I don't know about you, but I get stuck in my head a lot. Especially during the pandemic, life gave me a lot of down time. Ideas, worries, or negative thoughts would loop around and around my mind. I desperately wanted to get out of my own head.
I tried to 'take control of my thoughts'. It didn't work for me.
I felt guilty for not getting it right. Why didn't I have the strength to control my thoughts? Why couldn't my mind continue to meditate on God's goodness?
I read God's Word and prayed daily for God to 'help me control my thoughts'. Then 3 AM would come and there they were, front and center taunting me. My heart would start racing and I would try my hardest to get back to sleep. I would tell myself that it wasn't worth the energy, God was in control.
But even with all my self will, self control, 'God help me' prayers, and reminding myself of who God is - it still didn't work.
Tiny Shift #7:
Then, I decided to use the same approach to my thoughts, as my faith.
I stopped praying ‘God help me control my thoughts’, which was asking him to work alongside me.
Instead, I humbly give it all up to him. I ask God to take over and give me his thoughts. And I ask for his peace.
And it helped.
Now I begin every morning with this prayer, "God fill me with your Holy Spirit. Change my heart. Give me your thoughts, words and actions today. I ask for your peace. Everything flows through the Holy Spirit working within me."
I understood, for me, praying 'God help me control my thoughts' was only an invitation for God to come alongside me. I was still holding on to control, it was a battle of self will to attempt to control my thoughts. ‘If there is anything I should control, it should be my thoughts,’ I would think to myself.
But when we admit we are powerless to this world and its temptations, it is easier to humbly give everything up to God. "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matthew 16:25 ESV
It wasn’t Jesus’ intent to merely help us out when he provided the Holy Spirt after he left this earth. He gifted the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, for us to experience a live lived fully through the Holy Spirit working within us.
Take Action:
Give up your thoughts to God. Humbly acknowledge that you can not control your thoughts, and give God control.
Ask for his thoughts, through the Holy Spirit working within you.
Ask for his peace.
When you feel your thoughts turning negative, resentful, etc. Go back to the first and second action items.