Positive Thinking

TO THE EDITOR:

Most people have heard of positive thinking from authors like Norman Vincent Peale. So is positive thinking just another word for faith? The positive thinking theory implies that one’s positive or negative thoughts influence a person’s own body and personality and ultimate health. Such influence is believed to affect not only other people but also the entire world. This is an ancient occult belief and proponents claim we all have mysterious psychic power.

However, Mark 11:22 says, “Have faith in God.” Faith is placed in God and His omnipotence, not in the alleged power of the mind. The positive thinker doesn’t care if God is real or not. All that matters is what a person believes. People who have confused positive thinking with faith don’t believe in God and His truth. They have been badly deceived in both worldly and eternal issues.

This choice follows: Either we trust some weird psychic mind power or we choose God’s infinite power. Only a fool would embrace the power of one’s mind over the power of God. Submission to God’s will is an ever so important element of faith. Faith trusts God to fulfill His Word and to effect His will in a person’s life.

Another error is that numerous religious people try to use “faith” to cause God to effect their will by using prayer to get their own way. In Luke 22:42 Jesus says, “Father … not my will, but thine, be done.”

Remember Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”? He besought the Lord three times that it might depart from him. But the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Corin. 12:9)

No person can have faith in God, i.e., absolute and total trust in Him, without knowing Him. God is wiser than any human being. So rather than trying to get one’s own finite and fallible will done, doesn’t it make sense to trust God’s infinite wisdom and love to effect what is best in a person’s life?

Marilyn Sager

Houghton