The POWER of What You BELIEVE About YOURSELF!
By Neil Gass

Second only to what you believe about GOD, what you BELIEVE about YOURSELF has the power to DEFINE your life!

I was six years of age, when I had my first life-impacting run-in with this power of what I believed about myself. I’m sitting at my desk in Elementary School in Belfast, Ireland, doing what kids that age frequently do, day dreaming. Suddenly, from the back of the class, I hear one terrifying word, “GASS!” I was instantly petrified at the sound of my name spoken as if from the supreme court. “To the blackboard NOW!”

Peeling my trembling body off the seat, I start on the ten-mile trek to the front of the class. She places the chalk in my sweaty, shaking fingers and orders me, “Do the SUM!” I’m frozen. I have NO idea how to DO it! Again the terrifying command, “I said, do the SUM!” Finally, I manage to blurt out, “Please, Miss ... I can’t!”

She gets right in my six year old face and I hear words I’ve never forgotten: “YOU are soooooo THICK-HEADED! You don’t pay attention and you’ll NEVER LEARN ARITHMETIC, Gass! Go back to your desk and don’t make a fool of yourself in this class again!” Two dozen pairs of terrified eyes watched me slink, defeated and discouraged back to my seat. I stung from the burning shame and embarrassment of that public encounter for days, skulking in the shadows of playground and classroom, certain the entire school was aware of and agreed about my thick-headedness.

More than 20 years later, I’m a college senior, taking my last few courses before graduation. It’s my first session of a required statistics class. Expecting calamity, I open the textbook. The formula begins on page one and, it seems to me, ends on page 700! I hear that decades-old voice again. “You are soooooo THICK-HEADED! You WILL NEVER LEARN ARITHMETIC, Gass! Don’t make a fool of yourself in this class again!”

A palpable wave of panic erupts deep inside me. My face flushes. I slam the book shut & bolt from the classroom in total intimidation! But, I NEED this class to graduate. Long story shortened, I find an old retired Psychology professor who compassionately assures me that if I’ll STAY in his statistics class, no matter HOW I’m doing, he’ll get me through it! So, I did and he did and I earned an A- in the dreaded “S” word - statistics!

Now, tell me this. Does someone who is too THICKHEADED to learn arithmetic suddenly become capable of earning an A- in Statistics? Of course not! But, did I BELIEVE I was thick-headed and incapable of learning statistics? You BET I DID! THAT’S why I AVOIDED IT ANYTIME I COULD! And that, too, is exactly HOW I REINFORCED and AMPLIFIED my OWN TERROR!

And WAS I really INCAPABLE of learning stat? OBVIOUSLY NOT! With the right teacher, had I been motivated to do so, I MIGHT have become a mathematician! Instead, I spent years BELIEVING and FEELING I WAS NOT CAPABLE of learning math!

What I BELIEVED ABOUT myself was UNTRUE, but AS LONG AS I BELIEVED IT, for ME it was AS POWERFUL & AS CONTROLLING as THE TRUTH! . . . It WAS, in fact, MY TRUTH!

Prov. 23:7 puts it this way, “AS YOU THINK (& BELIEVE) IN YOUR HEART, SO YOU ARE!” (Parenthesis mine) A belief doesn’t HAVE TO BE TRUE to DICTATE your LIFE . . . It just has to be BELIEVEDBY YOU!

So, I wonder what LIES YOU may have learned to BELIEVE ABOUT YOURSELF & what IMPACT they are having on your life. Where have U been tricked into SETTLING for LESS than you could become, or have, or achieve, simply because you BELIEVE you’re NOT CAPABLE? Or in what abusive relationships do you remain stuck? What wonderful people might God have sent into your life, but you wouldn’t let them in, because you BELIEVE you are not lovable?

Remember, the crucial question isn’t whether or not you ARE capable or lovable. God made you BOTH! The question is whether or not you BELIEVE He did & whether or not you will choose to claim, declare and take action to begin living up to that divine reality! The choice is YOURS ALONE!