Unsinkable Faith

God-Filled Strategies to Transform the Way You Think, Feel, and Live

Tracie Miles

• Publisher: David C Cook
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780781414364
• eBook ISBN: 9781434710260
• Subtopic: Religion

For many people, remaining optimistic and feeling positive about themselves and their lives is a constant battle—especially when circumstances are difficult and life is hard. For others, negativity is something that only sneaks up from time to time, yet still wreaks havoc in their hearts. Regardless of the root causes, once pessimistic thoughts permeate our minds, our feelings and emotions begin to control us instead of us controlling them. Eventually it doesn't seem possible to stay positive, happy, and full of joy, and negative thought patterns shake our faith, causing us to sink emotionally, mentally, and spiritually over time. But it doesn't have to be that way. Despite what storms roll in, hearts anchored in God don't sink. When we change the way we think, we can change the way we feel and live, even if our circumstances remain the same. Intentionally embracing the opportunity to experience a transformed heart and a renewed mind opens the door for a changed life, because a positive mind will always lead to a more positive life.

In Unsinkable Faith, author and Proverbs 31 Ministries speaker Tracie Miles offers hope for women who struggle with negativity. Each chapter explores Tracie's and other women's personal stories, showing how they rose above their circumstances by transforming and renewing their minds. Unsinkable Faith is a breath of fresh air for anyone longing for a heart full of joy, an unbreakable smile, and a new, more optimistic perspective on life. This book will equip you to:

• Replace pessimism with positive thinking by becoming the captain of your thoughts;
• Learn how true joy and happiness are based on choice, not circumstances;
• Overcome unhealthy habits of negative thinking by intentionally implementingthree easy mind-renewing steps;
• Stop feeling hopeless and pitiful, and start feeling hope-filled and powerful instead; and
• Discover that when you change the way you think, you change the way feel, and in turn you can change your life completely.

Chapter One

Your Feelings Aren’t the Boss of You

When You Feel Like You’re Sinking

When negative thoughts are controlling us, there is hope. When we learn to change the way we think, we can change the way we feel.

Life as I knew it had ended. And I had a choice to make. Either I could let my circumstances dictate my joy and happiness going forward, or I could intentionally choose to be positive and refuse to sink under the weight of negativity. That may have been the most important decision I’ve ever faced.

After nearly twenty-six years of marriage, my husband and I separated. The heartache and devastation were overwhelming, and I spent the first few months after he left in a puddle of tears and negative thoughts every day.

My vision of what the future was supposed to look like was wiped away in an instant, and my losses seemed to keep piling up. My fears about the uncertain future seemed innumerable, and I was consumed with worry for my children and how their parents’ separation might affect their hearts. With each passing day, I felt the toxicity of negativity, hopelessness, fear, and pessimism seeping deeper and deeper into my heart. I felt as if I were stuck in a whirlpool, slowly being pulled under by the weight of my thoughts, yet desperately longing to be free and happy again. A tsunami had slammed into my reality, and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t stop sinking into sadness and, at times, even felt I was struggling with depression.

But the day finally came, several months later, when my emotional and mental exhaustion seemed overwhelming, and I realized I was fed up with feeling sad and hopeless. I was tired of assuming the future couldn’t be bright simply because the present was difficult. I knew that I needed to be a role model for my children and that my attitude would permeate theirs—either positively or negatively. I also knew that I needed to put my hope in God, trusting that not only was He able to heal broken hearts and broken relationships but also that, no matter what, I could have peace and joy if I intentionally invited Him to help me with my thoughts.

I realized I didn’t want to spend my life being bitter and negative and stuck in pessimism, whether because of the current situation, hard circumstances that lay ahead, or simply the small struggles and frustrations of everyday life.

I certainly did not want to be the kind of person who always saw the glass half-empty instead of half-full and inadvertently overlooked her blessings because of the negative or bitter blinders on her heart. I had never been that type of person before, and in a moment with the One who holds all hope, I became determined I was never going to be.

My Conversation with Jesus That Changed Everything

I got on my knees and had a long conversation with Jesus, full of honest questions, anger, pleas, and tears. Then I sensed His voice whispering a gentle question to my spiritual ears, and my immediate answer caught me off guard. “Will you still love Me, Tracie?”

My answer, without hesitating, was “I still love You, Lord.” I surprised myself with my response, but hearing my own heartfelt words brought comfort to my soul. Realizing I loved Jesus, despite what He had allowed in my life, gave me a renewed sense of hope. Not only in Him but also in myself. I knew it would not be easy, but I grabbed hold of the hope, peace, and reassurance He was offering and committed to holding on as tightly as I could.

As His peace washed over me, I knew that despite my circumstances and hardships, living a life of joy and positive thinking was within my reach, and that the first step of the journey had to be taken inside my own head. I had no control over my circumstances, but I could take control over my thoughts about them. I knew I needed to begin shifting my thoughts so that they didn’t control my life.

My heart lightened when I surrendered my negativity and committed to trusting God through this storm. I realized optimism and positive thinking were still within my reach because I had the power within me through Christ to choose to be positive, despite my circumstances. I merely had to make an intentional effort to do so. And when I did, my whole perspective and outlook completely changed. My circumstances stayed the same, but over time, my thoughts and my heart did not.

