Give Your Mind to God
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This week marks the official start of the holiday season.
For some it’s a time of joy and celebration, family and friends gathered around eating special treats and recounting fond memories.
For others it’s not so fun. Sadness and dread of the coming weeks may have started to linger in the background, threatening to envelope the sparkle and good cheer of the season.
About a month ago, I was in my own fog. My thoughts had gone astray and I didn’t even realize it.
I had come upon John Eldredge’s Daily Prayer and started praying it, well - daily.
I enjoyed praying the prayer myself, but also enjoyed listening to John’s soothing voice pray it in the audio version (sometimes I hear things I don’t read).
It wasn’t until I had prayed the prayer about 10 times, a sentence jumped out - especially once part in particular:
“I give you my spirit, soul, and body, my heart, mind, and will.”
While giving God all parts of myself is good, it struck me; am I giving God my mind?
As I thought back to the things I had been dwelling on over the last few months, the answer sadly was no.
I had gradually slipped down the slippery slope of negative thinking – or “stinking thinking” as Joyce Meyer says.
Proverbs 15:15 AMPC says:
All the days of the desponding and afflicted are made evil [by anxious thoughts and foreboding], but he who has a glad heart has a continual feast [regardless of circumstances].
I had allowed anxious thoughts and forebodings - the fear something bad will happen - to swirl and bed down in my mind.
“All the days of the desponding and afflicted are made evil [by anxious thoughts and foreboding], but he who has a glad heart has a continual feast [regardless circumstances].”
I hadn’t been focusing on the things Paul talks about in Philippians 4:8.
I had fallen for the evil one’s scheme to keep my thoughts horizontal instead of vertical, focusing on God, and felt as if I were groping my way through the fog of an evil forest.
Can you relate?
Sweet victory swept over me at the realization.
One by one, I started handing God all the thoughts and feelings He never meant for us to carry (remember we were made for paradise).
This doesn’t mean we stuff our feelings. We are to mourn and grieve our losses in a healthy way.
Over and over, we see David crying out to God in the Psalms. He doesn’t try to hide or sugar coat his feelings, he feely expresses raw emotion to God.
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The difference is he almost always ends on a high note – recounting God’s goodness and faithfulness.
One example is Psalm 69. Here we see David go back and forth between lament and praise:
Save me, Oh God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink deep in the mire, where there is no foothold (vs. 1-2).
Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me (vs. 16).
Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair (vs. 20).
I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving (vs. 30), etc.
He is not claiming the easy road from here on out, but he is reminding Himself who God is and what He has done.
David encourages himself with the truth of God’s beauty in the midst of his pain. He loads all his burdens on the only one who can truly handle them (see John’s one minute pause here).
So dear friend, will you join me in giving your mind to God this holiday season – and always?
Jesus said, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid (John 14:27 ESV).
May we all, with open hands, receive His peace this holiday season.
How has God given you peace in the midst of pain?
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