Ok..so I posted twice in one day...

We should seek Truth, regardless of how it makes us feel, whether it is positive or negative. Paul says he has no confidence in the flesh. Over-confidence is a deadly form of pride, and relying totally on positive, encouraging input is a recipe for disaster. Maybe your only hope is to lose confidence! If you are in the flesh then you need to be brought to a place of discouragement - the sooner the better! Maybe the secret to overcoming is not in shouting the victory but crying out to God in despair and admitting defeat. What if, instead of embracing positive and encouraging thoughts about ourselves, we go to God and freely admit that in spite of all our positive and encouraging helps we have made a total mess of things and we don't know what to do?

We need to revisit our Christianized value system and ask some hard questions. What makes a message "good"? What makes a church service "edifying"? What makes a Christian song "anointed"? What makes a ministry "positive and encouraging"? Does God even consider these things as important criteria at the judgment seat of Christ? Do I judge these things with righteous judgment, or do I judge them by my feelings?

Why are a certain Christian personalities popular? Why do I read their books and listen to their messages? Will a steady diet of positive and encouraging words cause me to see myself as I am, or will it seduce me into thinking I'm better than I really am? Do I wish to be entertained into spiritual dullness or challenged into spiritual maturity? Am I going to eat cotton candy and bubble gum for the rest of my life or am I going to seek strong meat?

Sometimes, in spite of my best efforts to put a happy spin on things, the most positive and encouraging thing I can say to a person is, "I encourage you to repent, because if you don't, I'm positive that your life will only get worse. I encourage you to lose all confidence in yourself, take up the cross, and put your life in the very capable hands of Another, because I am positive that apart from Him you can do nothing." The more self-centered you are the more negative and discouraging this sounds - and that is EXACTLY the way it should be. ~C. Brogden