Our mind is capable of amazing feats; not so sure about that? Try shutting it off...
Proposed; if our mind is capable of simultaneously working on a task, work, study, and worrying, or planning dinner, or replaying the last conversation we had with someone, then shouldn't it also be able to turn to God instead?
I say this because I am sitting here studying, using my brain, and it is distracted by all of those kinds of thoughts I mentioned. Mostly I'm caught thinking about things that are not going on right now. Now, the only I know how to avoid, or recover those thoughts is to stop and talk it out to God. That is all fine a good but I do not always have the time, to stop, look and listen, as the saying goes. I can pause for a minute and turn from the task at hand to ask for His assistance and I think that is appropriate; for who is to be our source anyway, work? I think not. So, who is to say my mind cannot be 'face to face' with God when I am also doing thinking? I mean, all these other thoughts are going on, and I am just trying to ignore them long enough to get through my task, and it's not working, for Pete's sake!
The thoughts are not keeping silent, but then again I have always believed that I could not think of two things at a time. It's true, our minds end up like milkshakes, all we are really doing is bouncing from one thought to another and creating havoc for our tired minds. It's going on anyway though! I am not implying we should try to carry on a conversation with God, say work out the issues we are worried about while trying to at the same time get thinking jobs done: but what about to pause a second and ask to see His face instead of this task? I can tell you He has answered this with other things. Talking to angry people, whew that one used to put me in a tizzy. Then in my crying out for help, He showed me to ask to see His face while I faced them. It would only last a split second, but it reminded me He was there, that He had not abandoned me to this fate, and he hasn't you know?
Most of these other thoughts are what Paul Young in one of the videos, Restoring the Shack which can be found on YouTube, describes as "Future Tripping". Future tripping is thinking about any thing other than the here and now. Well, old buddy I need help with that! Thanks be to God Jesus has become help to us 100%, we get to be 100% dependent on Him for all the help we need here and now. The future rest has come to us, here. It's not like we just wake up one day knowing how to do this, even though Jesus accomplished it for us, we have to lean on Him to learn how to, moment by moment day by day.
We were made to walk with God daily and be in relationship with Him, his tenderness, his compassion, his gentle instruction in what we need for today. Not in worrying about anything. Tell me this, if my face to turned toward the face of God, is He going to let me miss something I really need? Don't look to the world here, I just did and it didn't look like this would work. Well, let's go back to the facts: the world and bad things that happen do not define God. What Jesus and father and Holy did on the cross, and rising from the dead, that defines God. Jesus came to become what we are, so He could free us from it and we could be IN them forever. John 14:10, "I am in the Father and you are in Me." Lord, help us see this, it will change all we see when we do.
The biggest antidote for worry is to turn face to face to God, I think. In the moments I catch a glimpse of hope, or beauty, and Spring for this snow ridden Midwest right now; I breath free air. Free not bound to the worries of the things I cannot control anyway. My spirit, the new one that God put in me, it longs to trust God. Trusting Him is where we are truly at home. It begins with fits and starts, this getting used to walking the new way, but even a moment here and there is infinitely better than no hope at all. Do you know how long we can last without hope? Why do you think the enemy works so hard at stealing it from us? Or of giving us false hope in things instead of a good God. Remember his job description in John 10:10? To steal, kill and destroy. He does not get to take us out of this world, but he can try to steal our joy, kill our hope and destroy our trust.
Do you know all of those things, hope, joy, trust ... they all are ours the same as Jesus lived in them? He is united with us now! All that is His, He has accomplished imparting to us through the death, burial and resurrection. So, when I need it, where should I look? To me, to perform it? Oh no Sally! To Him, remember, where we first began in this blog, turning to face Him while doing anything and everything. His help is the strength, he does not couple with ours, He brings His own into us.
Think about it, and maybe ask Him to unpack this idea for you. He speaks your language.
