What Are You Thinking?
We demolish arguments and every
pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive
every thought to make it obedient to Christ. – 2 Corinthians 10:5
How good are you at controlling the thoughts that race
through your mind? Are you good at replacing ugliness with God’s truth? Do you
obsess over wrongs done to you? Do you give your troubles to God or do you
insist on worrying without ceasing?
Honestly, I struggle with this issue. It’s a constant
back and forth. The only thing that seems to work for me is to find an appropriate
Scripture verse and repeat it over and over and over again. And, yes, I
sometimes struggle with that too.
I have taken Joyce Meyer’s Battle Field of the Mind Bible study. It’s wonderful, by the way. There’s
just so much truth in it. What we think about, what we obsess over, is the god
that is controlling us. If we think ugly thoughts, we’ll become ugly people. If
we transform our minds into thinking like Jesus, we’ll become more like Jesus.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? And, I suppose, it is. In
theory, anyway. But day to day frustrations, insecurities and issues have a way
of coming full force at us and causing us to lose our peace and, ultimately,
our way.
I sometimes wonder how much time we spend worrying
about things we can’t change anyway. Have you ever thought of it that way? We
want to control our own lives but the reality is that the actions of others impact
so much of what happens. Think of it like this: You can be an incredibly safe,
observant driver but you can’t control the speeding driver who, high on drugs,
runs a stop sign and smashes into your car.
What we can control is how we handle what happens. We
don’t have to respond to ugliness. We don’t have to be filled with anger and
rage. We don’t have to host a pity party because something bad happened to us.
We can give all that to God and walk forward, healed by the blood of Christ.
We also don’t have to give in to the ugliness others
throw at us. Jesus told us to love our enemies and to do good to those who seek
to harm us. He was right. (I know. He’s always right.) Have you ever done something
good to someone who has purposely tried to hurt you? They don’t know what to do
with it.
The same is true when you respond in kindness when
someone lashes out in anger. They’re trying to pick a fight and you aren’t
showing up. You can’t change them but you can refuse to be baited and pulled
into ugliness.
Beth Moore wrote a book titled Praying God’s Word. It’s a wonderful book that I recommend to
anyone. It has a section on praying for your enemies. It even comes with a fill-in-the-blank
section so you can insert the person’s name into the open space. It’s incredibly
powerful. It’s really hard to hold on to anger and bitterness when you are
literally praying God’s Word over the person who harmed you.
I will probably always struggle with controlling the
thoughts that ricochet through my mind. But I won’t give up. I won’t give in to
Satan. I will ask God for help and continue to work toward replacing ugliness
and worry with His Word. That’s the path to peace and joy.
