Things have been far from easy or comfortable for quite some
time for my husband and me. This journey
of learning to trust God as a couple, fully, for our daily provision and not
get discouraged when things don’t seem to be working out well, has made me feel
double minded, as I ride a roller coaster of emotions. Some days I’m a faith
giant and others I’m bottoming out in the frustrations of how long this is
taking to get on stable ground. I know
we are where God wants us, obeying His direction and timing, even though it is
not the road we really want to travel right now. The main battle is with my flesh that just
doesn’t want to be in this situation of struggle any longer.
Some things I know:
- We need to not make this worse by believing things which trouble our minds that aren’t even a reality
- Even though the process feels very painful, it is a good plan which will ultimately put us in perfect alignment with God’s will for our lives
- The transforming process burns, yet these fiery trials are purposed to renew the way we think
- There are some things we have to let go of even though it feels like doing so will cause us to slide over the cliff of security and free fall into the valley of the unknown
- Through this we will learn to trust Him at deeper levels than ever before.
In my quiet time with God this morning I closed my eyes and
just breathed, slowly, declaring, “God…We need a new start.” I waited in the
silence fully expecting Him to speak and I then heard Him say, “I have given
you a new day.”
This may not have felt like the answer I wanted but it
actually was just what I needed. No
matter what we are going through, each day is our opportunity to start
over. But how do we start over when our
circumstances are still anything but ideal?
Our new start comes when we start over in our mind, being purposeful in
thinking about what we are thinking about.
Truly, our thought life is what is at the root of our depression, fear, anger,
sadness, lethargy, lack of motivation, bitterness, frustration and a plethora
of other emotions we feel. What thoughts
are going through our mind continuously?
It’s important to identify because those thoughts result in the emotions
we feel. Emotions follow a thought.
What I have noticed is that the more I don’t check those
negative, random thoughts and just let them run wild like a child out of control because of their parents’ lack of disciplinary action, is that they grow. They grow more constant and they grow more
negative. They begin to spread like
cancer, infecting even what used to be a healthy outlook, until we have a mindset
that is negative. Our mind is now held captive to a dark side
that struggles to see anything good anymore.
Everything gets tainted with filters of negativity and our perception is
out of balance and false.
The eventual reality of what happens in our lives is that we
unknowingly attract, draw, or create the things we think about. Job confessed that the very thing he
continually thought about in fear and dread is exactly what came upon him. (Job
3:25) “As a man thinks so is he,” (Proverbs
23:7), shows us that it doesn’t matter what we present to the outside world. Whatever is going on inside our mind is what
we truly are. So if we think negative
thoughts, we will be a negative person. If we think positive, Godly thoughts,
we will be a person who is a blessing to ourselves and others around us.
Life is cycles. We
see it in nature: condensation, precipitation, evaporation, condensation,
precipitation, evaporation; spring, summer, fall, winter, spring, summer, fall,
winter; seed, time, harvest, seed, time, harvest; and it’s true for our life as
well. We have a thought, we ponder it, it
gets down into our heart, we speak it, which causes us to have more thoughts, and the cycle starts all over again.
Our words are creative since God made us in His image;
everything that we see was created by the WORD of God. Proverbs 18:21 states, “Death
and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who
love it and indulge it will eat
its fruit and bear the
consequences of their words.” Out
of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45) What we say flows from what is in our heart,
and what’s in our heart is what we put there by continually thinking about it. We create a cycle with those thoughts and
then before we know it we start muttering or speaking what is going on in our
mind/heart until eventually, the very things we fear, dread, hate to have occur
are the very things that do! We have to
guard our thoughts and hearts and only allow inside that which is good for us
so that blessings will eventually manifest in our lives!
So how do we start over in the “new day” God gives us? We CHOOSE to “think on things that are
lovely, pure, true, of good report, if there be anything excellent, if there be
anything praiseworthy, think on these things.”
