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When your thoughts have been running in a certain for a long period of time, it’s as though you have been digging a deep river bed, and the water can only flow in one direction. Imagine a person who habitually leans towards the negative thinking month after month, year after year. With every pessimistic thought, they dig that riverbed a bit deeper. The flow accelerates, growing stronger as it goes. After a period of time, the water is flowing so strongly, every thought that flows out of the river is negative; that's the only way that the river is flowing. The person has programmed his or her mind into a negative thinking pattern.

Fortunately, we can dig a new river, one going in a positive direction. The way we do so is one thought at a time. When you dwell on God's Word and start seeing the best in situations, little by little, one thought at a time, you are redirecting the flow of that river. At first, just a little water will be redirected out of the negative stream and trickle over into that positive stream. It may not look like much at first, but as you continue to reject negative thoughts and redirect the flow, as you choose faith instead of fear, expecting good things and taking control of your thought life, then little by little that negative stream will dwindle and the positive stream will flow with much greater force. If you'll keep it up, that old negative eventually will dry up, and you will discover a whole new river flowing with positive, faith-filled thoughts of victory.

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quoted from , Joel Osteen.