Are Thoughts Worthless?
By Sally Ladignon
Thought, as one of the sector in the mind circle, is considered as a mental event of information fed externally and processed internally in the form of, but not limited to, ideas, impressions, memories, predicaments or prospects. Fundamental to thought is its content with social, physical, mind, heart and spirit features. It maybe life-giving or life draining when information are processed with or without partiality.
Psalm 94:11 says, “The Lord knows people’s thoughts; he knows they are worthless.” I wonder if the thoughts in said verse to be worthless or futile refer to any unhealthy thought, lies or wrong (ungodly) beliefs about self, others and God. Lies that do not agree with God, His Word, His nature, His character and man as His created being. Recognizing and identifying healthy and unhealthy thoughts are necessary in holding every thought captive in order to face and challenge its truthfulness based on God’s Word and eventually replacing them with Godly beliefs. Everyone, to some extent, may have live a life, out of long-held wrong beliefs which continue to influence a person relative to his/her perceptions, decisions, and actions which may lead to unavoidable sufferings to all his/her circles, to an extent.
Wrong or ungodly beliefs are rooted in (1) life hurting experiences, and (2) self-centeredness of mankind. Our experience of hurts over our life time strengthened and intensified our negative beliefs about ourselves, others and God. It can be traced from childhood injuries, unprocessed trauma (past and on-going), and unpleasant experiences leaving a very strong imprint on us. Negative beliefs have a large number of possible themes about self, others and God. Unknowingly, these give the legal grounds for demonic oppressions.
Adverse childhood experiences and adverse community environments are serious shapers of negative beliefs where a child might conclude, in his/her young mind, some of the following negative beliefs about him/herself, others, and God. The examples of these beliefs are sourced from the Restoring the Foundations (RTF) ministry list:
SELF
- I should have not been born. My life is a mistake.
- My feelings don’t matter. No one cares what I feel.
- I am not worthy to receive anything from God.
OTHERS
- Authority figures will humiliate me and violate me.
- My value is based totally on others’ judgment/perception about me.
- I am out there alone. If I get into trouble or need help, there is no one to rescue me.
GOD
- God loves other people more than He loves me.
- I cannot trust God or feel secure with Him.
- God only values me for what I do. My life is just a means to an end.
If the above list of lies were laid during childhood and became the foundation of belief patterns while growing up, life will also be built upon such foundation of lies.
Various relationships we have in our social circle may continually hurt us by offensive statements repeated insensitively which undermine self-worth and identity, including disrespect of choices. Name calling or swearing, blaming, guilt-tripping, jeering, false accusation are just some heartless way a child may experience. Moreover, negative experiences occurring during adult years can cause further formation of negative beliefs. The impact of problems in family, marriage, career, work place and church, or experiences of failure, accident, chronic illness or tragedy can also cause us to believe lies about ourselves, others, and God.
As a child, I grew up with an absentee father who missed important milestones of my development, especially his guidance when I needed it most. What formed in my thoughts while growing up was a negative inner script which says, “I deserve to be abandoned because I am not lovable.” This negative belief about myself became a long-held belief which pierced the very core of my hurt from the start I was about to live my life until I became aware of it and was helped to replace it with positive (godly) belief which says, I am lovable and I am fine as I am. The negative belief shaped my thoughts and actions. I know that mental awareness is not enough to shift the validity of positive cognition, but recognizing it was already cathartic at that time.
I longed for healing from the hurts caused by early abandonment and rejection with help from the Holy Spirit who revealed, exposed and ministered in uprooting my negative belief about myself. The uprooting process was done through Restoring the Foundations (RTF) ministry focusing on a heart-level and Jesus-level healing experience which happened before the pandemic. After attending Pastoral and Advanced Counseling Training or PACT, I realized that the healing ministry I went through RTF was a process similar to a Trialogue involving the combined shapes of the square and the cross. From then on I continuously use the combined shapes when I do RTF self-ministry to my other held negative beliefs under the guidance of the Holy Spirit who is my Counselor.
The second source of negative beliefs are rooted from self-centeredness of man anchored on worldly standards which is reliance on false securities like appearance, achievements and influence (AAI). The ultimate goal is to be a self-made man, self-reliant, self-governing, who can do his/her own thing without God. Values are compromised for the sake of seeking pleasures, relying on something except God during painful experiences and the fallacy of pride in worldly pursuits.
Sins that run in the family for generations cause negative beliefs which continue to deceive and pass on down the family line. For example, sexual sins cause distorted beliefs about sex and sexuality. Normalizing any form of violence towards humanity twist the belief on human dignity which diminished God’s image and likeness in created being. In this manner, negative beliefs are extension of generational sins, which cause woundedness and brokenness. It mirrors how patterns of sins in parenting style will cause soul/spirit hurts to the next generation, creating open doors for demonic oppressions. Holding on to negative beliefs is like having an agreement with the Devil, rather than God, giving legal permission for demons to stay and oppress.
Since negative beliefs (thought patterns) are tied to generational sins (sin patterns), soul/spirit hurts (wound patterns) and demonic oppressions, leaving any of these doors open is dangerous for transformation to take place. Maybe this the reason why man’s thoughts are worthless when God is ignored in the transformational process without missing any door surrendered to the enemy. The Lord Jesus died for the forgiveness of sins to dismantle negative beliefs with renewing of the mind, and heal the soul/spirit hurts, thus, complete reclaiming of all legal grounds for deliverance from demonic influence.
The Lord knows people’s thoughts; he knows they are worthless. The reason is clear why people’s thoughts are worthless as laid by God’s Word in Isaiah 55:8-9 attesting,
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.