I’ve been trying to write this for a little while now but hearing a sermon on Sunday reinforced it and drove it home.  Even still in trying to relay it my mind was a hazy cloud of confusion and distractions so I am going to start this one with a prayer.  Similar to one we hear echoed through the Psalms.

God,

Psalm 55

1 Listen to my prayer, O God,

do not ignore my plea;

2     hear me and answer me.

My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught

3     because of what my enemy is saying,

because of the threats of the wicked;

for they bring down suffering on me

and assail me in their anger.

We face many things throughout the day that are purely our mind and right now I pray that we can bind those up and cast them out of our mind.  You asked us to cast our cares God, so help me to continue to rest easy in those things that I can’t understand.  Those things that make no sense to me at all Lord, bring clarity to those.  Bring me peace amongst the waiting period for that clarity.  God, I just plead your blood over my mind, my thoughts and my heart that let nothing that is not of you have any entrance.  Help me to continue to spot the tactics of the enemy and learn that lesson the first time as to not open that door again.

In Your Most Holy Name,

Amen!

So this is something that I’ve wrestled with for the longest time and I saw the movie “After Earth” and Will Smith gave an amazing monologue.  It is quoted below: 

“The threats we will be facing are real. Every single decision we make will be life or death.   But if we are going to survive this, you must realize that fear is not real, it is a product of thoughts you create.  Now do not misunderstand me, danger is very real but fear is a choice.”   —-Will Smith in After Earth

As he spoke these words the depth to which they sunk is pretty inexplicable.  I wanted to stand up in the theatre and cheer but of course in normal James fashion I gave some exaggerated motioning with my hands and face and kept it moving.  We imagine the worse thing possible for ourselves so often, and its absolutely ridiculous.  It is one of the primary tools for distraction.  I always say “ I can take a fork in a road and imagine 100 other streets, eventually never taking any at the prospect of danger on all of them.”  Just madness.

I will begin with an absolute confession and that this is one of my primary struggles on a daily basis.  It never ceases.  I may have a great day where I fight this fight with success but the next morning the fight is back on.  It’s so important that we arm ourselves upon waking.  The enemy immediately begins to wage war with me in my mind.  My eyes open and its like BOOM! How are you gonna screw things up today James.  This person doesn’t like you, that person doesn’t like you, false statement after false statement.  Crazy enough is that they could very well be true but without proof it is only a distraction.  We have to catch these negative thoughts and take them captive within our mind before they make it to our heart.  Paul said “we wage war with our minds daily.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.  Take every thought into captivity into the obedience of Christ.

So we have to destroy these thoughts the moment they enter our mind.  For some of us that simply mean’s speaking out loud “that is not true.”  Note, in 2 Corinthians it say’s “we do not wage war as the world does”.  It says “take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.”  For me that looks like repeating Jesus over and over and envisioning a cross and its not fool proof but it does get my mind off of whatever it is going to that is not negative.  Sometimes I whisper, “that’s not true under my breath”. In order to know what is not true you have to know what truth is.  There is but one way to do so and that is knowledge found in The Word.  The Bible.  God knows exactly what He is doing by choosing you.  James 2:5 say’s just that.  The world may see you a certain way but do not allow that to become your personal view of yourself.  If it has become so already, read about what God says about who you are.  Remember, He knew you and called you while you were still in the womb.   It is by no mistake that you have such a rich and radiant spirit even if the world doesn’t see as they judge the outside.  When they look at you with slanderous judgmental stares remember who God says you are.

James 2:5

5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?

Now in guarding your thoughts you in turn guard your heart.  This is something I’ve caught criticism for but it has been redeemed throughout my torrential downpour of dark in the retrospective months.  Proverbs 4:23 say’s ABOVE ALL ELSE.  It doesn’t say maybe, or secondly, or if you get around to it.  Above all else is simply that.  It’s first, middle and last guard your heart because everything you do and say flows from it.  I also want to offer up a second piece to that and that is also what you hear and see flows from it.  Meaning, everything you hear and see and interpret through your brain is going through the filter of you if it is not going through the filter of Truth and non truth.  You could hear something completely abstract from the way it was said or intended.

Proverbs 4:23

23 Above all else, guard your heart,

    for everything you do flows from it.

So we must guard the mind to guard the heart.  What’s in our mind will end up in our heart.   We were given the helmet of salvation as part of our armor.  We have to protect our mind at all costs.  With salvation comes a renewal process.  We get water baptized as part of this cleansing but with that comes renewal of the mind.  Roman’s 12 speaks to that as it says “with that renewal will come the ability to test and approve what Gods will is”.  Meaning, when those nasty thoughts enter your mind you’ll be able to test and prove that this is either truth or not.  How do we go about this renewing?  The Word!

Romans 12:2

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Our hearts can be one of our most powerful assets as it is the place Jesus resides.  So many times we lose track of that and we and when I say we I mean I, continue to fill my heart with so much unnecessary baggage and junk and making it more difficult to me to continue my renewal process.   We have to be extremely careful who and what we allow in through our eyes and ears, into our heads and eventually takes residence our hearts.   Your heart is your most precious gift.  Treasure it.

Proverbs 18:21

21 The tongue has the power of life and death,

    and those who love it will eat its fruit.

With that, we must discuss the third part of this process and that is what comes back out.  It is a continuous cycle.  At least according to Mark.  So what goes in must come out.  We’ve heard it in a lot of scenarios and now we have another.

Mark 7:21

21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come

The power of life and death is in our words.  You can either bring life to a situation or you can completely set it afire with your words.  Although at times unknowingly, which is why we must be slow to speak and quick to listen.  The same tongue we use to bring praise to some and we use it completely chop down others just should not happen that way.  Its basically what we were all told as children is that if we don’t have something good to say we shouldn’t say nothing!  For in doing so we completely defeat the praises that we just offered up to God.  Its like saying “God, you’re an awesome and amazing God….but you could’ve done a little better with this child over here.”  That is absolutely insane, yet I do without thinking almost daily.  James was pretty convicting me to about this.

James 3:9-10

New International Version (NIV)

9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.

So the pastor gave a great illustration of Luke on Sunday that I want to share.  I’ve heard him say countless times that “what’s in the heart will come out of the mouth to the tongue that is the rudder for your life.”  Funny thing is I always thought he was saying runner, which would make sense but ahhhh, rudder makes so much more sense.   So a rudder is that little flap on the back of a plane, or under the water on a boat that completely steers that vessel in the direction it is headed.  It tells it when to go right and when to go left.  Amazing!  So what goes in must come out.  What we say will determine the course of what is to follow.  We can either speak life or we can speak death.  For me, I choose to see it that way because it takes such a vast standard of measurement to get me to think about it in its full context.

Luke 6:45

45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.  What we say determines our destiny

I really want to speak to negative speech we speak over ourselves, and the lies we’ve been convinced of by the enemy.  For some of us, (hands raised here), he got involved when we were very young to begin to get those lies to penetrate.  There are the standards such as “I’m not worthy” or anything I can’t or not equipped or not anything.  If God has told you to go, you go.  Unless we want to end up in the belly of a whale and stuck out in the desert.  Meaning, what He has spoken to you and about you is concrete.  Let no one and absolutely no one tell you that you are not good enough.  That you are not attractive enough.  That you are not lovable enough.  The list goes on and never ever use these as definitive statements about yourself.  I’m sure that you are thinking of the ones you hear most often because I am.  Bind that thought, take it captive and kick that sucka to the curb!

2 Timothy 1:7

7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.