Thinking Patterns

Do you consider the 6,000-7,000 thoughts (according to google) that race through your mind each day?

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Hello ladies,

Are you seeing glimpses of spring? I enjoy all the seasons of the year but it isn’t difficult to recognize spring as my favorite.

I’m a pastel-color kind of girl and I’m dreaming of the multicolored greens dotting the landscape as the tiny, new leaves burst forth. In my mind, I’m visualizing the soft-colored bobbing heads of tulips, hyacinths, and of course, the sunshiny daffodils. Surely that's all just around the corner on this mid-March day in Eastern PA.💐

Thinking Patterns

Over the next couple of weeks I’d like to consider unhealthy patterns of thinking and a few welcomed methods to freedom.

Neil T. Anderson, author of Bondage Breaker, suggests Satan is out to convince us of two untruths:

• he does not want us to know how tenderly we are loved

• he wants us to believe this beautiful person God made is unlovable

The enemy twists our view of God in a way that we unknowingly decide:

• He, Jesus Christ, our kind Shepherd, doesn’t truly love us

• He can’t be trusted

• He is a harsh judge waiting to punish

Thus, our view of our most merciful heavenly Father becomes desperately distorted.

Satan twists our view of self. We’ve come to believe:

• we are flawed

• we are not good enough for God to love us

• we are actually unlovable

This lie tells us we are worthless and leads to the painful desperation of shame. It’s shame that causes us to want to fade away and hide.

My Young-Girl Lies

At a young age I personally saw God as:

• One who can’t be pleased

• One I generally disappoint

• One who is impatient with me

• One I can never get good enough for

• One who doesn’t really like me

• One who is not a warm, loving and personable Father

These were all untruths about our gentle Shepherd, yet they were the lies I internalized as truth in my vulnerable heart.

Bondage to Thoughts

Neil T. Anderson also suggests:

• people are not in bondage because of their past traumas

• people are in bondage because of the lies they believe as a result of their past traumas.

And:

• we are not struggling with who we are, but with who we think we are.

Add to that the findings from National Science Foundation suggest that 80% of our thoughts are negative and that 95% of them are repetitive.

Freedom

Friends, that is a lot of unhealthy thinking flooding our minds each waking moment. Each hour. Each day.

Coming to a place of freedom from these untruths does not happen by trying harder or attempting to fix our past.

Yet, we can experience freedom from this bitter trap as we lean into Jesus Christ, our warmly-caring and protective Heavenly Father. As we come to know Him for truly who He is—the Conqueror, the Overcomer—He will fight with us against the lying enemy.

Root out the Lies

The Father taught me I must root out the lies in my soul and replace them with truth. I must “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV).

I must snag every thought that feels uncomfortable and measure it against the precious Word of God. The Holy Bible is truth and it will destroy the enemy’s lies.

Changing Lies to Truth

The sensitive spirit the loving Father shaped in me before I was born “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you” (Jeremiah 1:5) has, of course, pressed against this fallen world’s brutality on my soul. Untruths in steady flow threaten to take up residence within me. The lies I once believed about God needed to be ripped from my mind.

I’m well acquainted with the diligence required to actively capture and refocus my thoughts to the words of the humble Lord Jesus.

For some of us, keeping our mind on truth takes effort and exercise for the remainder of our lives.

Collecting Bible Verses

As I identified the lies, I became aware that there is freedom from this merciless belief cycle. I began collecting cherished inviting verses of scripture about our gentle, Shepherd Father. I personalized them, added new ones, and for a stretch of time I reviewed these truths daily and even several times on certain days.

Slowly my heart latched onto truth! Truth of who our ever-attentive Shepherd, the kindly Lord Jesus, truly is! Oooh, did this change my life!

My List

I have passed out a large list of these verses to numbers of women when speaking at events, when mentoring, in Sunday school classes and individually.

I’ll add here a few of these life-changing verses that draw our hearts deep into His warm and gracious embrace.

Truth Against Untruths

“For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you” (Isaiah 41:13 NKJV).

To personalize Isaiah 41:13, it may say something like this...

• “[I] will hold your hand and say to you, ‘[Do not fear, my daughter, __________,] I will help you’” (Isaiah 41:13 NKJV).

• “[My daughter, __________,] I have graven You on the palms of My hands” (Isaiah 49:16 ESV).

• “[I] will rejoice over you with gladness, [My daughter, __________, I] will quiet you with [My] love, [I] will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17 NKJV).

• “Do not fear, [My daughter, __________,] for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, [My daughter], [for sure] I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10 NASB).

• “[I have seen your] affliction and [know] the anguish of [your] soul, My dearest daughter” (Psalm 31:7 NIV).

• “I have heard your prayer[s, My daughter, __________,] I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you” (2 Kings 20:5 ESV).

• “For I will restore health to you, [My beloved daughter] and heal you of your wounds,” says the Lord, “because they called you an outcast saying:” “This is Zion; No one seeks her” (Jeremiah 30:17 NKJV).

• “[I will feed you who are in my] flock like a shepherd:” [I will gather you, My little lamb] in [My] arms, and [I will carry you] close to [My] heart, and [I will gently lead you]” (Isaiah 40:11 NIV/NKJV/NLT).

• I, your Lord, am close to you, [__________], when your heart is broken and I save you when your spirit is crushed (Psalm 34:18).

• “For I have redeemed you; [____________], I have called you by [your] name, you are Mine” (Isaiah 43:1 ESV).

I encourage you, ladies, to add to the list as you come across more of these very precious and personal truths from the blessed Word of God.

Learning to recognize the lies and bring them captive to God’s holy words, as well as with walking alongside godly men and women, reading pertinent self-help books and so on, has brought much healing to my once ragged heart and mind.

Dear friends, may you make these powerful messages yours, receiving much healing— while applying them to your name.

Caring so much, and do have an encouraging week in the riches of the Lord Jesus.

Donna

Treasured Inspirations from a Grandmom’s Heart — Sharing insights gleaned through decades of walking in Jesus.

Thank you for your comments and encouragement as you have reached out. You’re a blessing.

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