Thoughts

If you’re anything like me, there are about eleventy billion thoughts running through your mind at any given moment in the day. Mark Gungor uses the analogy of a woman’s brain being like the “internet superhighway”. Everything’s connected, everything seems urgent, and everything is going FAST! And sometimes, even the thinker doesn’t know the best way to control their thoughts.

In the Church, we hear lots of sermons and bible verses about our thought life. What we should be thinking about. What we should NOT be thinking about. And all of this is good information. But what I found in my own life is that I was simply being told to replace “this thought” with “that thought” without really deeply understanding why a healthy thought life was so important. This perpetuated a cycle of helplessness, guilt, shame, and on and on.

So what’s the deal with our thoughts? Why do they matter so much? If they’re just in my head, they can’t really be hurting anyone, right? Oh, sister…let’s talk.

Do not copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
–

Romans 12:2

I’ve worked a lot on my thoughts recently. If you want to lose weight, run a race, write a book, start a business, or take on anything at all that requires long-term change, you just have to. And there’s a lot that I’ve learned (and am continuing to learn) along the way. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that the reason you’re making any choice is what will motivate you to continue to make it. Or not continue to make it, if that reason is only surface or not compelling enough. For me, the thoughts I was thinking were not serving me well. Some were even downright harmful. The bottom line, col, hard truth is that the majority of my thoughts were simply not God-pleasing. And as a result of them not serving me well, they weren’t serving the Kingdom well. Lots of my thoughts were rooted in fear, full of anger, resulting in guilt, shame, and self-loathing. I would bully myself about being a bad mom, an inadequate wife, a flaky friend, a phony Christian. I’ll never be successful. I’m never going to lose this baby weight (yeah, my youngest is 3. It’s fine.) I always give up.

YOU have a choice. I have a choice. What and who will we choose to believe?

Lies. I was telling myself lies. And I was believing them. Do I believe the enemy himself had a part in it? Of course. But I take responsibility for allowing him to gain ground for so long. That’s on me. And that’s on you, sister. He’s the accuser, but we choose to let him get away with continually accusing, without combating him with Truth. He plants seeds, but girl, we tend and water them. When I thought about that in the past, it perpetuated my cycle of guilt and shame. But I’m not here to put that on you, I’m here to flip it on it’s head. YOU have a choice. I have a choice. What and who will we choose to believe? Will we pull the weeds in the garden of our minds, or tend and water them? We do have that much power, but we can sustain the change only when we’re empowered by the Holy Spirit.

…we on our own can’t produce thoughts that are God-pleasing and Kingdom-serving.

Here’s the thing…on our own, our thoughts will never be God-pleasing. Does that mean we never have a kind or loving thought? Of course not. But we on our own can’t produce thoughts that are God-pleasing and Kingdom-serving. Friends, we have the power with Him to change our thoughts, which will change our lives! Will we still have a war to fight in our minds? Yes, ma’am. But Jesus can make it so much less exhausting. The Truth is a powerful weapon.

So, now what? It’s not just about the spiritual principle, right? What’s the practical application, Korie? How? Be honest with yourself. First, own and recognize areas where your thoughts haven’t been serving you, and remind yourself that there is power to change them. Next, commit to actively working on changing your thought life. Don’t forget to remind yourself WHY you’re committing. Then, practice. Just like riding a bike, hitting a baseball, or decorating a cake, you’ve gotta work on the skill. I’ve learned from my Coach that you’re quite literally carving out new pathways in your brain when you’re teaching it to think differently, and that doesn’t happen overnight. Give yourself grace and have patience in the process.

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

My recommendation is to choose just one area to work on. Maybe it’s your thoughts about yourself that you start with, or your thoughts about your spouse. Your kids, job, Peggy on the PTO, the possibilities are endless. But choose an area and commit to actively changing your thoughts. When thoughts that don’t serve you show up, take those captive and do your best to combat them with Truth. For me, I try to have scripture handy or memorized to respond to lies that creep in. Find what works for you, and make a plan to be prepared. Thoughts can change your life, sister. And there’s power to change your thoughts. Tap into that, and share with us what changes come in your life.