When I let God be with me, there are also certain things that I simply don’t want to have in my head. It might seem a little scary to know that God is listening to our thoughts. But he is and it’s a good thing. Because besides working as a motivator for not letting things into our heads that shouldn’t be there, he helps with the work. And here is actually the place where it’s easiest to notice God for most of us. When we make the conscious decision to open up to God, we will notice that things start to happen in our inner lives. And for some paradoxical reason, once we start noticing more of what is going on on the inside, we become more aware of what is going on on the outside. Then we may begin to notice how God also speaks to us through our experiences in the physical world.
Here is also another powerful reason why I finally embraced Christianity. Because it was first when I embraced Jesus as my savior that I started feeling powerful enough to not only clean out my bad behavior, but truly get rid of its mental roots. This has been a very noticeable change for me.
Having an unruly mind is just the predicament that most of us are in. Some, like me, more than others. We have filled our heads with so much junk throughout our lifetimes. We’ve allowed our thoughts to drift into places where they have no business being in. We’ve done nothing about it when we’ve noticed it. And we’ve watched, listened to, tasted and in general experienced things that mess up our emotions. Thing that numb us and distort our perception of ourselves, other people and the world. We’ve told ourselves that it’s no big deal. These things don’t seem to hurt us while they’re happening. So they must be okay. We are often really that stupid. I’ve often been this stupid, even if I try not to be nowadays. We think that just because it’s not painfully obvious right away that something is hurting us, there is no problem. Does this stance sound reasonable when seen in plain language?
If a memory is stuck in there it’s stuck in there. If a way of thinking gets reinforced enough it becomes a habitual way of thinking. And our habitual ways of thinking matter. Thoughts don’t just stay in our heads living their own lives, with no consequence for our being in the world. And everything that we feed our minds with affects our thoughts. All of the actions and all of the things we say have an effect on our thoughts. I would even go so far as to say that even what goes into our subconscious affects our thoughts. Many things don’t affect them that much. But if you say or do a thousand little things every day even small things matter.
To state it clearly: it begins in our heads. But our thoughts, words and actions work together. And if we don’t bring conscious awareness into this synergy, we will turn our lives into prisons. And what I’ve noticed is that I can’t do this on my own. I need God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. God and godliness is my goal. Jesus is my standard. And the Holy Spirit is my guide. All three are always with me, always on my side, love me and all three need to be invited into my life. All three need to be allowed to do what I cannot do on my own. I need to know what I can about the disease. I have to do my part in changing what my lifestyle. But in the end it’s the doctor that must operate on me.
Another problem is that when we try not to think of something, we end up thinking of that very thing. The solution to this problem seems to be to fill our minds with something else. So what should we fill our minds with? And how much personal responsibility do we have when it comes to this? That is, where do we let go and let God? This is something that I’m not entirely sure of. But I believe that this is different from person to person. The more we can learn about how we and the world function, the better it is. Because we are living in very extraordinary times and there are many that wish to manipulate and deceive us. But the minimum requirement is just that we put our lives in God’s, Jesus’ and the Holy Spirit’s hands and that we firmly reject what our authorities try to coerce us into.
Because whatever may have been true in the past, our real rulers, those that pull the strings of our elected rulers, do not follow the principles of God. Their principles are ones of lies, deception, manipulation and coercion. You can fill in the rest when it comes to who they serve.
We do so many things unconsciously, until we feel that tap on the shoulder. Then our eyes suddenly open more and more to the situation that we are in. What we’ve allowed into our lives and what forces we thereby have given our consent to. How we’ve been lied to, manipulated and programmed. How we’ve lied to ourselves and explained things away: “It’s no big deal.” But it is. Anything that serves to corrupt us is a big deal.
In my past, I used to be the king of corruption. You see, throughout my life, I’ve treated my mind like a garbage can. And as I said, everything that we don’t completely forget can pop into our memories at any given moment. This is not something that we should beat ourselves up because of. We are all in the same predicament. What we need to do is to ask God to gently remove our dirt and do our best to allow him to do this. It means for example to not dwell on loveless thoughts if we can help it. Sometimes we just can’t help ourselves. But when we can, we do our best to change the content of our minds. We fail over and over again. But even though we aim at perfection, the point is not to actually reach it. This type of goal setting does not work that way. In Christianity we set up an impossible standard, knowing that it is an impossible standard. We do this for several reasons. We do it because this will help us to be the best that we can be. We do it to learn to rely on something/someone greater than ourselves. And we do it because it’s humbling to do so.
No matter how weak our wills are, the intention has to be ours. And it has to be as clear as possible. My intention is as follows: “I want every loveless thought, memory and emotion to be cleansed from my mind.” I am going to do my best to seek God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in every waking moment of my life. In my past I have done and thought much that has not honored God. This is something that I now wish to change. I want to truly put God at the centre of my life. I don’t want this to just be empty words, but my lived reality. And I am going to do everything in my power to stay true to this commitment, while knowing that I am a deeply flawed human being who will inevitably fail over and over again. But when I fail I will get up. I will not stop trying and I will not stop asking God to make me clean and whole.
God help us all in this dark, sorry state that we’ve allowed ourselves to be sucked into. Do not allow us to lose our hopes, but renew our hearts, minds and spirits. Let us be the best that we can be, so that we can stand strong and confident when we face the storms of these troubled times.
Photo by Adrien Converse on Unsplash
I want to Thank you of all my hearth . I have read every word very carefully . In my last 2 years of struggle and pain , i found my Spiritual way with Jesus , in my own modest way . I dont like braging or pushing my thoughts on others , because i beeleve its all up to each and all of us to find that way . I totaly surrendered to God , and suddenly he gave me guidence and showed me the way , i had a totaly Spiritual awakening , i was lost but now iam found . He confirmed my inner thoughts and feelings and Said you have always been in such of am i doing the right thing , when the rest of everyone around me told me i was worthless , and he Said you have always known you just needed to find me in your hearth and let me stay there , and you are more than good enough . Iam not afraid anymore, God is always with me all my life . Iam soo Grateful . 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️
SvaraRadera