BELIEVE it – BECOME it!
By Neil Gass

We’ve been talking about how you can get into the DRIVER’S SEAT of your life, by taking charge of your thoughts & beliefs! In our last Message for the Moment we discovered that you think what you think because you believe what you believe, whether what you believe is true or false.

“So how did I come to believe what I believe?” For the most part that happened when you were too young to reason out logically your own core beliefs.Your CORE BELIEFS are those convictions you held to be true, accurate, dependable, reliable, right, real, accurate, factual, consistent across time. Children don’t examine the rational basis for believing something. They simply observe what happens, especially to them, & turn it into a belief about themselves, life, people etc. Once that belief crystallizes, gels, they never again feel the need to question its accuracy; they simply turn it into a dependable assumption & respond to life based upon it. Simply put, they LIVE OUT OF their core beliefs & LIVE OUT their core beliefs, even when they’re not aware they have such beliefs! You can’t avoid it: You BELIEVE IT -> you LIVE IT OUT -> you BECOME it! “As (you) think IN (YOUR) HEART, SO (YOU) ARE!” (Proverbs 23:7)

Many of the core beliefs you hold today arise out of early life experiences & they either EMPOWER or DISEMPOWER you! These beliefs are particularly potent in two life-shaping areas: your beliefs about your own LOVABILITY & CAPABILITY!

1. When you were an infant, you were totally dependent on an adult to meet your vital needs. If those needs were met consistently, you came to believe you were valued, important, LOVED! If they were not met, or only occasionally met, you came to believe you were NOT valued, important or LOVED!

2. In an effort to get your vital needs met as an infant, you took some infantileaction, like crying as a signal to your adult caregiver. If they respondedconsistently to your infantile action by meeting your need, you came to believe you were CAPABLE! After all, what you did worked! If there was no response, or inconsistent response, you came to believe you were INCAPABLE! Logically, because what you did didn’t work! This is the early seed of learned helplessness in a child.

Healthy SELF ESTEEM & SELF IMAGE depend entirely on your believing that you are LOVABLE & CAPABLE! I’m not talking about egoism or inflated self-importance, the fruits of what we Christians recognize as “the flesh!” But, God finds you lovable & pronounces you capable through His power in you, so a God-given faith in your God-given qualities is only reasonable & logical. It is an insult to God when His offspring denigrate His work in them & His opinion of them! If you don’t know where to start to build healthy, positive self image, start with accepting GOD’S OPINION OF YOU!

People, who believe they are unlovable,expect to be rejected. They AVIODthe risk of rejection by acting guarded, distant, self-protective, unavailable, unsociable, self-sabotaging in ways that send signals, even to willing, would-be friends or suitors. Those signalssay, “Don’t approach! Not available or interested” and ultimately their signals get them rejected!

People, who believe they’re lovable, expect to be accepted, liked, and included. They’re open & risk getting close to others. They ACT in ways that INVITE others to like or love them! If somebody doesn’t like or love them, they move on to the next social opportunity to get liked or loved, and ultimately they DO! They understand the biblical principle of sowing & reaping. They sow friendship & reap friends; sow love & reap love!

People, who believe they’re incapable, expect to fail & therefore AVOID the opportunities & obstacles that pave the path to success. By doing so, they guarantee their own failure! They don’t apply for the job they’d like to have; don’t ask for the raise they’ve earned; they simply don’t show up for life.

People, who believe they are capable, EMBRACE both the obstacles & opportunities of life, knowing that ultimately their God-given ability will prevail & enable them to “... Do ALL things through Christ who strengthens them.(Makes them capable.)”(Phil. 4:12-13) They don’t hand their dreams over to their fears! They know that “God has not given (me)an attitude of fear, but of power (capability) love (& lovability) and a sound (self-controlled) mind.” (2 Tim. 1:7) They “stick their neck out,” because they know that risk is the emotional application of faith to the possibilities of life in the real world. They send themessage to every potential employer, “you’d be making a great contribution to your company’s future by hiring me!” For a believer, that truly is not presumption; it’s faith!

Old Henry Ford nailed it when he said, “If you BELIEVE you CAN or if you BELIEVE you CAN’T, YOU’RE RIGHT!” Your life is & will continue to be a “SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY!” God gives you the right to determine what you will prophecy, (believe, predict, forecast, expect) for your life! If you choose to adopt &believe His opinion of you & act on it, as you inevitably will once you really believe it, His resources will be available to you to fulfill the grand prophecy of an exciting, fruitful, joyful, creative, productive life!

More on this topic in next month’s Message for the Moment!