Its been awhile since I have posted here! I almost forgot how to use this site!
I wrote an episode for my church's podcast- we are going through a series on identity in Christ, and I wrote about identity, but I also wrote about what I'm learning about overthinking, and nagging and negative thoughts. I have been studying this topic for a message series that I'm going to give to my students next month and I have been reading a lot on this topic. By far, my favorite book on this subject was written by 2 high school girls, L.E. and McCrae Acuff in their fantastic book, Your New Playlist. Here are some thoughts on identity in Christ and negative thinking from your pal rob:
Welcome back to the 3Crosses podcast! My name is Rob Walter and I'm the high school pastor here at the church. One of the things that God has been teaching me these days is this idea of taking captive my nagging and negative thoughts. I have grown to be so passionate about this and I have been reading a lot about this topics and I often talk about this topic with students friends and colleagues. I believe there is a connection between taking captive our nagging and negative thoughts and understanding our identity in Christ.
I don't know about you, but I often struggle with nagging and negative thoughts. In moments of stress and weakness I hear thoughts like, "you're not good enough; you'll never be good enough." "People reject you. No one likes you." "You'll never be as good or as popular or as effective as this person or that person." "You're not very good at this." What happens when we let thoughts like that roam around in our minds? We could repel people, we could be neutralized in our ministry for God, we could miss out on good opportunities that God has for us. We could not only damage our relationships and our opportunities, but we could literally do damage to ourselves.
The Bible tells us in 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." In my studies on this topic, I have learned to apply this verse to my nagging and negative thoughts in three ways:
The first habit that I'm implementing is to identify that thought. Take it captive. Write it down. Say it out loud. When thoughts like these swirl around in our minds late at night or throughout the day, they are so powerful; but when w get them out in the open and into the light, they lose their power. So when I hear a negative thought, I write it down in my journal or on a list in my notes app. I say out loud, "I'm hearing a thought that says that I'll never be good enough." Recently I was having coffee at Cafe 4 with a friend and we were talking about this topic and I said, "I have this negative thought that says I'll never be good enough." The look on her face took all of the power away from that thought. She looked stunned. She asked, "Why are you thinking that? You should stop thinking that. Its not true."
That leads me to the second habit that I'm implementing: ask
my thought three questions. These three questions have changed my thinking so
profoundly in recent months; i learned them from L.E. and McCrae Acuff in their
fantastic book, Your New Playlist.
Question 1 is: "Is this thought true?" Is it even true? This goes
back to knowing what is true about our identity in Christ. When I hear a
thought that says "I'll never be enough," I can remember that in
Christ I am enough. According to the Bible I'm more than a conqueror; I'm
created in Christ to do good works; I am a child of God and God loves me. I am
a temple of the holy Spirit and God lives in my heart. In Philippians 4:8 Paul
gives us a list of things to focus our mind on. He says, "Finally,
brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is
excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." The very first thing
on Paul's list is to think about things that are true. If they are not true,
then you shouldn't think them; or like my friend said to me, "stop
thinking that! Its not true."
Like I said, I ask my thoughts 3 questions, the first one is, "is this true?" The second one is, "is this helping me?" If this thought isn't helping me, I should stop thinking it. I was talking with a high school guy recently and he shared that he has a thought that he will never be good at chemistry. It will always be hard for him. He will never get higher than a B in chemistry. First of all, that thought isn't true, he can get good at it with the right help and resources, but its also not helpful. Thinking that thought over and over is not going to help him get an A. When you have a negative thought ask yourself, "is this helpful? Is thinking this thought helping me with my goals or fixing my problem?" If not helpful, then you should stop thinking it. You have control over the thoughts that you think and you can choose the best ones.
The first question that I ask my thoughts is, "Is this true?" The second is, "is this helpful?" and the third is, "is this kind?" When you hear a nagging, negative thought, ask yourself, "is this kind?" Is this a kind thing to say to yourself? Would you say it to someone else? If I said this thought to my friend 10 times a day, would I be a good friend? Would my friend want to keep being my friend? If your negative thought says, "you're not pretty." Would you ever say that to someone else? Of course not! That would be rude. If we wouldn't say that to someone else, why would we say that to ourselves? In my conversation with my friend at Cafe 4 I said to my friend, "Can you imagine if I told you 10 times a day that no one likes you? That would be so rude!" She said, "Rob- if you said that to me- that no one likes me- 10 times a day, not only would I not want to be your friend, but that would be abusive." She was right. So often, the meanest, rudest person in your life is yourself. We say things to ourselves that we would never say to anyone else. If its not kind, then its a bad thought.
Again, the Bible says in 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." I have been applying this to my negative thoughts by first identifying the thought, second, asking my thought questions, and then third, I need to replace that thought with what is true. I need to make that thought obey Jesus. Again, this is why its so important to know your identity and who you are in Christ.
For every negative thought in our minds, there is a truth from the Bible that demolishes it. The Bible tells us that God demonstrated His love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. We didn't have to be enough for Him to love us. He is not waiting for us to be enough to show His love to us. We are loved by the almighty. The Bible tells us that His thoughts for us outnumber the grains of sand on the beach. The Bible tells us that we are valuable- God has a plan and purpose for our lives. We were hand-made by God and He is preparing us to do good works that He has designed just for us to do. We are effective for God- the Holy Spirit is living in me and working in me and through me. Jesus calls us friend. We are a part of the Body of Christ and just like every other part, we are important and essential to the plans that God has for the world.
It has been said that negative thoughts are like a music in a coffee shop. They are out there and they are affecting our mood and our spirit. But in this illustration, we have a pair of headphones. We don't have to listen to the music that is being played over the speakers. We can choose what we listen to. We can choose the thoughts that we think, and just like the Apostle Paul says, we should choose thoughts that are true, noble right, pure lovely admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. God has so much for all of us, but if we let these nagging thoughts discourage us, we can miss it. But when we remember who we are in Christ, we can walk in freedom.
God is love.
rev-rob
