October 23, Optimist or Pessimist?

Today’s reading: Psalms 111-115

“Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever. They will have no fear of bad news;
their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord”
- Psalm 112:6-7.

When you put your trust in the Lord, you should have an optimism for life that is based on God’s faithfulness and steadfastness. It is not an optimism that emanates from your trust in the economy, your company, or the reliability of other people. It is a confidence in the Lord Himself. The opposite of optimism is pessimism, and that brings an outlook on life that expects the worst instead of the best. The problem is that optimists and pessimists have a tendency to fulfill their own expectations, so that expecting the worst often helps deliver it. Today’s passage speaks to fact that the righteous will not fear bad news. That doesn’t mean bad news will never come; it simply means you are not looking for it with every unexpected phone call, message that the boss wants to meet with you, or expectation that someone you like or even love is going to reject you. Paul was confident and optimistic as he explained in 2 Corinthians 3:4-5: “Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” Have you trained yourself to be pessimistic, to expect the worst so you won’t be disappointed? Do you see that it is possible that when you expect the worst, you create the environment for the worst to happen? Can you also see that you learned to be pessimistic, and that means you can learn to be optimistic?