I say this because I am sitting here studying, using my brain, and it is distracted by all of those kinds of thoughts I mentioned. Mostly I'm caught thinking about things that are not going on right now. Now, the only I know how to avoid, or recover those thoughts is to stop and talk it out to God. That is all fine a good but I do not always have the time, to stop, look and listen, as the saying goes. I can pause for a minute and turn from the task at hand to ask for His assistance and I think that is appropriate; for who is to be our source anyway, work? I think not. So, who is to say my mind cannot be 'face to face' with God when I am also doing thinking? I mean, all these other thoughts are going on, and I am just trying to ignore them long enough to get through my task, and it's not working, for Pete's sake!
The thoughts are not keeping silent, but then again I have always believed that I could not think of two things at a time. It's true, our minds end up like milkshakes, all we are really doing is bouncing from one thought to another and creating havoc for our tired minds. It's going on anyway though! I am not implying we should try to carry on a conversation with God, say work out the issues we are worried about while trying to at the same time get thinking jobs done: but what about to pause a second and ask to see His face instead of this task? I can tell you He has answered this with other things. Talking to angry people, whew that one used to put me in a tizzy. Then in my crying out for help, He showed me to ask to see His face while I faced them. It would only last a split second, but it reminded me He was there, that He had not abandoned me to this fate, and he hasn't you know?
Most of these other thoughts are what Paul Young in one of the videos, Restoring the Shack which can be found on YouTube, describes as "Future Tripping". Future tripping is thinking about any thing other than the here and now. Well, old buddy I need help with that! Thanks be to God Jesus has become help to us 100%, we get to be 100% dependent on Him for all the help we need here and now. The future rest has come to us, here. It's not like we just wake up one day knowing how to do this, even though Jesus accomplished it for us, we have to lean on Him to learn how to, moment by moment day by day.
We were made to walk with God daily and be in relationship with Him, his tenderness, his compassion, his gentle instruction in what we need for today. Not in worrying about anything. Tell me this, if my face to turned toward the face of God, is He going to let me miss something I really need? Don't look to the world here, I just did and it didn't look like this would work. Well, let's go back to the facts: the world and bad things that happen do not define God. What Jesus and father and Holy did on the cross, and rising from the dead, that defines God. Jesus came to become what we are, so He could free us from it and we could be IN them forever. John 14:10, "I am in the Father and you are in Me." Lord, help us see this, it will change all we see when we do.
The biggest antidote for worry is to turn face to face to God, I think. In the moments I catch a glimpse of hope, or beauty, and Spring for this snow ridden Midwest right now; I breath free air. Free not bound to the worries of the things I cannot control anyway. My spirit, the new one that God put in me, it longs to trust God. Trusting Him is where we are truly at home. It begins with fits and starts, this getting used to walking the new way, but even a moment here and there is infinitely better than no hope at all. Do you know how long we can last without hope? Why do you think the enemy works so hard at stealing it from us? Or of giving us false hope in things instead of a good God. Remember his job description in John 10:10? To steal, kill and destroy. He does not get to take us out of this world, but he can try to steal our joy, kill our hope and destroy our trust.
Do you know all of those things, hope, joy, trust ... they all are ours the same as Jesus lived in them? He is united with us now! All that is His, He has accomplished imparting to us through the death, burial and resurrection. So, when I need it, where should I look? To me, to perform it? Oh no Sally! To Him, remember, where we first began in this blog, turning to face Him while doing anything and everything. His help is the strength, he does not couple with ours, He brings His own into us.
Think about it, and maybe ask Him to unpack this idea for you. He speaks your language.
FYI: Employing this method, usually what I get is a little more calm, at least for a short time. This grows the more I use it: until the days I completely forget, then days like today come back when I am reminded again. It's just something Holy Spirit does. Scripture calls Holy Spirit a wind that you don't know where it is going, or where it is coming from. "So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." So when we don't know where we are going? Or what just happened to bring us pe
ReplyDeleteace, we are right!