In our last post, we promised a post on the biblical examples of a positive mindset. That post was about a modern example showing how your mindset affects how high you rise. What you may not know is that such things did not start today. In the Bible, we read of two men with a victory outlook on life. They were part of a twelve-man team who went out to spy on the enemy’s land before going to war.
These two men saw the same challenges that the other ten men saw. They did not try to pretend that there was no problem. The other ten reported feeling like grasshoppers compared to the enemy. They failed to get a victory outlook and defeated themselves mentally before the war started. I wonder how often we defeat ourselves even before the battle starts.
I hear that is why boxers brag about how they will defeat their opponents before the fight. The boxers are trying to take away any victory outlook they had before getting to the arena. Unlike the other ten men, these two spies saw those challenges as positive problems. They had a victory outlook and declared to their master, “We are well able to conquer the enemy.”
A Conformist Will Never Have A Victory Outlook
That is what we call a minority report. To understand their situation, consider the last time you gave a minority report. Or perhaps you have never given a report that goes against everybody else’s. You try to be nice by falling in line and being politically correct. And yet, the Bible says that believers are a peculiar people, a holy nation. That means that more often than not, your judgment should be a minority report.
And yet, we usually agree with everybody else, afraid of appearing ‘negative.’ We do not want to rock the boat. Very often, we conform to the norm, despite claiming to follow Jesus, who was anything but conforming. If you try to be like everybody else, guess what, you will never develop a victory outlook. You must be different from others in the same way that Jesus was different from all other religious leaders.
Jesus’ victory outlook is why we still follow Him after more than two thousand years. Where are those conformist leaders of Jesus’ time? They have all fallen into oblivion. Let us show that we are following Jesus, the original non-conformist. Otherwise, we shall be just a number in the crowd. A good way to be a nonconformist is to embrace negatives, just like the man who called stuttering a gift. It would not surprise me to learn that he is a child of God.
Paul Had It Right
Embrace the negative situation, just like the two spies. And guess what; it turned out their minority report was correct. Their army defeated the enemy army. Had they not embraced the negative to develop a victory outlook, they would have remained slaves of that enemy nation. I wonder how many situations are enslaving us just because we refuse to see God’s hand even in the negative situations that come our way.
Paul, the Apostle who knew suffering like no other disciple, had it right. He wrote to Christians everywhere, “Do not be conformed to this world.” When everybody in the church is stamping their feet and snapping their hands and heads in prayer, do not conform. Each time your pastor charges members to reject one thing or the other, do not conform.
But you have to do something, don’t you? Sure, the Apostle says you should be transformed by renewing your mind. He is saying you must take your instructions from the word of God. Study your bible to hear what God is saying about that negative situation. It may be that God wants you to reject it but it may also be that God wants you to embrace it. In other words, if you must conform, conform with God, not with the world. That way, your victory outlook will be second to none.
Maranatha!
