Are your thoughts ruining your day? Negative, overwhelming, fearful, anxious thoughts can wreck havoc on a perfectly good day of life. These thoughts make you feel anxious, and that feeling becomes a literal limitation on our abilities to even function.
Here’s the problem. We’ve made peace with feeling anxious. We’ve claimed it. It’s now yours. We say, “my anxiety” like we say “my cat”. My cat is yellow. My cat is fat. My cat is lazy. My cat is laying on the couch. All of these statements are claiming the cat as your own. Why? Because the cat belongs to you. And we say the same of anxiety. My anxiety is high today. My anxiety keeps me from going. My anxiety makes me feel this way. Again, claiming it as your own like it belongs to you. Like you chose it, picked it up, and brought it home with you. Like you feed it and care for it.
Crap, are we feeding and caring for anxiety?
Where did you get it from? I assure you, you weren’t born with it. You weren’t designed by God with the attribute of being anxious. He didn’t say, “Now this one, I’m going to make incredibly anxious so she’s continually limited in her life.” No, it didn’t come from God. Here’s how we know, 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”
It is not God who makes you afraid and anxious. God gives you power, love and self-discipline. So, this anxiety that we so often play nice with, bow down to, and easily claim as our own, where does it come from? It comes from your thoughts. Thoughts running wild with worry. Thoughts consumed with what ifs. Thoughts that impact your feelings. Yes, it is your thoughts that make you feel anxious. It is your thoughts that make you feel overwhelmed. Your feelings are coming from your thoughts.
But honey, your feelings are not God. Your feelings may not be telling you the truth. Your feelings are simply echos of the thoughts filling your mind. And if your thoughts are not focused on God’s truth, the feelings they are creating are not to be trusted.
How about instead of bowing down to feeling anxious and instead of creating a safe, friendly space for these invasive anxious thoughts, we strip search them! Yes, strip search! Strip off the layers and get to the core of the thoughts you’re thinking. Thought, where did you come from? Who sent you? What are your intentions?
2 Corinthians 10:5, “Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
But have we been taking captive those anxious thoughts, stripping them down to find their source, then making them be obedient to Jesus? No, no, we haven’t. You know what we’ve been doing? We’ve been wearing it like a label and excusing ourselves from the hard things. We’ve been dismissing ourselves from showing up because it’s hard. And instead of taking these vigilante thoughts captive, we bow to them and make them our king. We have become obedient to our thoughts and feelings instead of demanding they be obedient to Jesus.
We’ve been living in a spirit of fear and anxiety and God says that is NOT the spirit he has given you. He has given you power. He has given you authority over every scheme of the enemy. The enemy is under your feet. His attacks are beneath you. But the enemy has tricked us into believing his lies that tell us we don’t have enough, we aren’t good enough, and we will never be enough. He has tricked us into believing that our feelings are uncontrollable and we are innocent victims of thoughts that don’t make sense and hostage to totally ungrounded fears.
Jesus told us in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”
That thief is Satan, and your mind is his battleground. He plays in your thoughts. It’s in your head he steals your joy. It’s in your head he kills your hope. It’s in your head he destroys your power. So you know what you have to do here? You have to kick him out of your head! Satan has no right to be in your head! He has no right to play in your thoughts. You’re a blood bought, battle fought, chosen daughter of the King. Kick him out of here!
When you strip search your thoughts, peeling back the layers, and find that fear doesn’t align with God’s truth, you take it captive and throw it out! When you strip search your thoughts and find the same repeated story playing over and over again creating all your anxiety doesn’t align with God’s truth about you and your future, you take it down! You take control! Thought, you don’t belong here! You don’t get to create these feelings in me any longer.
We’ve gotten into the habit of bending the truth to justify our feelings generated by our thoughts. But honey, you are not broken. You were not created to be an anxious hot mess. You are not lacking or incapable in any way. You’re not stuck here.
Here’s the game plan, instead of bowing down to those old familiar anxious thoughts, then making friends with the anxious feelings they create, ask God to purify your perception of the truth. Untwist what has been twisted. Bring light to the darkness. Help you to strip search these thoughts and see them for what they really are … they are blatant lies from the pits of hell sent to steal, kill and destroy. Ask God to transform your feelings to be in alignment with his truth. You are a girl filled with God’s power and you can do hard things!
Fill your ears and your eyes with God’s word. There’s divine power in his word. Power to break strongholds the enemy has had on your mind and your feelings. Stop settling for defeat. You are not defeated, you are victorious over every scheme of hell sent to make you anxious. God says in Isaiah 41: 10, “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.”
Lord, we need your strength to overcome these thoughts. We need your help to change the way we feel. Hold us up in your victorious right hand and help us overcome all fear, anxiety and discouragement. You are our God, and we are your girls! No more playing nice with the very thing sent to destroy you. No more claiming the weapon of the enemy as your own, then dragging it around with you like it belongs to you. Those thoughts will be taken captive and made obedient to Jesus. And when you get your thoughts right, your feelings get right!
Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela
Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com
