I love listening to Podcasts. Motivational speakers are my podcast of choice, especially when I’m struggling to get off the couch and get busy. After listening to them I am energetic and motivated to get moving and conquer my day…….at least for 10 minutes or so. And then what do I do? I listen to another podcast until I have binged an entire day of motivational speakers only to realize I have been a listener and not a doer!! Even though I feel like I was an active participant I am no different than before I listened. There is no permanent life change. That can only come through Jesus. He is the only way I have been able to combat my thoughts. I struggle with worry and feeling “not good enough”. It is only when I go to Jesus that I am able to take my thoughts captive to Him. The enemy wants me stuck in my house listening to other people share their “recipe for life” instead of me being in the world using my God given gifts and talents.
The battle for our thoughts is real. When my thoughts are left “unattended” I find myself anxious, nervous, fretting, and cowering. Motivational speakers talk a lot about changing your thoughts and your actions to make you a happier and more productive person but to what end? For more income? For more power? None of that will last and it is never fully achieved. There is always more money to be had, a better house to live in, a newer this or that. But when I change my thoughts to reflect how God sees me, an amazing thing that happens………peace. The absence of worry and fretting. No more chasing or keep up because we know and trust the one who holds our future. This is great news! We don’t have to keep thinking the things that keep us stuck. We can choose different. And the result is peace in the midst of trial and difficulty. It truly is a peace that surpasses all understanding. The difficulty and struggles of life will not go away, but I choose to trust Jesus in all of it. He will never leave me or forsake me.
My choice to follow Jesus always results in peace. And that is my testimony to the world. Jesus has made the difference in my life…. He is the best motivational speaker I know and he loves you and me. The following verses are ones I go to when my mind is starting to believe the lies the world is telling me and I find myself anxious and out of step with who I am in Christ. Today, choose to allow God to change your thoughts to reflect your true identity in Him.
Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Philippians 4:6-9 “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the PEACE of GOD which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and 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 moral excellence and if there is any praise – DWELL ON THESE THINGS. Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of PEACE will be with you.”
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.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 “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.
2Timothy 2:7 “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self- discipline”.
Praying peace for you today. And please say a prayer for our teachers as they bring students back for in person learning. My prayer is that they would feel the peace that surpasses understanding in the midst of trying times. God is giving us some amazing stories to tell! Miracles in the midst of madness!!