Having a recurring thought loop usually wears me down and stresses me out and generally steals my attention and my joy. I get distracted at work. I get depressed when I'm alone with my thoughts. It rarely helps me solve anything, instead it just makes the situation seem bigger and worse the more I obsess.
Lately I have been practicing taking my thoughts captive and trying to make them obedient to Christ. The problem is, because I have an obsessive mind, I have to do it over and over and over. It's exhausting. To be totally honest, lots of days I don't really have much success.
Lately I have been practicing taking my thoughts captive and trying to make them obedient to Christ. The problem is, because I have an obsessive mind, I have to do it over and over and over. It's exhausting. To be totally honest, lots of days I don't really have much success.
Then a new alternative came to mind.
What if every single time one of these thoughts came to mind, instead of trying to solve it, I just started praying about it? What if I turned my obsessive thinking into obsessive praying? What if every trigger that starts me down the road of worry instead drove me to my knees? I still need to make my thoughts line up with God's Word but for some of the harder, more repetitious worries/fears/obsessions, what if instead of having a battle of wills again and again, I just surrender and say to my brain, "You win - I have no idea about that but my God can figure it out...Lord, will you take this and make something good of it? Will you heal him? Will you restore her? Will you do a miracle beyond anything I can even imagine right now?"
I can't imagine that anything but good could come of this new habit and I certainly have nothing to lose...but then I got to thinking about another totally added bonus...
If I really could start taking these thoughts/worries/fears/obsessions that have plagued me for so long and turning them into prayers and communications with God, that would mean taking something the enemy has used to torment me and distract me from God's goodness and using it to draw closer to God and build up my faith...
and that would really stick it to satan, wouldn't it?
That's reason enough for me to give it a try.
What if every single time one of these thoughts came to mind, instead of trying to solve it, I just started praying about it? What if I turned my obsessive thinking into obsessive praying? What if every trigger that starts me down the road of worry instead drove me to my knees? I still need to make my thoughts line up with God's Word but for some of the harder, more repetitious worries/fears/obsessions, what if instead of having a battle of wills again and again, I just surrender and say to my brain, "You win - I have no idea about that but my God can figure it out...Lord, will you take this and make something good of it? Will you heal him? Will you restore her? Will you do a miracle beyond anything I can even imagine right now?"
I can't imagine that anything but good could come of this new habit and I certainly have nothing to lose...but then I got to thinking about another totally added bonus...
If I really could start taking these thoughts/worries/fears/obsessions that have plagued me for so long and turning them into prayers and communications with God, that would mean taking something the enemy has used to torment me and distract me from God's goodness and using it to draw closer to God and build up my faith...
and that would really stick it to satan, wouldn't it?
That's reason enough for me to give it a try.
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