Have you ever woken up having conversations with other people in your head to try to set them straight on how things are? I hope I am not the only one. I found myself being defensive, annoyed, prideful and focused on proving myself. Finally I caught up with my thoughts and just had to sit myself down.
“What are you doing? What is going on? You don’t know if that is what this person thinks or what that person’s opinion is. You don’t know what the conversation was. You don’t know if your perspective is the best plan. Slow down before you knock yourself out.”
It is so humbling to come face to face with how quickly pride and arrogance rise up in me.
After a time journaling out my confession and plea for the Holy Spirit, I found my way to Philippians 4.4-8.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
I began to ponder these very familiar verses and what stood out to me – as if it was in bold and font size 36 – was the phrase, “whatever is true”. I started to think about why was this the very first description of what our thoughts need to be. My thoughts were full of what-ifs and self-pity. Either my thoughts were not true, or some of them were not yet known if they were true or not. Yet I had my mind all worked up; therefore, my emotions all engaged in content that didn’t have all the facts.
I needed to be re-centered first and foremost in who God says I am. I started writing out the truths from God’s word about His perspective on who I am whether I was living that way or not, it is still true. You know what is best for me. You delight in me. You know the plans You have for me. You have the big picture in mind. You are Creator of all that is seen and unseen…You are my Creator…You are the God who sees…You are Adonai, my Master…You are my Abba. Writing out what those truths mean to me immediately changed my heart. Allowing the Spirit to renew my filters and receive God’s grace gave me a fresh perspective.
From there it was so much easier to talk to Him about the unknowns of my life, the unknowns in conversations to have this week, etc. Letting Him drive and trust Him with outcome. Great is His faithfulness.
Just Walking 