Quiet My Mind

I don’t know about you, but sometimes, my thoughts can be my own worst enemy.  They take me places I shouldn’t go.  They hold on to offense and magnify it to consuming hurt.  They mislead my desires to worldly paths that take me nowhere.  They muffle the words that God intends for me to hear.

Women usually struggle more with quieting their thoughts than men do.  One thought leads to another and then another and then another.  Men seem to be able to take an undesirable thought and lock it in a room until they are ready to deal with it. 

In my quiet time this past week, one of the devotionals spoke distinctly to me.

July 9, 2014 – Jesus Calling”
“Stop worrying long enough to hear My voice.  I speak softly to you, in the depths of your being.  Your mind shuttles back and forth, hither and yon, weaving webs of anxious confusion.  As My thoughts rise up within you, they become entangled in those sticky webs of worry.  Thus, My voice is muffled, and you hear only white noise.

Ask My Spirit to quiet your mind so that you can think My thoughts.  This ability is an awesome benefit of being My child, patterned after My own image.  Do not be deafened by the noise of the world or that of your own thinking.  Instead, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.   Sit quietly in My Presence, letting My thoughts reprogram your thinking.”

“Those sticky webs of worry.”  Boy, do I have a lot of webs in my mind.  I look at my husband who goes confidently along in life with complete assurance of his choices and ideas.  Not me.  I’m going to analyze, contemplate and deliberate on every idea that crosses my path before I can make a rational decision.  Even then, I may back-pedal a few times into a second guessing gear.  Worry about the correct decision is a given.  In fact, if there is any way I can fit worrying into my agenda, I will.

I know that fear and worrying are putting your faith in the devil.  Of course I don’t want to do that!  It’s a major battle we face, especially as women.  It affects our relationships with our spouse and with our children. 

In reading this devotional from Jesus Calling, it occurred to me that Satan intentionally throws doubt and fear at us to muffle the thoughts that God gives us.  “Stop worrying long enough to hear My voice.”

How many times have I missed God’s plan for me because I was busy worrying about some menial issue that had no effect on my life?  Or maybe I was caught up in offense by a harmless word my husband may have said with no intention of hurting me.

If I could only slow down my mind.  “Stop worrying long enough to hear My voice.”  Hmm.  It grieves me that I may be guilty of missing His voice.  My biggest desire is to have an intimate relationship with God that I would know His plan for my every moment.

My new prayer will be, “Quiet my mind, Lord, so I can hear your voice.”



Comments

Unknown said…
So true... During my quiet time with the Lord this morning, I thought about the same thing. I woke up this morning to go to the bathroom at about 3:00AM. Knowing that I would probably start thinking and not get back to sleep (as usual), it happened. So, I got up at 4:30. So, during my quiet time with the Lord I talked about this problem. It seems like my primary concern is paying bills! All I want is the peace of God. If I would only rest in His peace (which is freely given to us), I would be content even in the midst of not being up to date with the bills. I know what His peace feels like, but I seem to keep dropping the ball! I need to be able to lay aside the weights that so easily beset me and rest assured that everything will be alright. Like a child, we should be able to know that Daddy will fix it. As long as we do everything that we are supposed to do and not worry about the things that we can do nothing about, we would be alright.
Sandee Lester said…
I think that our mind is the devil's playground. That is where he is the most successful in our lives. We are usually naive to his attacks and blame ourselves. And so we need to work on taking our thoughts captives - a daily struggle for me. :/

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