Flipping the Script on What We Believe is Hard

Flipping the Script on What We Believe is Hard

By Steve Backlund

The belief that something is hard (or difficult) is almost always a bigger problem than what we believe is hard.   Steve Backlund

Hard means “difficult to bear or endure”. 

“Steve, this city is hard for the gospel.” This is what I was told in 2001 in the first week of my new pastorate. The person who told me this was sincere in expressing his experience, but I knew if I believed and renewed my mind with that belief system, I would become one of the biggest problems in the city (because that belief would restrict what God would be able to do). Certainly we don't deny that things have been hard or difficult, but we don't use that as the source for our beliefs. If we get our beliefs from our experience, then our experience becomes the stronghold.

Here are some important truths about our beliefs:

1. It is educational to listen to what we believe is hard - “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). Our beliefs come out in words.

2. We become what we believe - “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). This is obviously talking about positive mind renewal, but we can renew our minds with lies or truth. Current beliefs create future experiences. 

3. We can choose what to believe - “Think on these things” (Philippians 4:8). We are powerful. We can change how we think. The life of “faith” means we are believing things higher than what our past says, what our feelings say, and what our circumstances are telling us. 

4. We can have fun in mind renewal - “A merry heart is good medicine” (Proverbs 17:22). God has given us a sense of humor as one of the weapons of warfare to pull down self-limiting beliefs in our lives (2 Corinthians 10:4). Here are three ways to enjoy overcoming lies and embracing truth: 

• Laughing at lies - “He who sits in the heavens laughs” (Psalm 2:4). God is laughing at what his enemies are saying and planning. One of my favorite declarations is, “I uproariously laugh when I hear a lie from the devil.” I have led laughter prayer meetings, taught multitudes how to laugh at lies, and written books on the subject, including Let’s Just Laugh At That (available as a kids book too!)
  

• Worrying with God - A University of Cincinnati study said 85% of what we worry about never happens, and the 15% that does happen, most people find a successful way to navigate through it. Negative worry is imagining your future as if God does not show up. Positive worry is imagining your future as if God fully shows up. My wife, Wendy, and I love to worry with God. “I am concerned too much provision will come in and we will not know what to do with it,” or “I am worried they won’t let us drive by hospitals any more because everyone gets healed and the medical staff are getting laid off,” or “I am worried our church is going to grow so much that our pastoral staff won’t be happy to do eight services a Sunday.” Even if 85% of what we worry about in the positive does not happen, we had a lot more fun worrying. 
  

• Flipping the script on what is hard - I was listening to someone who said, “It is easy to get discouraged.” I thought, “That is not a good belief to renew my mind with.” So, Wendy and I decided to take an opposite approach of what would be good things to renew our minds with that are hard for us. Here are some ideas:
  

• It is hard for us to get discouraged

• It is hard for this city to not be in spiritual renewal

• It is hard for us to get sick

• It is hard for us to not be protected by the devil. 

• It is hard for us to be poor.

• It is hard for our family not be blessed in every way 

• Not succeeding in school is hard for us. 

• It is hard for the readers of this blog to have any kind of hopelessness. 

What could you add to the above list that you want to be hard for you? Let’s flip the script (reframe) our list of “difficulties”. I believe we will be glad we did.