The Latest Happenings

What is your mind full of? If it is true that you are what you think, then paying attention to what you are thinking is crucial. The words, the thoughts and their meanings can be either stress inducing, or contribute to calmness and peace. You actually have a choice regarding which words will fill your mind.

Also, you do not have to believe and accept everything that you think! Thinking a lie and believing the lie are two separate things. Sometimes life is moving so fast that there is no time to determine if the thoughts are true or not. This is where a mindfull timeout becomes important. What does taking a "mindfull moment" look like?

First you force yourself to stop and become aware of what you are feeling and thinking. Ask yourself, "Is my heart racing?" "What am I feeling?" Then, focus on your thoughts. "What am I thinking right now?" When you connect with the words, write them down. This is where Jesus can become helpful.

Choose with your free will to invite Jesus to come into your thinking and ask Him to reveal to you the truth that He wants you to receive related to the specific words that you have written down. Then, listen and write down the first words that He brings into your mind. Check these words to see if they are loving. It they are loving, accept the words and meditate upon them. What do these words mean to you? How is this truth that Jesus has revealed to you setting you free? Feel the peace and calmness that flows from these words.

Then, go back to whatever you were doing with these words of truth centred in your mind. As you "fill your mind" with this truth, see what happens to your mood.

You see, you really do have a choice with regard to what you allow to fill your mind.

God does not use a negative to deal with a negative. If we do something wrong, he wants us to openly and honestly confront it, confess our mistake and choose to change. Guilt, on the other hand, is about self-blame and blame leads to punishment. Does God want us to punish ourselves? Not at all! In fact His desire is the opposite. He came to set us free, not place us in bondage.

Romans 8:1-2, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."

Guilt and its related partner, shame, are based on a lie that secrecy is our greatest strength. Guilt and shame cause us to hide, look inward and punish ourselves with negative self-talk. Guilt does not solve the problem. It just causes us to feel bad through a hopeless anguish that comes from distressing self-reproach. Guilt holds us in a self-centred thought pattern that is self-destructive. You see the model in Judas. He felt remorse but did not discuss it with anyone. If he had been able to discuss what he did with Jesus, he too would have been forgiven. But he did not have that opportunity. So he turned on himself with remorse until eventually he chose to take his own life. Where did his guilt come from? Some of it was his own thinking. And also we know that there was the influence of the enemy who John 10:10 tells us wants to "steal, kill and destroy."

God has a better plan. It is called forgiveness. Whatever sin we experience is forgiven by Jesus' death on the cross. Our challenge is twofold. First, we need to accept Jesus' sacrifice as personal redemption. In other words, "He did it for me." And secondly, we need to lay down our pride that says, "My sin cannot be covered by Jesus so I need to self-justify through self-punishment. Thirdly, if Jesus has forgiven us, then we need to choose to forgive ourselves as well. Self-forgiveness means that we need to "let go" all of the ways that we self-blame and we need to stop punishing ourselves.

If God is not blaming us then we can stop self-abusing and live in the truth that we are free. Satan wants to hold us in guilt, especially secret guilt. God wants us to confess and be free. God wants us to be convicted and desiring positive change. He motivates us with truth not guilt.

Break out today from the bondage of guilt and replace your negative self-talk with God's truth.

John 10:10, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

A woman was sharing her experience and said, "When I give $20 to a beggar and when I lovingly help another person, I never have a negative outcome." That statement caught my attention. Is it true that loving others does not provide negative outcomes?

I have had similar experiences. When I forgive another person the outcome is always positive. When I honestly praise another person, the outcome is always positive. When I treat another person with respect, the outcome is always positive.

If this is so, then why do we not do more of this thing called love? Could it be that our culture teaches us to be selfish, competitive and proud, when loves requires us to be selfless, accomodating and humble. Is it possible that we don't realize that a negative outcome could come from winning in the worldly sense?

I encourage you to test this principle. Go out and do an uncalled for act of kindness and see if there is a negative outcome. If it turns out that Jesus' command to love others produces positive outcomes, then do more. Try loving others more. Check it out for yourself and maybe you will be positively surprised.

In Gerald May's book The Dark Night Of The Soul, he shares the theology of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross - two prominent 16th century Christian writers. Teresa and John maintain that God loves us far too much to manipulate us like puppets and therefore will not invade where our hearts have closed the door. John gives powerful examples of how our initiative and free will are critical to the process of personal transformation. He says that active listening and openly receiving God and God's truths are essential to the transformation that comes through the experience that he calls The Dark Night of the Soul. He describes the openess and receiving in this way, "as one would receive a guest into your home." This attitude is further clarified as "a welcoming feeling, even a welcoming with open arms."

Transformation then is a mystical co-operation between God and person, where Jesus surrenders himself to us, respecting each individual soul, and we in turn choose to open the door and welcome him into our souls to help us with our needs.

Rev.3:20, "Here I am! I Stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in."

I see this dynamic all the time with my clients when the person uses his/her "free will" to invite Jesus into the place of personal pain or confusion. When invited, Jesus comes and brings his loving truth which provides a new perspective that is needed to heal the soul. How we receive His truth is the key to transformation.

John 17:8, "For I [Jesus] gave them the words you [Father God] gave me and they accepted them."

If we are not open to God, and if we keep the door of our minds closed, then He cannot help us. When we welcome Him inside our soul, our God of love comes with grace to provide us with what we need.

There is a parallel here:

For salvation - the important step is realizing one's own spiritual poverty and choosing to invite Jesus into your life to save your soul;

For transformation - the important step is realizing one's mental and emotional brokenness and choosing to invite Jesus into those thoughts and feelings to free your soul.

Teresa and John see authentic transformation as leading not to freedom from desire, but rather freedom for desire. What desire are they talking about? They mean the desire for love and the freedom to love, which includes: love of God, love of self and love of others.

Let me encourage you to welcome Jesus into your thoughts and feelings with welcoming, open arms and listen to what He has to say to you. It just may be transformative!

In John Eldredge's book, "Walking with God", he makes a good point. He says that "happiness" is a moral obligation because other people have to live with us. If we are chronically unhappy, other people have to pay for it. No doubt people who are in pain are more self-centred as the pain makes them focus on themselves. But, is it fair to make other people live under my unhappiness? Selfless love says -no!

The good news is that unhappiness can help us identify that there is a problem. If we can use the unhappiness to turn to Jesus and ask, "What is going on here and where is this unhappiness coming from?" we can address the root issue and receive mental and emotional healing. So, in one way we can say thank you to the unhappiness because it can lead us to the source of the problem. When you choose, with your free will, to invite Jesus into the mental agreement, or the lie, or the wound that is at the root of the problem, and ask him to reveal His truth, He will set you free. His truth is how the mind is transformed. Address your unhappiness. Don't let it just sit there and fester. Don't ruminate on your unhappiness with pity parties. Ask Jesus to come and heal your soul so that you can be free. Honestly dealing with our emotional issues is the way to emotional health.

"Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5

Example of a prayer. "Dear Jesus, I choose, with my free will, to invite you into this place in my mind where I feel this unhappiness. What is the source of my unhappiness and what is the truth you want me to know related to that unhappiness?"

Then pay attention. He will reveal the truth you are to receive through words, pictures or feelings. Then, embrace that truth and allow it to lead you to a new and better story.