Capturing Thoughts: Trusting God

 

I love it when God speaks to me.  I tuned in to my favorite Christian podcast and the two-day series was on handling your thought life.  Later, I picked up an older devotional, turned to the next reading, and darned if it wasn’t about our thought patterns and aligning our minds with the mind of Christ.

I’ve learned that when I am getting bombarded with the same topic from different sources, I need to pay particular attention.  What is God saying to me?  What do I need to do in response?

As a result, I have begun to pay closer attention to the things that go through my mind.  When something happens, I tend to jump to conclusions about the events to follow – and I have a nearly perfect track record of being 100% wrong.  Mulling over these assumed conclusions provides nothing valuable.  But it does increase my stress level – and all for nothing.  There’s no gain from it.

Something valuable I learned about thoughts is to not leave a void.  Satan loves a void.  If you are removing a toxic thought from your mind, replace it with truth.  “God has complete control over this, and I truly have no idea how He plans to play this out.  But no matter what He decides, He will provide what is needed and never leave my side.  I’m going to let Him handle this, not me.  I chose to trust Him in this.”

Another thing I learned is that this takes work.  It takes effort, and I need to be deliberate about it.  But it has huge payoffs, not only in reducing stress, but in reminding myself that God is completely powerful, He sees more than I do, He loves me dearly and is completely worthy of my trust.