LET MY WORDS BE FEW

 A Berean Examination of 

Goal-Setting Standards

“How to Trick Your Mind Into Greatness and Other Self-Help Exercises”

Berean question: “What saith the scripture?” — Romans 4:3.   

I am exploring the types of self-help statements, such as this one above, concerning goal-setting as it relates to a right mindset.  While these sound great on the first reading, something just didn’t sit 100% right, in my spirit.  So, I took each of these statements to the truth of Scripture.  I wanted to see what is sound, according to God’s Word and what is not.  So here we go.  

1. “Don’t say negative things out loud. Your brain accepts your words as truth.”

What is true?

Scripture places enormous importance on our words.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue…”

— Proverbs 18:21

“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

— Matthew 12:34

“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying…”

— Ephesians 4:29

And Philippians 4:8 tells us to deliberately direct our thinking toward what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.

So there is certainly biblical wisdom in guarding both our thoughts and our speech.

But what is overstated?

“Every time you say ‘I can’t,’ your brain stops trying.”

That’s far too absolute.

Sometimes “I can’t” is true.

Paul learned something considerably deeper than positive self-talk:

“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.”

— 2 Corinthians 3:5

And Jesus said:

“…for without me ye can do nothing.”

— John 15:5

Biblical faith isn’t:

“Never say I can’t.”

It is:

“Apart from Christ, I cannot—but through Him I can do whatever He calls and strengthens me to do.”

Compare Philippians 4:13:

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

The power isn’t in speaking what I want to become.

The power is in Christ.

That distinction is enormous.

2. “Visualize your success in detail.”

Here we need considerably more caution.

The claim that the brain simply “can’t tell the difference between a real memory and vivid visualization” is an exaggeration of psychological/neuroscience findings.

But there’s a more important Berean question:

What does Scripture tell me to meditate upon?

Interestingly, Scripture absolutely teaches intentional meditation.

But the object isn’t primarily my imagined future success.

It is God and His truth.

“But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”

— Psalm 1:2

“I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.”

— Psalm 119:15

Joshua was instructed:

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night…”

— Joshua 1:8

There is also biblical wisdom in looking ahead and planning.

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost…?”

— Luke 14:28

But Scripture doesn’t tell us to repeatedly imagine ourselves successful until the mind accepts the imagined future as reality.

It tells us to fill our minds with truth and trust God with the outcome.

That’s a major missing piece.

3. “Your environment shapes you more than willpower.”

There is considerable biblical wisdom underneath this statement.

Scripture repeatedly warns that our relationships and surroundings influence us.

“He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”

— Proverbs 13:20

“Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.”

— 1 Corinthians 15:33

Psalm 1 begins with environment and influence:

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly…”

So choosing our influences wisely is thoroughly biblical.

But this statement goes too far:

“Change your surroundings and people, and your behavior changes automatically.”

No.

Environment influences behavior.

It does not transform the heart.

Jesus locates the deeper problem here:

“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts…”

— Mark 7:21

A person can leave one environment and carry the same heart into another.

Biblical transformation is therefore deeper:

“…be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

— Romans 12:2

And for the believer, victory isn’t ultimately produced by ideal surroundings or stronger willpower:

“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”

— Galatians 5:16

So I would rewrite the psychological principle:

Environment influences behavior.

Truth renews the mind.

The Spirit transforms the life.

4. “Write your goals down. Your brain’s attention system starts noticing opportunities.”

There’s nothing unbiblical about writing goals.

Writing something down can clarify it, help us remember it, and focus our attention.

God Himself repeatedly commanded things to be written.

“Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables…”

— Habakkuk 2:2

But that particular passage should not be turned into a modern goal-setting formula. In context, Habakkuk is being commanded to record God’s revelation, not his personal dreams.

Scripture does commend thoughtful planning:

“The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness…”

— Proverbs 21:5

But here again Scripture adds the missing piece:

“A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”

— Proverbs 16:9

And James gives perhaps the strongest correction to modern goal-setting:

“For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”

— James 4:15

So:

Write the goal.

Make the plan.

Look for opportunities.

Work diligently.

But underneath all of it:

“If the Lord will.”

The deeper issue I see

There’s a pattern running through all four statements.

Psychology says:

Words → brain → behavior

Visualization → brain → performance

Environment → behavior

Goals → attention → opportunity

Some of those observations may describe genuine features of human behavior.

But Scripture takes us beneath all of them.

The Bible’s sequence is closer to:

God’s Word → truth believed → renewed mind → transformed thinking → obedient action → fruit

And even that transformation is not something we manufacture independently.

Jesus said:

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

— John 17:17

That is profoundly different from:

“Speak only what you want to become.”

The biblical question isn’t primarily:

What do I want to become?

It is:

What does God say is true, and who is He conforming me to become?

Romans answers:

“…to be conformed to the image of his Son…”

— Romans 8:29

That’s the destination.

Not greatness.

Christlikeness.

And there is one more important distinction

Psychological advice can  subtly place the self in the driver’s seat.

My words.

My visualization.

My environment.

My goals.

My desired future.

Scripture changes the center entirely.

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

— Proverbs 3:5–6

The Christian isn’t attempting to program the brain into producing the life he or she desires.

We are learning to bring our thinking under the authority of truth:

“…bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

— 2 Corinthians 10:5

That may be the strongest Berean correction to what is often taught through self-help advice.

**We don’t trick the mind.

We take thoughts captive.**

And we don’t take them captive to positive thinking.

We take them captive “to the obedience of Christ.”

And I think there is a beautiful biblical principle underneath what psychology is trying imperfectly to describe:

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…”

— Proverbs 23:7

We should be careful with that verse because its immediate context concerns the calculating heart of a stingy host; it isn’t a generic “thoughts create reality” promise. But Scripture as a whole certainly teaches that what fills the inner person eventually affects how we live.

Which brings us right back to:

“Whatsoever things are true…think on these things.” — Philippians 4:8

Notice the first test isn’t positive.

It’s true.

That distinction may be the most important lesson in the whole comparison.

Biblical thinking isn’t positive thinking.

Biblical thinking is truth-governed thinking.

And sometimes truth is encouraging. Sometimes it convicts us. Sometimes it tells us we are weak. Sometimes it tells us something is impossible for us.

But then truth points beyond us:

“…with God all things are possible.” — Matthew 19:26

That is much richer than trying to convince our brains that we’re capable of greatness.

It is learning to believe what God has actually said.

Now, put this into faith-filled action. 

I’m attaching a biblically sound goal-setting worksheet for you.  

BIBLICAL GOAL PLANNING SHEET

A Berean Framework for the Believer in Business

THE GOAL I AM PRAYERFULLY CONSIDERING:

________________________________________________________________________________

BREAKTHROUGH MINISTRIES   •   Plan diligently • Walk faithfully • Hold the outcome with an open hand