Positive believing not positive thinking.
I bet you do what I do all the time, “Stop doing…!” You fill in the blank. You feel the Spirit’s conviction. You know what you’re doing is sin/self-destructive. So now you try to stop making that sinful choice.
Sounds spiritual doesn’t? It kind of is. Yet, the problem is that saying what you’re not going to do actually reinforces that very choice in your brain; and, it makes it harder to stop making that destructive choice the next time.
So if we say to ourselves, “I’m going to stop doing such and such.” Guess what neurons/thoughts we’ve just reinforced in our brains? Such and such!
What we need to start staying is, “I’m going to do….” Tell your brain the truth the Spirit wants you to do. By doing so, you’re reinforcing the truth thought/neuron that will eventually grow and completely set you free from the old programming/flesh.
Scripture calls this “renewing your mind. Put another way, it’s reverse engineering. We reverse the order of our thoughts and words. We tell ourselves, “I’m going to do such and such (the truth);” rather than, “I’m going to stop doing such and such (lie).”
This is positive believing not positive thinking. You’re telling yourself the Spirit-given truth and then acting by faith on that truth believing it will set you free as Jesus says it will.
Start your own reverse engineering process. Focus on the truth that brings freedom tomorrow today.