Types of Stinking Thinking

I am in the business of helping people discover and live an abundant life. That is what Jesus Christ promised but so many have not been able to find the abundance that He came to earth to offer us.

For decades I have had a passionate desire to help churches become healing-growth communities where we practice the "Love of God and neighbor as our selves." There are not many. One of my favorites is "The Dwelling Place" in Loveland, Ohio where Rich Femia Pastors. It is a small, intimate, mutually serving group of people who really love to worship, share and help each other.

But let me get on to my topic, "Stinking Thinking!" This is the type of thinking that impedes the abundant life. Unfortunately, it is rampant among Christians. One of the main reasons so many are happy at Dwelling Place is because they are dwelling in God and His truth not the mis-beliefs of the world, the flesh and the devil.

Here are three examples of Stinking Thinking.

Filtering: Take the negative details and magnify them and filter out all positive aspects of a situation.

Polarized Thinking: Things are black or white, good or bad. You have to be perfect or you're a failure. There is no middle ground, it's "all or nothing."

Over generalization: Coming to a general conclusion based on a single incident or piece of evidence. If something bad happens once, you expect it to happen over and over again.

If you want to be miserable, just start thinking like this. If they are not enough, come back when I add more.

Gary Sweeten