Leaderboard

And self-talk in both directions: demeaning to oneself and demeaning concerning others while uplifting oneself.

Only IF the person has repented SIMPLY to OBTAIN the Kingdom Blessings. If the person has repented BECAUSE they came to understand that their sin has wounded the heart of God, and they are truly SORRY that they wounded Him, then the relationship is restored. The Hebrew word translated "atonement" also means "reconciliation". It's the reconciliation (of heart) that makes the difference.

Distorted thinking is BASED upon a LIE. The "CURE" is TRUTH. All LIES result in distorted thinking, IF the lie is believed, and becomes part of the persons belief system - about themselves, or about others, about the church, about whatever.... That is one reason I LOVE this forum. It exposes LIES and flasehoods. Even though the misunderstanding of some portion of Scripture, or the misunderstanding of God's character or HIs will, is small. Even a small distortion of truth, will grow and grow, until it causes great misunderstanding. The end result is a change of behavior - towards God, or towards others, or towards self. Sometimes it causes one to give up - thinking God could never forgive their particular sins.

so many people will tell someone just to "stop it" — but that's just not a helpful thing to say, and it certainly isn't easy to do. Some will say, "just ask God to help you to stop it," but *that* can sometimes backfire, as well, if the person asks, but it didn't help. My own experience is that it takes an awful lot of work with a good counselor (imho, that's how God helps) to get out of the negative way of thinking.

A problem might be that some of us don't see Jesus as much of a persona Friend andl Protector as we see His archenemy a personal enemy. God is Love!~Jesus saves!

I agree that the thoughts that evil spirits put into our minds totally aggravate distorted thinking. To make it worse, most people cannot discern the difference between self-talk, the voice of the Holy Spirit, and the voices of unholy spirits. Many (if not most) of us view all internal talk as self-talk; and if we can't believe ourselves, who can we believe?

We are not to even judge ourselves 1 Cor 4:3 Imagine how much distortion lessons on these two things alone!

Often times in a personal relationship, whether it is a significant other or marital, one partner can become verbally abusive. It can also originate from critical thinking parents or siblings. After days, weeks, months or years of being told that you are stupid, fat, lazy, etc. one begins to buy into a negative view of ones self. Therefore, distorted thinking ensues.

Bible reading makes liberals ..then I am in saintly company.