Welcome back to week three of becoming more resilient. This week we are going to be focusing on a healthy mindset.
Healthy Thinking: Maintain healthy thought patterns by keeping things in perspective, accept that change is inevitable, and strive to maintain a positive attitude.
This is what the original text said, but I'm going to bring an eternal perspective out of this here today. The American Psychological Association may have to term it one way, but I am going to term it another with a Bible perspective:
Now, please listen, for I need to address an issue. I’m making this personal appeal to you by the gentleness and self-forgetfulness of Christ. I am the one who is “humble and timid” when face-to-face with you but “bold and outspoken” when a safe distance away. Now I plead with you that when I come, don’t force me to take a hard line with you (which I’m willing to do) by daring to confront those who mistakenly believe that we are living by the standards of the world, not by the Spirit’s wisdom and power. For although we live in the natural realm, we don’t wage a military campaign employing human weapons, using manipulation to achieve our aims. Instead, our spiritual weapons are energized with divine power to effectively dismantle the defenses behind which people hide. We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One. Since we are armed with such dynamic weaponry, we stand ready to punish any trace of rebellion, as soon as you choose complete obedience.
-2 Corinthians 10:1-6 TPT
Now my beloved ones, I have saved these most important truths for last: Be supernaturally infused with strength through your life-union with the Lord Jesus. Stand victorious with the force of his explosive power flowing in and through you. Put on God’s complete set of armor provided for us, so that you will be protected as you fight against the evil strategies of the accuser! Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms. For they are a powerful class of demon-gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage. Because of this, you must wear all the armor that God provides so you’re protected as you confront the slanderer, for you are destined for all things and will rise victorious. Put on truth as a belt to strengthen you to stand in triumph. Put on holiness as the protective armor that covers your heart. Stand on your feet alert, then you’ll always be ready to share the blessings of peace. In every battle, take faith as your wrap-around shield, for it is able to extinguish the blazing arrows coming at you from the evil one! Embrace the power of salvation’s full deliverance, like a helmet to protect your thoughts from lies. And take the mighty razor-sharp Spirit-sword of the spoken word of God. Pray passionately in the Spirit, as you constantly intercede with every form of prayer at all times. Pray the blessings of God upon all his believers. And pray also that God’s revelation would be released through me every time I preach the wonderful mystery of the hope-filled gospel. Yes, pray that I may preach the wonderful news of God’s kingdom with bold freedom at every opportunity. Even though I am chained as a prisoner, I am his ambassador.
-Ephesians 6:10-20 TPT
There is so much out there about mindset in the world of social media right now. Positive affirmations. Meditations. I do believe they have their place, but they do not replace the spirit Word of God and prayer. Since 2017, I started asking the question, “Who said that?” I had to start tearing down so many limited beliefs that were holding me back, or as some like to call them, lies. There are also the inner thoughts that we have subconsciously told ourselves for so long and started to believe them. Maybe they were spoken over us by peers, friends, co-workers, family, and of, course ourselves. How do we start to shift our mindsets? By taking every thought captive. It was mentioned above.
Look, I know we have so many thoughts going through our minds every day. Who really has the time, right? I want to encourage you. If you are willing to sit down and write down the negative narratives, it will start to show you some gaps in your mindset, and that is where you can ask the Father for His divine exchange. He has a better word that will replace those thoughts or labels with His eternal identity. Also, these are the kind of meetings I hope to have with the Widow Walk so you are not doing this alone. You will have a check-in point to help gain confidence that you are hearing from the Father, and all the beautiful truths He speaks not only encourages you, but us too.
The passages above give tools of how to combat these thoughts that can come on us like a grenade sometimes. I have found that as a widow, the world is expecting us to put on the widow’s garment, but here it says to put on God’s complete set of armor. There is a higher garment that we are divinely given to wear as a Daughter of the King, for we have inherited the throne by accepting His son Jesus into our hearts.
As I have walked through this cancer journey, mindset has been more of a hurdle than I was expecting. Those who have walked through it have also mentioned this same thing to me. Yet, Jesus in His kindness and faithfulness sent me songs of deliverance to declare over myself while I walked through these very scary doors. I am happy to say, by the time you read this blog, those songs will be recorded in the studio and in the process of being mastered so they can be available for you to hear. Yippee!!!
I have been taking this winter season to seek and knock on the doors of heaven for divine revelation that, in His kindness, will reveal detailed enough tools for me to understand and break down into small pieces to give away. This word resilience has been a part of that divine guidance to explore with you in the coming days and months.
It can be hard to admit that we as Christians have so much stinking thinking, but I am here to encourage you that living within the silent prison of the your mind is divine guidance waiting for permission to speak. Acceptance is the first part, then we start building tools into our daily routine until it feels like part of us. This is what we call embodiment. Jesus wants us to be so close to Him that when people rub up against us, all they feel is His presence and words flowing from us.
Tune in next week for the final piece, and that has to do with our eternal purpose.
Please take some time this week to read and re-read those passages in your favorite translation, for the more you read it the more embodiment begins to happen. Amen.
Until next time,
Keep Believing
Keep Braving
Keep Beaming