Like many females, I spend WAY more time in my head than I should. I carry on imaginary conversations, I worry about nonexistent circumstances, I project out one week – or one year – and freak out about things that are pretty likely to never happen.
I have done this so much that I have been angry at people for things they never actually said. I have lived in dread of a future that doesn’t exist. I can sometimes get “stuck” in my head and forget about the real world all together!
If you’re reading this and think I am crazy (you’re right…I’m already imagining what you’re saying right now), just move on from here. Check Snap Chat or bask in what must be the glorious freedom of an unencumbered mind. For the rest of you…you are not alone!!
So what do we do — other than becoming writers and channeling that overactive imagination into something useful?
We wage war.
Yep, that’s right. Our minds are a battlefield. And a particularly effective one for our Enemy because no one knows what goes on in there except God and us. We can be living in total freak out mode on the inside and pretend to have it all together on the outside. We can even pass ourselves off as super godly, I-got-it-all-together girls whose worst problem is whether or not to attend the Saturday night or Sunday morning service at church.
And that would be fine if God were asking us to put on a great front. But that’s the EXACT OPPOSITE of what He asks. He wants us to be honest with ourselves and honest with Him (because He already knows the crazy in our heads, anyway!). He wants us to love Him with all our hearts, soul, strength, and mind (Luke 10:27). How do we love God with our mind? By taking every thought captive to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).
That means when those thoughts fly in – the ones that you know don’t need to be there – you push them out. On our own, that may seem impossible. But we’re not on our own! If you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit living inside you. You have the power of God available to you! You have the Words of God literally at your fingertips. Those are our weapons. We fight lies with Truth. We battle the Enemy by remembering Who is fighting on our behalf.
Ladies, this takes work. Especially if, like me, you have spent far too much time giving your mind free reign. We can develop bad habits of sitting back and letting our minds run with thoughts that don’t need to be there. We have to be proactive: memorize verses, pray, listen to sermons or worship music. We need to develop new habits, train our minds to love God and honor Him. It’s a daily exercise, and it isn’t easy. But it sure beats the alternative!
