreach ministries that Dr. Jones and Faith Community Church tend to. You can give at Faith Community's website, faithccop.org or just text money sign and the amount you want to give to 833-435-8022. That's 833-435-8022. We are blessed to be a blessing. Now let's get back to the program. - Because, you know, it's like swapping out an old negative playlist with a new one, full of uplifting songs. - That's what I'm talking about. - And that's what you're talking about, replacing negative thoughts with God's truth because you and listen to the same depressing song on repeat, right? Repeat, repeat, repeat or a loop? No. So why let negative thoughts play over and over and over in your mind? - Correct. - We can control that because we have a choice. - Yes. And I think that's something that we have to realize that we have to think on purpose. - Yes, yes. - As you mentioned earlier, pay attention to what you're thinking about. Pay attention to what's going on in your mind. Think for yourself and see where at a time in the world or in society, wherever you want to call it, of technology, where technology is trying to do all our thinking for us. AI, artificial intelligence. It wants to do everything for it. So you don't have to think, you know? And so we got to get away. Pay attention to what is going on around us. We have to think for ourselves. If we don't think for ourselves, somebody would do the thinking for us and will control us. - Yes. - And we know that the enemy is the prince of the air, the airwaves and what is his job to kill, steal and destroy. So he can do that very easily when you're not thinking for yourself. I love that because I'm a thinking guy. I love to think. And that statement that I came up with, pay attention to what you, I like how, I want to say it this way because it's so important. Pay attention to what you give your attention to. Because we are thinking creatures. We think about a lot of things. Matter of fact, right? They've proven that we think 50 to 80,000 thoughts a day. So we have to pay attention to the repetitive thoughts that are negative, repetitive thoughts. And we're already talking about, you got to realize where they come from. They may come from childhood adversity. We was always around negative. So we're going to become a negative person, just like a hurt person will hurt another person. An abused person will abuse another person. A neglected individual will eventually neglect someone that's in their bloodline or their family. And a lot of times people are not aware. - Yes. - To me, that's really the most important thing that we can become, aware. - Definitely. - If I say, send it there's a bug crawling on your shirt in the back. You're going to say, oop, oop, really get that bug off. I can't see it. You're not aware, right? - Right. - Or a mosquito flying around, you're not aware. So sometimes God brings people in our lives to make us aware. - Yes. - So as you're listening to this radio show, myself, Dr. Jones and Cindy Jones, we want to make sure that you are a person that have a level of awareness about your life and how you're thinking or people around you. Because some things you don't need to put up with. You don't have to put up with negative thoughts in your own life or someone else. Because they're in a loop, you may know somebody. And thank you for tuning in to Mind Matters. There's somebody in your circle that they are in a loop. They have their own mental playlists and it's full of negative music. It's full of negativity. - And we can control our lives with the help of God. We want to help God to lead us and guide us. But when we have to take responsibility for our own lives and that is giving attention to what we are giving our attention to. - Absolutely. - Just say that right. - No, you're good, yeah, I like that. Okay, say it one more time and make sure you know what you're talking about. - Pay attention to what we're giving our attention to. - All right, cool, cool, I'm with it. 'Cause you gotta say it the right way. That was my statement, my insightful idea. I came up with that on my own. All right, the last thing is this, you gotta develop a habit of gratitude and positivity. The final step to breaking the addiction and what we're talking about today, to negative thinking is this, develop a habit of gratitude and positivity. Because when you focus, I love this word, we talk about another show about focus, what that actually means. When you focus on what you're grateful or thankful for, it is very hard for negativity to take root. - That's good. - Start each day by listing or writing down or having a mental thought about things you are grateful for. And I guarantee you, it's gonna transform your outlook because the Bible said in first Thessalonians, chapter number five, verse 18, I think in everything give things. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus, concerning you, of for you. Now, as-- - In. - Go ahead, break it down. - In everything. - What does that mean? - What does that mean? - No matter what your circumstances are, in everything give things. - Right. - Because, you know, as Kurt Prank has said, it could've been me. - Okay. - You know, your circumstances could always be worse than it is. And so, in everything give things to God for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. - Well, I said it's gotta be tough now. I had a car accident about five, six months ago. I don't know if I was thankful for that. - Not for the accident, but in the accident. - Oh, I got it. You're saying not for these bad things, but in those bad things. - Yes. - That's a different perspective. - God, I'm still here. Thank you. - Amen. - Yes, 'cause it could've been worse. - Yep, somebody T-boned me. Oh my goodness. - Yes. - No, I'm, don't get emotional about it. - You don't wait 'til the funeral of somebody that got hit the same way. - I was on the way to the funeral. - But you're still here. - I'm still here. God has a purpose. - Thank you, Lord. - Amen. - Thank you, Lord. - Oh, yes. Now, the script, I love it because in everything, I like how you broke it down because it's not about for everything, but it's why you're going through it. - Yes. - Why you in it? Because it shifts our perspective. - Yes. - It helps our mind to be in the right framework of thinking and then we're gonna live