Last week I felt as if I led you to the bottom of a towering mountain, encouraged you to scale it with bare feet, and then dropped your hand, waving to you from afar as I walked into the sunset. {sigh} I suppose I did. But I trust that our great God stood with you, for he never forsakes. And that he faithfully ministered in ways infinitely beyond me.
So I’m back after a refreshing time away with my family. We rested, swam, sunned, and hunted for seashells. And in between I read a fantastically challenging book that now has me on my knees asking our great God for wisdom and boldness to walk these days in radical obedience. A must read.
But I’m excited about diving back into to our thought-life series. I mentioned that God is graciously transforming my own mind after years of destructive thought patterns, particularly in my marriage. And I’m telling you, friend, it is freedom.
The first thought-life challenge I proposed was in regard to awareness — step number one towards bringing every thought captive to obedience. We have to know what we are thinking. We have to be aware of our meditations. So if you have not yet completed that challenge, then I encourage you to carve out time to do that today. Yes, I know it is Monday. I know that you have things to clean and appointments to make. But this challenge will prove beneficial.
In the next post of this series we will begin talking about what to do with those thoughts and how to change the way we think. It’s good to be back.
Fill me, Lord…
How did the thought-life challenge for awareness affect you?
{on a totally different note} Have you read Radical yet?
In the last couple of years I have become more and more aware of how the enemy infiltrates my thought life, and I’m so glad you’re doing this series. Running has become a weapon for me in this fight, in addition to the armor of God and my hellomornings routine. I still struggle with it daily, but now I can recognize it for what it is, even if I can’t throw it off every time. Thanks be to God! I have not read Radical but have it on my list!!
Thanks friend. It is a struggle. And will continue to be this side of Christ’s coming, I suppose. So thankful he didn’t leave us without instruction, power, and promised abundance. (Oh and, you know you have inspired me to run, don’t you?)
I have always been a bit of a day dreamer. As a young child I used those daydreams to take me to happy safe places. Boy how my mind could conjure up another world! As I got older my unrelenting imagaination turned on me ever so sneakidly (if that is a word). I gave way to hostle thoughts of myself. Creating in me a sense of hatred and loathing. The enemy had me. I need a constant reminder to keeping thoughts captive. The ones that tell you things that make you weak, feel I can never be what God intended, worthless. These are not from my father in Heaven and must be pulled from my daily thought life. THis is a struggle for me. Thanks for this little series. I will go through this week trying to keep thoughts that propel me forward in my Christ walk and disgarding those that would like to make my Christ walk stop, fall, or move backward.
Thanks for sharing, Jen. You are not alone in this battle. I appreciate your vulnerability. Looking forward to hearing of more and more victories to come.
Radical is on my list! I gifted it to my sister & brother in law for Easter. They choke, coughed and scolded me for giving a book I hadn’t read yet…but are digging deep and growing through it! Would love to hear more about it! Blessings,
Yes, I’m sure that after this thought-life series I will have to blog about it. Truly thought-provoking.
Catching up on reading posts…Radical is amazing. My hubby and I read it last summer. We should probably pick it up again. Really, I wish every christian in America would read it. We have made church all about us; Christianity is to make us comfortable. It is a sad, sad reality. Praying the Lord uses this book mightily to wake the American church to how we waste our time and resources which could be used for God’s glory among the nations…