Better

"We recognize it. Then we can replace it."

DOUBT COMES from what you focus on. The same can be said of fear, arrogance, and all lust. What you think about constantly affects your mood and eventually your choices. We choose to give up because we keep going over what we see that looks like failure. Or we choose to push through because we picture what strengthens us. Philippians 4:8 gives us a list of things to think about. We are to think about things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, things that contain any virtue and any praise. Basically, when we define these words, we are to focus on Jesus. I do this literally with a mental image or by quoting a Scripture from the Word. Jesus is the Word. But there are also a multitude of other images we can turn our focus to. This is the action the verse requires.

Do we simply read God’s Word and memorize it, or is it what emerges when the pressure strikes? I repeat the story my mom tells of a friend who’d spent time focusing on Acts 10:38. Then one day, at the grocery store, the clerk said, “That’ll be $10.38,” and my mom’s friend spouted the Scripture verse. “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” She was overflowing with its truth.

This should be our reaction to sudden news, to grief and sadness, to worry. When squeezed what comes out? If it’s a person doing the squeezing, what does your mouth want to say? We are to live without being offended. This is the promise of Psalm 119:165. “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Nothing is nothing. I always point out that our bursts of anger should be a sign to us that WE NEED TO CHANGE and not the other person. We can’t change what they say, but we can renew (change) our thinking to not even feel anger toward them. Or toward anyone. When God showed me the oceanic size of His love, how vast it was, it healed my opinions of people. I see from His point-of-view, and that is where WE MUST STAND WITH PEOPLE. There is no other position to stand in. Our opinions and criticism are bad seeds.

A minister of the gospel described our words this way. He said to picture them as seeds we are spitting out which fall to the ground and sprout. This really affected my thinking. And my speaking. There are things I’ve said that I don’t want to see growing. There are things I’ve said which reflect back at me in the faces of other people. What I asked from God for myself, I refused to give others. As if He should be patient and kind to me, but I don’t have time for them. Devils and unclean spirits are completely selfish. They only want to satisfy themselves, and if it kills or steals or destroys, then that’s okay since they got their way. They are unreasonable, meaning you can’t talk them out of it. All they see and think and do is deception, their own beliefs, they believe lies, and their words, they speak lies.

Jesus came to heal humanity so we could be like God and be different people. He faced men who knew His Word, who quoted prophecies about Him, yet they wanted Him dead. He died for them to change.

“Jesus, with his human mind filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River and was led by the Spirit into the desert,” (Luke 4:1, Remedy)

The renewing of the mind is a work of the Holy Spirit in us. First, He is forgiving. He knows us personally and knows how men think. He is aware of the deepest places in us (Hebrews 4:12). So there is no condemnation, no weight of blame, from Him (John 3:17). Second, though we make the effort to think on lovely things, it is His power in us that does the cleansing. We are not alone, which is how much of the church world has pictured it. But no, He is our Teacher, bringing all things to our attention and remembrance. These are His works in the mind. We can trust Him to Guide us into Truth, another way of saying He works to heal our thinking.

But we must commit to it. And I’ve found, on the simplest level, it starts by leaning on Him to help us see the error in thought. We recognize it. Then we can replace it. I start simple, even silly sometimes, turning my words toward something more lighthearted – a food I want to eat, a joke I heard told, or silly talk with the dog. This lifts my mood, and then I will quote the Scripture, even if it doesn’t apply in topic. All of God’s Word is cleansing for the mind. How many who listened to Jesus speak in parables, went home thinking on them and had revelation? I suspect there were multitudes.

I will walk upright, as the Word says, not using anger as an excuse but as a place of healing, a point of change, so that tonight I’m better than this morning, and tomorrow is better than today.

“For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6)

“We don’t use worldly weapons designed to kill the body or destroy physical structures, nor do we use the world’s weapons of lies, distortion, manipulation, deceit, flattery, coercion, sanctions, or trickery. On the contrary, our weapons are from God and have divine power to free the mind, heal the heart, and demolish Satan’s stronghold of fear, lies and selfishness. We demolish every idea, argument, doctrine, teaching or concept that infects the mind and distorts or obstructs the truth about God, and we reclaim the thoughts, feelings and attitudes into the truth about God as revealed by Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5, Remedy)

Image by nugroho dwi hartawan from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com