Staying Positive in a Negative World

You may be wondering, how do I get through the tough times? Do hard times make you stronger? Do hard times last forever? What do you say in difficult times? How do you get hope in hard times?

1 Thessalonians 5:17 says to Pray without ceasing.

Keeping an open line of communication with God throughout the day is the best course of action. Prayer is the answer for how to stay positive during difficult times. Ultimately the Lord is in charge.

We must also pray for God’s people to rise up, stay optimistic and strong in our faith and be great witnesses for Him. I feel encouraged when I see our brothers and sisters in Christ doing their jobs. We have missionaries from our church, living in the Philippines who are witnessing and souls are being saved…regularly, and through the crisis… with masks on! Praise the Lord!

Keep on praying and keep on working.

The Lord knows what’s happening. He has a plan. Although we see things one way, rest assured that God sees it another. And in the end all things will be done for our good and His glory. So stay optimistic, my friends. Being positive in a negative world means turning your worry and concerns over to God. He can handle it.

Remove yourself from all things negative

Let’s face it, how often do we get anything that makes us feel good when we turn on the news? Social media has gotten so political and divided as well. Staying positive in a negative world means turning off the noise and finding something better to do with your time.

The enemy is having a field day. We know he won’t win and so does he. But for now he’s trying to discourage us and turn God’s people toward his way of thinking, and a lot of that is coming through the news. Resist the enemy. Turn to God and choose to stay optimistic, positive and thankful.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. - James 4:7

Focus on gratitude to stay optimistic

And now we get to talk about another one of my favorite topics, gratitude. I believe that you can turn everything around with faith and gratitude. If you want to know how to stay positive during difficult times, pull out your gratitude journal and go through all of your blessings.

Truly, by focusing on being grateful, it’s a wonderfully effective way of shifting your focus from negativity to joy. Isn’t joy a better use of your time and energy than negativity? Also, thankful people don’t see as much negative. They have the tendency to stay optimistic and to be more positive. Plus they’re way more fun to be around.

Finding a healthy distraction is a great solution for staying positive in tough times

If you’re looking for how to stay positive in a negative world, you need a healthy way to distract yourself when you start to feel discouraged and pessimistic. Do whatever you can do to take your mind off of things. Pray, read, exercise, call a friend, spread kindness. These are all great ways to redirect your negative focus onto something positive.

What kind of hobby or activity do you have to distract yourself and help you stay positive in a negative world?

Regardless of what kind of distraction you choose, avoid the negativity. Don’t get sucked into things that influence your mindset to anything other than good, positive and Godly thoughts. Pray for strength. Pray for the Lord to increase your faith and keep you from things that will discourage you.

Step back and look at things from a different perspective to stay optimistic

Sometimes we can be so ingrained in our opinion that we don’t take the time to listen to what other people are saying. I think that’s half the problem this world is facing right now. We all want to force our opinions down the other guy’s throats

But what if we actually took the time to listen to what the other person is saying? What if we put ourselves in the shoes of the other person? There’s an American Proverb that says “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes.” This means that until you’ve been in their exact situation, you can’t really know for sure what they’re going through. So don’t judge them. We need to remember this quote more often.

Looking at things from a different perspective won’t always change your mind or the mind of someone else. But it will probably give you more compassion. After all, we’re looking for more positivity in a dark and sin-cursed world.

A different, and better perspective is one that chooses love over everything. Jesus said to love God first, then love everybody else as ourselves. That love He’s talking about is the Godly love of Christ.

We need to have the kind of love so that they will know we are Christians by our love. If others can tell we love Jesus by the way we treat others, then we have Christian love. That is the best perspective of all.

Look for the blessing or the silver lining in the dark cloud

Staying positive in a negative world means that you look for the blessings in the challenges. When times are tough, don’t take the woe-is-me route. Pray for faith and strength, gird up your positive mindset and get dirty.

When you look for the silver lining during the tough times, it changes your mindset. It makes you more positive. And we definitely need more positive thinking in the world today.

Spend time with positive people, doing positive things

We all know how depressing it is to hang out with negative people. I often wonder if they realize how much of a Debbie Downer they really are. In fact, I’ve been known to tell people “snap out of it, you’re bringing me down.”

I get it. We can’t all be happy-go-lucky all the time. But, when we’re with other people, it’s important that we’re not the most depressing person in the room. I like to be the most optimistic and hopeful. I think it’s important to set a great example for our friends and family.

I don’t believe that Jesus was pessimistic and negative. So as Christians, our job is to follow His example. He led the way by sharing His love for God and others through service.

So what kinds of positive things should we be doing? I believe that everybody should have an agenda for spreading positivity everywhere they go. Because when you’ve got a happy, optimistic outlook, you will get that in return.

What contribution can you make to help the situation?

