The New Year has been ushered in with much excitement, expectations, and looking forward to a fresh start, new things, and moving forward from the year before. One way to prepare yourself for this change is to prepare your heart to receive the good things by reddening our lives and mouths of negativity.

To have a heart that will receive these good things and produce words of life, we have to get rid of the things that have caused our hearts to harden and fall into negativity. Things that can harden your heart are things like: sin, insecurity, no spiritual depth that causes you to flee when any signs of trouble come around, unforgiveness, or allowing the cares of the world to take the place of God and your marriage. All of these things will take away a sense of joy, peace, security, strength, longsuffering, and will destroy any crops of the fruits of the Spirit. Think of it this away, all of the negative things will make a ground only capable of growing weeds of destruction.

Negativity can and will destroy your marriage as well as your walk with God. King Solomon is known as the wisest man. If you look at Proverbs, the chapter of Solomon’s wisdom, most of his topics are about the power of words and how they affect your life and your relationships.

Negativity comes in forms such as complaining, gossip, criticism, judging, sarcasm, and speaking and thinking negative things. It is these things that we should keep far away from us so that we can be full of the life of God and have the correct impact on our relationships.

Negative words can open the door for the enemy to accomplish his goal in causing your marriage to be finished either by divorce or to become a halfhearted marriage that accomplishes nothing for God’s Kingdom.

One way to uproot the negativity of words is by searching your heart and looking at the gateway of your heart. What are you allowing to cross the gate of your heart? What you allow to come in will affect what comes out of your mouth. This includes the thoughts that you dwell on in your mind. We are told to keep guard over our hearts. Why? Because everything you DO flows from it. (Proverbs 4:23)

You will see in Philippians 4:8-9 that we are to keep our thoughts on things that are good and true. In the verses before this one, Philippians 4:6-7 we are not to worry (or be negative) about anything but in everything bring to God in prayer. As we follow the whole scripture God’s peace will surpass what is going on and guard our hearts and minds with His peace.  Peace and negativity cannot reside together.

To see if negativity is an issue, check the words that flow from your mouth and watch your own actions. Counterattack them with the Truth of God’s Word and allow the Holy Spirit to show you where there is hard soil in the heart and uproot any “weeds” that are choking the life out of you and your marriage. As you change your words and thoughts to positive ones, you will begin to see a new change and look at things from a different perspective. This will bring you a better New Year and a new relationship in your marriage and with God.