better. Oh, we're gonna feel a different energy of vibe about it. - Yes. - Right? The scripture says this also, set your mind on things above. That's Colossians chapter three verse two. Then it says, not on things on the earth. It's not that we should not think about things on earth, but our primary focus or our mindset should be from heaven to earth or based on what the word says and how we should live. Because of Mary Hart. - We're passing through. - Yeah, we're passing through. - We're passing through. So as I said, everything we see is subject to change. It's not gonna be like this all the way. This too shall pass. - Yes. - This too shall pass. - Yes. - Yes, trouble don't last all ways. - Hallelujah. Yeah. I was thinking about some things way early this morning. Like four, 35 o'clock, that's on my mind from the yesterday, right? Remember we talking about repetitive thoughts and it's like, oh my God, how am I gonna do this? How am I gonna get all this money to pay for this bill that I didn't create? - Or order my state. - Lord, I'm serious. I said, oh my goodness. - Thank you for showing me like a shield. - So yes. - Thank you for favor. - He's gonna work this out. - He's gonna work it out. I really was. - It's not mine, the battle is yours. - Right, and that was enormous. It's still an enormous amount of money that hadn't come in yet, but it will. It will work out because I do believe what you're saying and I think is, I know it's true because it's biblical. And what we're talking about, thank you for tuning in to Mind Matters. We are discussing part two on breaking addiction to negative thinking. How you can rewire your mind for a positive and fulfilling life. - Yes. - And that's very, very important. We already talked about understanding the roots of negative thinking, having that understanding, right? Very, very important. And then we talked about what was the second thing as relates to that, the dangers of negative thinking. And then we talked about the third thing is identifying and challenging negative thinking. The fourth thing were replacing negative thoughts with God's truth. And here's our last point as relates to breaking addiction to negative thinking. Develop a habit of gratitude and positivity. And that's so important because again, we're gonna go back to the garden, right? Gratitude is like watering the flowers in your mental garden. The more you water them, the more they grow and crowd out the weeds of negativity and over time, your mind will organically focus on positive things. And I think that's so important because even when we think about the word water, it's just like the word of God. The Bible referred to the word of God like water in the water, like the word per se, right? The watching of the word, the watching. So because it's like choosing to focus, you gotta choose to focus, right? On sunny days, instead of rainy ones, it's so important because even a rain is a blessing, but you gotta choose to focus on what's going right instead of what's going wrong. Because rain is a part of our life. - Right. - Pain may be a part of our life. Darkness will come, but the light it will still be there because life is about polarity. It gotta choose what you focus on, what your attention is toward. That's what focus means. What are you paying attention to, right? You can always find good, no matter how bad things get, but it's not always easy to do. And that's why we're talking about how to break this cycle because it's a cycle, it's an addictive cycle to negative thinking. - Yes, I know one of your scriptures was talking about anxiety of the heart. And then in Proverbs 17, 22, it says, "A merry heart does good like a medicine, "but a broken spirit drives the bone." Anxiety is a form of fear. It's like you anticipating something bad is gonna happen. You wondering, just looking for it. - Right. - Trying to figure it out in it and then ask stress to the body. - It does add stress to the body. - A lot of things that causes stress on our bodies is because of where it started in our mind. And this is mind matters. - Right, yeah, this mind matters radio, so with myself, absolutely. - Yes, all these mind things, things that's going on in the mind affects our bodies. And so when we think and we change, we identify and where we purposely change our thought life or our thoughts. And then it says, "A merry heart is like a medicine." Because when you change it to the positive thought and you speak those things that be not as though they were, that's what God does. And then makes the heart marry. - And you're thankful, thankful in everything. Give thanks in everything. Give thanks for this is the will of God. - That means you can cast all your burdens on him because he cares for you. And that's the key to what we're talking about in a nutshell, how to break this addiction to negative thinking. Thank you for being with me first lady. - Oh, grateful, grateful, grateful. - All right, so as we conclude this particular show, breaking free from negative thinking, it's a journey. I want everyone to know. It's a journey. But it's one that will lead to healthier, happier, joyful lives, all right? Your life would be more joyful by understanding the roots of negative thinking, challenging those thoughts, replacing them with God's truth and cultivating a habit of gratitude. You can overcome this addiction. You can overcome this addiction. You can overcome this addiction and embrace the positive life God has planned for you. Remember, it's not about ignoring the challenges of life but choosing to see them through the lens of faith and truth. Thank you for joining me today on Mind Matters Today. I pray that your mind be filled with God's peace and your life will be full of his joy until next time. Keep your thoughts grounded in the truth and your heart open to the goodness around you. Thanks for tuning into another episode of Mind Matters with Dr. J. A. Jones. Be sure to tune in next Sunday at 5 p.m. right here on Praise 107.9. For more insightful discussion about how God's word can get our minds right. You can also hear Dr. Jones preach in person Sundays at 11 a.m. at Faith Community Church of God at 1268 Gano Avenue in Orange Park, Florida, 32073. Thanks again for listening. Stay mindful and keep striving for improvement because your mind matters to God. (upbeat music)
