Lean not on your own Understanding

Try not to lean on your own understanding when it comes to your perceived self image. Consider what Shlomo (Solomon) said in Proverbs 3:5 Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

So what does it mean to lean on our own understanding? I believe that the proverb is referring to how we perceive ourselves based on how we were spoken to as we grew from childhood to an adult state. So let’s say that we were constantly told negative and hurtful words. It would stand to reason that your own understanding would be a direct response to those negative thoughts and feelings. Therefore the Proverb is encouraging us to trust in Yahweh and to change our understanding to reflect how Yahweh perceives us.

Remember Yahweh considers His people to be a “special treasure” so if you consider yourself to be among Yahweh’s chosen people you need to change your negative understanding of yourself. As I’ve gone through my life journey I have come to realize that I must strengthen my resolve that as I have “special treasure” status I need to stop looking at my present situation to shape my view of myself and focus on the place that Yahweh has put me in. This place is a secure and peaceful one where I can enjoy the support of Yahweh’s grace and mercy. 

So as I go out into the world I need to hold fast to the words that Yahweh has spoken of me. This is to give me confidence that I can stand up to the doubt vendors that try to sell me on the idea that I’m less then what Yahweh has spoken of me.       

Words we say to others

Words that we say about others are just as important as the words we say to ourselves. I discovered a long while ago that the way I viewed others was a reflection of how I felt about myself. For example; if I thought someone was speaking a negative word about themselves I found myself getting upset with that person. I came to understand that I have had a tendency to speak negatively about myself which I then got upset with myself about. Therefore what I was upset about within me became a sticking point for me with others. So it would make sense that the less negative I spoke about myself the less I will be affected by the way others talk about themselves.

So now with all of that wisdom flowing within me, if I hear someone talking negative about themselves, instead of getting upset with them I can offer them a word of encouragement.

If I hadn’t dealt with my own internal situation it would be difficult for me to be in the place were I can offer words of light and truth to others. So I would like to offer these words of encouragement to you. You do have a choice as to the way you speak to those around you. You can offer up words that will bring a person to the heights of confidence or cast them down upon the jagged rocks of despair. This may sound contradictory to the true statement “we can’t change anyone else, we can only change ourselves” but lets look at it in this light; we can, with our words have slight influences on the people we come in contact with. It is not that we are trying to change others rather we are trying to change the way we ourselves interact with others. This brings to mind Proverbs 25:11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. The word fitly in this reference means in a timely manner or at the appropriate time. We can see that if we use a positive word at the appropriate time that the word is as precious as silver and gold.

With that in mind when we interact with others let’s try to lead with a positive uplifting word and remember that like us others need encouragement as well.         

Who Do You Believe You Are?

I have found that it has been very helpful for me to focus my thoughts on Elohim. When I focus on The King of the Universe I get a deeper understanding of positive self talk. How do I do that you might ask? Great question!! First you must accept the word that Yahweh Elohim has spoken about his chosen people. Look at Devarim (Deuteronomy) 7:6 “For you are a holy people to Yahweh your Elohim; Yahweh your Elohim has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.” This is what Yahweh spoke to Moshe, to in turn speak to the people of Yisrael. If you count yourself as a part of Yisrael then these words were spoken to you.

We need to not only hear these words but also act upon them. We need to say them out loud to ourselves so that our Nefesh (Soul) begins to accept them and believe them.

In this verse we see that Yahweh has said we are a “holy people”. The word holy means set apart. The reason that it is important to know that meaning is to show us how special we are. We are set apart from all other people meaning that we are unique. These words were not meant to vainly puff us up but rather to reassure and lift us up. This verse should excite us and bring great joy into or innermost parts.

Think about the part that states that “Yahweh our Elohim has chosen us to be a people for Himself”. We need to internalize this so that when any of the negative thought merchants try to push a thought of doubt or discouragement upon us we will know deep within us that we are the chosen of Yahweh!

We need to hold fast to the section that calls us “a special treasure”. Shout aloud to yourself that I’m Yahweh’s special treasure!!!! You can have complete confidence that this is a righteous and truthful statement.

The more you say the words of this verse out loud to yourself and internalize these words, you will begin to see positive changes in the way you perceive yourself.         

Truth and Light

Words can bring strength and gladness or fear and dread. We need to be mindful of the words that come into our Nefesh (Soul). We need to examine them to see if they are true about us or not. Do the words that are said by others have the sound of truth and bring us to a place of encouragement or do their words have the feeling of dread and darkness? Do the words we say about ourselves bring us closer to the light of truth, or do they drag us down into the darkness of despair?

Try to remember a time in your life when someone said something positive about you and how great you felt. Did the time and place immediately jump to the front of your mind? Did you suddenly feel the rush of exhilaration at the memory? If so, congratulations you are doing quite well and need to keep in touch with those positive uplifting people, but if you are having trouble remembering a time in your life when someone really encouraged you, be at peace and know that there are a lot of us in that situation. So what can we say about this dilemma? We can say I will be the one to give myself the positive affirmation I want to hear. What? That sounds awfully self-centered doesn’t it? In the extreme, any self talk can become a source for self centered thoughts, but if we are careful and keep in mind that we can only change ourselves and not others we can begin to shape our thoughts into a positive stream of great mental behavior.

What I found myself doing was trying to figure out what I wanted to hear and then how I wanted to feel. The first thing I wanted to hear was that I’m a great artist, so I began to say out loud, “I’m a great artist”. Now with that kind of statement I wanted to make sure that I at least had some talent or ability so I decided to show my work to a few people I could trust to be honest about my work. They all agreed that I was a good artist and one of them even said my art was great! Right then I realized that the positive self talk combined with the decision to timidly reach out and show my art to some one resulted in gaining the words I wanted to hear. I was able to shine the light of truth into my Nefesh.

Now that experience was wonderful but I also realized that I still had to work on my belief system and learn how to mentally defend myself against the doubters and the dream stealers. How tragic it is that there will always be negative and abusive people in the world. So we need to always be building our positive internal word arsenal so that when the deceit peddlers come against us we are ready to say no to their bill of lies.