Speak positively (4)

Pessimism affects you spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. Negativity is directly related to heart disease, immune system deficits, and the ability to cope with physical pain. The famous Mayo Clinic conducted a thirty-year study of eight hundred patients—and the results are telling. The pessimists’ risk of early death was 19 percent higher than that of the optimists in the group. In Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life, Dr. Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania concluded that optimism and pessimism affect your health almost as clearly as physical factors do. Have you ever said, “I’m sick to death of this”? Then do something about it—quickly! If you hold onto that thought for too long—it may come true. One of the great findings of modern medical science is that the words we speak don’t just affect others, they affect us too. Indeed, sometimes they affect us even more! Words are powerful. You believe and internalize what you repeatedly say. That means you have the God-given ability to change your perception of your own abilities from limited to limitless. Let’s be clear about what that does and doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean you can play the guitar like Eric Clapton or paint like Van Gogh just because you decide to and want to. But it does mean you can do whatever God has told you to do in His Word. Whatever He calls you to do, He will enable you to do. And that will happen when you line up what comes out of your mouth with what’s written in His Word.