(Philippians 4:8)
Since God made our minds incapable of thinking two thoughts
at the same time, that actually helps us to choose which one we will think
about. Our initial problem with this can
be that perhaps we don’t understand that we can take our thoughts under our
control and they don’t have to just run randomly all over the place. According to God, we most certainly can take
authority over our own minds and make it obey us: “casting
down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge
of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
(2 Corinthians 10:5)
After we figure out that we CAN control our
thoughts, our next temptation is to be lazy with it or let self-pity or
self-focus be fed by our thought life.
Let’s face it; sometimes it just feels really good to have a pity party
with our thought life!
Therefore, we
have to deny that carnal side of our nature, and starve it to death by refusing
to feed it with negative thoughts. We
need to be quick to say, “In your face, negativity! I’m gonna think on things that are GOOD FOR ME to think about!”
Another very powerful weapon is to call
that bad thought a liar. Sometimes I will
literally say out loud, “You’re a liar!”
I feel the power of that simple statement as it shuts the mouth of the
voice that is counter to God’s truth about me, my circumstances, or anything
else that I need to refute. For instance, if
we have a thought pop in our heads like, “You’ll never have enough. You will always struggle.” Declare boldly, “You’re a liar.” You can then come back with God’s word on the
matter, but that means you have to study His word so you know what to come back
with. :)
Cut that thought off at the pass. You can tell when it’s going to be a bad one
and just refuse to let your mind finish it.
You can say, “I rebuke that!” or even a simple, “No” will suffice. Don’t let it complete its destructive message.
The next thing to understand is that we
need to replace the bad thought with something good. Why “replace” it? Let’s demonstrate this. I want you to form a
picture in your mind about a pink elephant.
Got it? How about some polka dots
on her? What color are those polka dots
on that pink elephant? Now STOP thinking
about that pink polka dotted elephant!
No, I’m serious! Stop thinking about that pink polka dotted elephant! How’s that going for you? That’s why we have to replace that thought
with something else. It’s really hard to
tell ourselves to stop thinking about something unless we move onto something
else to think about.
So now think about a cuddly puppy with
fuzzy, soft, brown fur and that odd yet intriguing breath which only puppies own. See him rolling around on the
floor biting your favorite shoe? Unless
you put that pink polka dot elephant in the background behind that adorable
puppy, you stopped thinking about her once you formed that pup in your
thoughts.
No matter how terrible our life may seem,
we all have something we can be grateful for and we can think on those
things. We have a God whom we often
misunderstand. He is a good God who loves us and truly could give no better of
a gift then giving the life of His Son as our Savior. We can turn our perception around of a
situation and focus on an enjoyable part of our life. We can choose to believe God loves us, has
a wonderful plan for our life and when He sees the time is right, will change/use the undesirable part at some
point. Life alterations can take time and we need to
give Him room to operate.
We can begin to look in God’s word regarding
our circumstance to find what He says about it which will be the opposite of
what our flesh, the world, and the devil want us to believe. For instance, if I am experiencing lack in my
finances, I need to declare what God says; that I have life in abundance, (John
10:10); that with Him as my Shepherd, I shall not want, (which means lack). (Psalm
23) He meets our needs according to the
riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)
To help us get in the right frame of mind,
we can create a worshipful atmosphere with good music that delights our hearts
and makes us feel His peaceful presence.
We have plenty of resources like no generation ever before to have music
at our techie fingertips. Worshipping God will DEFINITELY make you feel better
if you do it long enough to chase away the blues, “Put on a garment of praise
for a spirit of heaviness.” (Isaiah 61:3)
How long do we need to work this plan? We need to do this however long it takes to change our
mind. It may be a few times a day to
seeming thousands of times. It may be
for a long period of time or just a short season. But stick with it until it works.
To recap:
1.
Stop the bad thought before it finishes
2.
Replace it with the opposite thought found in God’s word or thought of
how good God is
3.
Create a peaceful atmosphere of worship
I know that through this current and lengthy circumstance, God
is perfecting that which concerns us and if we will allow the process of trials
to do their work, we will be “perfect and entire, lacking nothing.” (James 1:4)
So when I get up in the morning, I choose to declare “This is the day the Lord
has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. Your mercies are new this morning
and it’s my new start!” (Psalm 118:24, Lamentations 3:22-23)
Father, please change our minds. Amen.
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