There are so many ways to encourage and bless others. I would start by spending time with positive people and treating others the way that you would want to be treated.

We can be encouraging to others by simply putting their needs before ours. Ask yourself, “what does this person need most from me?” Then give it to them. You can encourage them with words, a simple compliment, or simply listening to them. You can even give them some of these Bible verses about encouragement.

I’m a huge fan of spreading kindness and looking for opportunities to help people. If you’ve ever been the recipient of a random act of kindness, you know how awesome and encouraging it is. So take every opportunity that you can to touch the lives of another. Whatever you do, blessing others and learning how to stay positive during difficult times is your objective.

Stop and smell the roses to stay positive during difficult times

In our busy lives, we often neglect to appreciate the wonder and beauty that surrounds us. The phrase “stop and smell the roses” is a great reminder of what we miss on a daily basis.

If you’re wondering how to stay positive in a negative world, make the effort to appreciate what is around you. I believe this is known as mindfulness. Use your five senses. Savor the taste of your ice cream, your coffee and your dinner. Take in the sight of the flowers, trees and mountains on a beautiful, sunny day.

Feel the breeze on your face as you absorb the sunshine, while sitting in the lounge chair on your back porch. Listen to the birds sing and the river flowing and the sound of your kids laughing. Smell the flowers, just watch for the thorns and bees!

Basically use your five senses and pay attention to everything around you. Be mindful of things and enjoy those things that are so often taken for granted. Savor the things that happen in your day. When you do that, you’ll find so much more to be thankful for and your positivity will grow.

Find joy and contentment with Jesus to stay positive during difficult times

Joy comes when you put your faith and trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ and accept Him as your savior. As your faith grows, you get that peace that passes all understanding. Put your faith in the Lord because He is the only way to true joy.

Joy is an internal emotion that doesn’t change when things get tough. It won’t matter if you get sick or have a bad day. You’ll still have joy and contentment because you know you have your eternal security.

Happiness, on the other hand, is a surface level emotion that can change in an instant. Your mood can go from happy to sad just because someone cut you off in traffic. So if you’re going to choose, choose happiness and positivity. But for true joy, choose Jesus.

Do hard times make you stronger?

This is one of those common questions that might arise when thinking about staying positive in tough times. I believe that the answer to this lies in your own personal constitution. I have heard of people who, when faced with a major challenge, give in to it and just don’t fight back and they let it consume them.

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: - 1 Peter 1:7

However, my guess is that most people are fighters. The old adage, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger, really is true. In my own experience, I have learned that challenges are God’s way of purifying us. Like gold in a refining fire that strips away the impurities and makes the gold pure. That’s what challenges do for us. They test our faith. The more our faith gets tested, the more it grows.

Do hard times last forever?

Sometimes it sure feels like hard times will last forever. But they don’t. Just think back to previous challenges that you’ve been through that you thought would never end. But now you realize, Hey…that was ten years ago. Time really does go fast.

So, pray through it, build your resistance, strength, patience, and hope. For through it all, you’ll grow your faith.

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. - James 1:3-4

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. - Roman’s 5:3-5

How do you get hope in hard times?

Let’s look at the biblical definition. Hope means “To trust in, wait for, look for, or desire something or someone; or to expect something beneficial in the future.”

The Greek word for hope in the Old Testament is “to trust”. Remember that hope is one of the three remaining gifts that we are left with; faith, hope and love.

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. - 1 Corinthians 13:13

It’s important to put your trust in the Lord that the hard and negative times will pass and things will turn positive real soon. Keeping a positive perspective also helps. Just remember, there is always hope.

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. - Jeremiah 17:7

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; - Roman’s 12:12

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. - Roman’s 15:13

Being positive in a negative world takes effort, no doubt. But if it’s important to you, you’ll make it work. Use the tips given here to keep your thoughts and activities focused on the right things.

Seek the Lord and His will and guidance and you will find that it’s not as hard as you thought to keep things positive and optimistic. But don’t wear your rose-colored glasses so much that you become oblivious to reality. Be aware, yet positive and practical.

As you may know, a battery has two poles: positive and negative. Neither pole can produce power on its own. Both poles must be present and working together in order to create power. This is similar to how life works.

We need both the positive and negative aspects of life in order to be complete. The positive aspects of life, such as love, joy, and peace, give us energy and motivation. The negative aspects of life, such as challenges, setbacks, and pain, help us to grow and learn.

God uses all of life, both the good and the bad, to provide us with power and energy. When we embrace all of life, we are able to live our lives to the fullest. We are able to experience the joy of the positive aspects of life, and we are able to learn and grow from the negative aspects of life.

So, next time you are feeling down, remember that the negative aspects of life are not there to destroy you. They are there to help you grow and become stronger. Embrace all of life, and you will find that you have the power and energy to do anything you set your mind to.

Are you Staying Positive in a Negative World?