I come from a long line of negative thinkers. My grandmother lived with depression and dealt with fear on a daily basis. My mother was overly critical and cynical about most situations. And while I don’t consider myself to be in their league, I’ve definitely been a glass-half-empty person most of my life. The longer I walk with the Lord, however, the more that negativity falls by the wayside.
The problem with my negative thinking was that it kept me from dreaming big. It was hard to be hopeful and believe for the best possible outcome. Instead, I usually found myself thinking about the worst-case scenarios. I didn’t understand that when we think small or think the worst about life and the future, it limits what God can accomplish in and through us.
One day I was having a pity party of sorts, wondering why I wasn’t seeing breakthrough in a certain area that I had been praying about for a very long time. God interrupted my “party” to remind me of Caleb and the spies during their recon mission of the Promised Land. I opened my Bible and read the story from Numbers 13. God spoke to my heart through verses thirty to thirty-one, and I immediately realized that it was, in fact, my thinking that had kept me from my own promised land of blessing.
And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it. [31] But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
Numbers 13:30-31
Caleb and the spies witnessed the exact same scenario. But the spies saw the land as having insurmountable obstacles, while Caleb envisioned it as being completely conquerable.
In Andrew’s Don’t Limit God teaching, he shares how, on January 31, 2002, the Lord spoke to him from Psalm 78. In the following passage, God showed Andrew that he, too, had been limiting Him with small thinking.
How oft did they [the Israelites] provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
Psalm 78:40-41, brackets and emphasis added
Wow! We can—and often do—limit God’s power in our lives by how we think! God wanted to exponentially expand the Gospel Truth television program onto numerous stations worldwide. At that time, however, Andrew’s thinking was too small to catch God’s vision. But once Andrew understood how he was limiting the Lord from fulfilling His will, he began to change and expand his own thinking. Within only a couple of weeks, resources flooded in that made the television expansion possible.
There are many ways we can limit the Lord with our thinking, including not dreaming big enough, having an inferior image of ourselves, or expecting the worst. These all describe my problem—negative thinking. In Don’t Limit God,Andrew explains that we must “quit thinking small and limiting God and imposing [our] inadequacies and . . . failures upon God and recognize [that] He’s limitless.”
The way to do this, as Andrew discusses in his teaching, is to change our inner image. We must first see in our hearts what we want to see happen in our circumstances. This comes as we align our thoughts with God’s Word and allow Scripture to challenge us to think bigger. And because we have the mind of Christ, we can think as big as God thinks.
I challenge you today to start changing your thinking and take the limits off God. When you do, your glass won’t be half-empty or half-full; it will be overflowing. So, you might as well forget the glass!
