What Are You Filling Your Mind With?

I've been thinking more about how what we think about ourselves matters in the last few days. It's easy for how we think to be influenced by what we are listening to. Not just what we're saying to ourselves about ourselves, but what we're filling our minds with that comes from outside of us.

What we're listening to for music matters.

 

What we're watching on TV matters.

 

What we're reading matters.

Those things all fill our minds with things. And they have influence over what we think about.

If we're filling our minds with things that bring us down, we'll be talking to ourselves in ways that bring us down - in ways that keep us stuck in patterns of living we don't want to live in any longer.

If we're filling our minds with things that build us up, we'll be talking to ourselves in ways that are in line with the way God sees us.

God's Word tells us that what is inside will eventually come out of us. In our words. In our thoughts. In our actions. If it's what is inside of us, then we have at some point allowed it in - often through what we chose to listen, watch, or read.

So, what are you filling your mind with?

 

Things that will lift you up?

 

Things that will bring you down?

The Way We Think Matters

I've been thinking a lot lately about the way we think about ourselves. The thoughts that fill our minds. The things we tell ourselves over and over. The things we eventually come to believe about ourselves.

The way we think and talk to ourselves has incredible power. In much the same way as someone else's words can have incredible power in our lives.

If something gets repeated often enough, we begin to believe it. And when we begin to believe it, we live it completely. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And then we get frustrated because we find ourselves stuck in patterns of thinking and living that we don't like and that we want to break out of, but we don't know how.

I know I've been there. And I know how frustrated I got when I felt stuck like that. I wanted to change, but I didn't know how to change those things, because I really honestly thought the things I was believing and telling myself over and over were true about me and couldn't be changed.

But, the good news is that we can change the way we think. It is possible - even though it may seem impossible at times.

With God's help we can begin to believe and tell ourselves things that are really true about ourselves. We can change our thinking to be in line with what God says about it.

We have to learn to listen to God speak His truth into our lives.

Through His Word.

Through other people in our lives.

Through His voice speaking to us personally.

It takes practice. It take time. But it is possible. Because God doesn't want us to stay stuck in those ways of thinking about ourselves. He wants something to change in us and He will help us to make it happen.

What are the things you're telling yourself about yourself?

What are you believing about yourself?

Do they need to be changed to be more in line with what God actually says is true about you?

Take them to God. Ask Him for His truth. And ask Him to help you believe it.

The Power of a Touch from Jesus

"Our Redeemer's gift of touch provides healing connection and can warm even the coldest heart." (Lisa Harper, Stumbling Into Grace)

As we read the gospels and read of Jesus' miracles of healing, we see that over and over, He healed people with a touch. Je could have just spoken a word and healed them, but He chose to touch them instead.

• Mark 1:41 - Jesus touched the man with leprosy to heal him.
• Mark 5:41 - Jesus raises a little girl from the dead by taking her hand.
• Mark 6:5 - Jesus laid hands on sick people and healed them.
• Mark 7:33 - Jesus healed a deaf and mute man by touching him.
• Mark 8:22-26 - Jesus healed a blind man by touching his eyes.
• Mark 9:27 - Jesus sets someone back in his feet after driving out an evil spirit by taking his hand.

These are just the miracles of Jesus's touch that Mark recorded when he wrote his gospel.

In a culture where people who were sick were considered unclean and no one else would have touched them, Jesus chose to use touch to bring healing and restoration to these people. Jesus knew the power that touch could have.

I sometimes wonder if that touch from Jesus was more important to the people He healed than the actual healing itself. For some of them I wonder how long it had been since someone touched them. Based on the religious laws of the day, I would guess that it had been years for some of them.

I believe that Jesus still touches people today. He knows that a touch is important to our healing, so He uses other people in our lives for that.

A hug from a friend.

A hand on our shoulder.

These things may not bring an actual physical healing the way Jesus' touch did in Scripture, but they can still bring healing and encouragement in other aspects of our lives.