Changing Our Perspectives, Regardless

I share this raw, personal pain with you only because I want you to know that I know what it’s like to feel justified in living with a nega­tive mind-set. I know what it’s like to be upset with the situations God has either caused or allowed in our lives, and maybe even feel a little angry at Him. I know what it’s like to desperately want situations to be different but to feel powerless to change them. And I know what it’s like to long to be happy again and break free from the shackles of pain, heartache, and disappointment that pull down our spirits. But I also know what it’s like to experience freedom from chronic negativity, and I want you to experience that too.

Today your situation and what pains your heart might be entirely different from what I’ve experienced. Or, maybe what I’ve described seems all too familiar. Friend, no matter what it is that might be draining your joy and robbing you of optimism, I know you must be struggling if you’re reading a book to help you transform your mind so you can foster an unsinkable faith in your heart.

Maybe you want to be more positive but don’t know how to change and are struggling to break free from the bondage of pessimism. Maybe you’ve convinced yourself you’re doomed to be unhappy and negative because it seems your circumstances may never change and people have hurt you, physically or emotionally. Maybe you feel you don’t deserve happiness because of mistakes you made in the past or because of patterns of sin or addictions in your life that you can’t seem to break, making you feel like a failure time and time again. Or perhaps you’ve been battling depression and discouragement for so long, it seems impossible to ever overcome them. Maybe you feel as though you’re drowning in a myriad of problems, barely able to keep your head above water in the storms of your life.

If any of these descriptions fit you, sweet friend, my heart goes out to you. I know those feelings all too well—been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt. More than once. But I’ve also learned that when our thoughts and attitudes get better, our lives can too, even if our circumstances remain the same. We can’t always control how we feel, but we can always take authority over our own minds and change the way we think, which then changes the way we view and experience life overall.

When it feels like an overwhelming riptide of circumstances is causing us to sink, sometimes our faith and our attitudes are at risk of going down too. We feel like we just don’t have the energy to keep fighting, and it becomes easier and easier to lose any hope that we’ll ever make it safely to shore. But there is always hope—hope for a positive attitude, a stronger faith, a heart full of joy, and a happier future—when we put our hope in Jesus and choose not to let life cause us, or our attitudes, to sink. Even if we feel as though we’re ready to give out, we don’t have to give in to hopelessness and pessimism. If there is one thing for sure, it’s that a negative mind will never lead you into a more positive life.

Regardless of where you find yourself today or how you’re feeling, I want you to know that I get it. Not only because of my current trials but also because of many other difficulties I’ve experienced throughout my lifetime.

You Can Choose Life

We always have the power within us to choose how we think about our circumstances and our lives overall, despite what’s going on. As believers we are all equipped to have hope when things seem hopeless, enabled to embrace joy when situations seem joyless, and empowered by the Holy Spirit within us to overcome the life-robbing habit of negative thinking.

We can learn to change our perspectives about our circumstances, even if our circumstances don’t change. You see, when we learn to change the way we think, we can change the way we feel, which gradually transforms our minds to be more like Christ’s, which then, in turn, changes the way we live, making our lives more positive. A changed mind will always result in a changed heart. A life of optimism and joy is possible for all of us, no matter what we’re going through. After all, hearts anchored in God don’t sink.

The encounter I had with Jesus when praying about my marriage was a game changer.

I am in no way saying making the choice to focus on the positive was easy—oh, friend, it was so not easy. Actually, it might have been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, especially in the midst of overwhelming heartache and disappointment. But deep in my spirit I knew that negativity could all too easily become a stronghold in my heart, my mind, and my life, and I also knew I could not let that happen.

Just because something bad had happened in my life didn’t mean my life was bad, and just because I was unhappy in the moment didn’t mean I had to live an unhappy life.

The Stronghold of Negativity

I didn’t have to let negativity become a stronghold in my heart, and neither do you. I chose to try to be positive as much as possible and not to be held hostage to pessimism and bitterness. My prayer is that you will choose to do the same.

A stronghold is anything that holds us back from living life the way God intended and hinders our ability to live with optimism and full of peace, love, joy, and hope. When it comes to the term stronghold, people typically think of the obvious issues, such as sins, lying, stealing, worry, addictions, and so on. Yet all too often, it is our negative attitude that becomes a stronghold and keeps us from living a joy-filled life, not necessarily the external factors that influenced our attitude.

If a majority of our thoughts are negative, that “strong hold” of negativity can slowly choke out our happiness and keep us paralyzed in the land of pessimism, while we may live completely unaware this is happening. We may resort to blaming other people for the way we are feeling, struggling with fears, harboring anger, or assuming that God cannot love us or forgive us. We may assume He cares for everyone else, but not for us. We assume that no one else on the planet has ever gone through what we are going through and that nobody else could possibly relate.

We find ourselves not thinking Christlike thoughts, allowing fear and worry to...

Table of contents

• Prologue
• Chapter One
• Chapter Two
• Chapter Three
• Chapter Four
• Chapter Five
• Chapter Six
• Chapter Seven
• Chapter Eight
• Chapter Nine
• Chapter Ten
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bible Credits
• About the Author
• Optimist Challenge
• BLOG CHALLENGES
• Other Books by Tracie Miles