There are days when some small things make me feel that the whole day is ruined!
“Good morning!”
“What’s so good about the morning? I had a lousy night, so just say Morning!” I snap.
If today, something has affected your mood and made you snappy, remember that the morning will still continue to be beautiful, in spite of how you feel. The sun continues to rise, Singapore remains safe, my breakfast was good, I had my coffee, what is so bad about the morning?
When Cain offered his gift, God said “Good!”, but Cain said, “Good? What’s so good?” When I amplify my problem, and exaggerate my negativity, the wrong thoughts will lead to the wrong emotions and give birth to the wrong actions. When a man’s thoughts are wrong, it can give rise to a whole lot of baffling behaviour.
This is the problem with Cain. His erroneous assessments of his problem led to a wrong judgment of himself, causing negative emotions, and finally resulting in the First Murder. Eventually, Cain did not get what he thought he would get.
God’s judgment on Cain and his eventual outcome were vastly different! God had judged Cain to be a “restless wanderer”, but Cain had a son, Enoch, and eventually built the world’s first city, which was named after his son.
Why was God’s judgment and the outcome so different?
Every biblical character’s name has a special meaning to it, which represents the essence of this character. Cain means “Acquirer” and Enoch means “City”.
When Cain received God’s judgment and left the land he once lived in, he realised that to acquire, he had to learn to collaborate with others.
Finally, Cain realised his initial mindset of acquiring was wrong, and changed that mindset. He realised that that he had to work with others and accept people who were different from him, in order to acquire. Eventually, Cain had a son and built a city for people to live in.
What is repentance? It is changing your direction, your thinking and your mindset. Because what your thoughts, emotions and feelings determine your future.
Regardless of your age, you will always have a future.
The Biblical record of Cain has taught us that even the most despairing person on earth has the ability to change his future, if he is willing to change his mindset.
In the presence of Good and Evil, what are the feelings and emotions that I want to give myself? If I have to go to work today, but I was not able to sleep well the night before, resulting in negative emotions this morning, what should my thoughts be?
We need to build up a habit – the habit of catching your thoughts! Do your thoughts coincide with what you want?
“…taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:5
The more important something is to you, the harder it is to take hold of it. But we must fix our eyes on the outcome. When a wrong decision is made, you may still be able to turn the course of your life around. Yet, if too many wrong decisions are made, it would be more difficult to turn your life around.
Let us say today you would like to go out with your family, but you are somehow in a bad mood. Would you want to let your bad mood affect today’s outing? Your feelings and emotions do not give you what you want. That is why Paul says,
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice.”
Philippians 4:4 (LEB)
…..To tell you that You Can Change How You Feel.
“With all vigilance, keep your heart, for from it comes the source of life.”
Proverbs 4:23 (LEB)
Not only do I need to guard my heart and my emotions, I also need to guard my thoughts. Man’s essence does not consist of only the physical, but also the spiritual, and both make up his feelings and thoughts. They cannot be separated. You are capable of understanding your feelings because a man is vastly different from an animal. A bird would never commit suicide after an argument with its spouse.
We have a spirit – and our potential is much greater than that of an animal’s.
So, if something is bothering you today, you must discover why you are bothered. This is to protect the health of your inner thoughts and emotions. In order to do so, you need to guard your thoughts and emotions.
“For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and love and self-discipline.”
2 Timothy 1:7
This is the cure! It is no good for one to be overly optimistic, neither is it good for one to be fearful.
Self-discipline is not just a physical action; it is also an action connected to my brain. Having a spirit of power, sound judgment, and self-discipline allows us to do what we want to do, so that I may enter into a calm, well-balanced mind with self-control.
The cure for blind faith and cowardice is a spirit of power, love and self-discipline.
To summarise all I have said above,
Unsound Thoughts -> Undesirable Emotions -> Undesirable Action -> Undesirable Outcome.
Sound Thoughts -> Desirable Emotions -> Desirable Action -> Desirable Outcome
Are you holding on to Sound Thoughts today?