In a past blog we spoke about judgment and how it is like a boomerang.  Judge not lest you be judged. If we have acknowledged Jesus as our LORD, we will be saved, based on His righteousness, not our own.  But the Bible also says that we will stand before Jesus for judgment and give an account of ourselves to God (2 Corinthians 5:10, Romans 14:10-12).  In Greek, this place of judgment is referred to as the bema, which was an elevated platform. Rewards, not punishment were given there, just like the medals in the modern Olympics.  If the boomerang principle applies, will Jesus judge us as we think and speak of ourselves?  Is that a comforting thought for you, or an alarming one?

I have a friend who was a spiritual mentor during a season of my life.  In one conversation, she said, “I like myself.”  I like her a lot, but I was kind of shocked when she said it, because, so many of my thoughts about myself, at the time, were negative. I readily spoke ill of myself.  I called myself stupid, I declared that I was a bad parent, and not a good wife.  I literally clothed myself in shame.

Despite the fact that I had repeatedly repented of those behaviors, I continued to judge myself and speak those curses against myself.

Matthew 12:36 tells us that “everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word we have spoken.”  Our words are powerful.  They influence how we and others think of us and they shape our behavior. The good news is that we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). The negative thoughts can be taken captive (2 Corinthians 10:5) and we can retrain ourselves to think positively, about ourselves, our circumstances, and about others.  A fantastic video by Wisdom Islands gives a biblical and scientific instruction on how to retrain our brains to think positively.  Check it out!