My God My Everything

The hardest part of being set free from something is acknowledging that you have a problem. I don’t like to admit that I have problems but God has such a loving way of revealing areas that I need to work on that I can’t help but be humbled and willing to comply. I have always thought of myself as a positive person, but today as I was reading a scenario in the Battlefield of the Mind I thought, “That’s me.” The author was describing a very negative attitude. Ouch! She shared her struggle with being negative and once she faced the truth she said, “I’m a negative person and I…

One of the lessons in the Battlefield of the Mind was to learn to become the kind of person who plans things but who doesn’t fall apart if that plan does not work out. My plan was to water my plants and flowers in my yard and began with a leak in the hose. The garden wand that I usually use had been switched out for a different sprayer that I didn’t like. So I turned off the water and switched sprayers. The hose connection still leaked. Thoughts of, “why did he mess with my hoses,” came to mind and I again shut off the water to re-adjust the connection.…

I was thinking of the battlefield of the mind and taking our thoughts captive last night when the idea of our thoughts being like emails came to mind. Everyday several emails make their way in to my account. I have to sort through them and decide what to do with them. There are a lot of junk emails that are quickly deleted and sent to the trash without even being opened. Other emails are sorted and saved. Those that are sorted and saved are important for many different reasons and meet a certain criteria in order to be kept. The same should happen with our thoughts. Philippians 4:8 reads: Finally,…

I was feeling pretty good about myself and excited for the adventure ahead to overcome wrong thoughts with a clean and right heart when the enemy decided to show me that he was not as pleased with my decision. From out of nowhere came some very powerful wrong thoughts and just as quickly my mind was racing with so many that I felt like I was caught in a whirlwind. I was trying to battle one thought by speaking truth to it and I would be hit with another one. It was quite frightening how battered and bombarded I felt. No matter how hard I tried to fight back I…

The day after I had been encouraged to clean up my heart and mind with the divine power of God I was looking through my bookshelf to pick out a bible study to begin. Two or three caught my attention and I took them off the shelf and began looking through them. In my head I kept hearing, “what are you struggling to overcome?” My answer was, “my thoughts.” The question was repeated as I continued to look through books and then I heard, “It’s a battlefield for your mind. The enemy of your soul wants to manipulate your thoughts. Stop allowing him too. Learn to fight back.” On my…

For quite some time I have had wrong thoughts. I think of things that are not God honoring and later find myself feeling condemned and frustrated because I keep having trouble in this area and I don’t seem to be able to overcome it. Many times I have tried to think of something else or even justify my thoughts through rationalization. It often feels like a recurring cycle that I cannot seem to break. Then I read Luke 6:45 which reads, “for out of the abundance of the heart a man speaks.” I’ve heard this verse before, but today it had new meaning. My issue with thoughts is not something…

Once our cups are full our responsibility is to pour them out to others and we do that through fellowship. This is where we share Jesus. God gave us the gift of fellowship clear back in the Garden of Eden. We were designed for relationship and fellowship simply means to pursue a shared interest. That interest would be our Savior, Jesus Christ. Fellowship is meant to be a way that we can encourage each other in this journey of life. When we encourage others we will usually find that we also are encouraged. Speaking words of hope, courage and joy to others fills us with the same. In the bible…

One of my favorite ways to Fill My Cup is to read His Word. Reading God’s word is where we get to know Him. We learn about His character and His promises and it’s through His word that we are transformed. Acts 4:13 reads, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” Being with Jesus, listening to Him and learning from Him changed the character of Peter and John and reading His word will do the same for us. Like these men, we can be transformed from unschooled and ordinary…

How long can you listen to a really good song before you are tapping your fingers or toes or jumping in and singing along? The rhythm catches you and you begin singing word for word the lyrics that make your heart sing. That’s worship. Worship is where we can lift our voices in praise to the One and Only worthy of those praises, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter if you can carry a tune or not, He hears your heart and you can lift your arm up high as you reach out to your audience of One. Worship is where we can abandon whatever holds us…