Conquering Your Thoughts – Week 4 (06/12/2022)

Conquering Your Thoughts – Week 4 (06/12/2022)

June 12, 2022

OPENING STATEMENT: Your life is always moving in the direction of your strongest thoughts.

“Be careful HOW YOU THINK; YOUR LIFE IS SHAPED BY YOUR THOUGHTS. (Proverbs 4:23 Today’s English Version)

  • Whether you like it or not, whether it is good or bad thoughts, our life is always on the move.

Bad experiences in your past can dictate how you perceive the world around you.

“Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.” C.S Lewis

  • Letting go can be just as painful as the actual past experience.
  • Healing and freedom come when we confront.
  • What we don’t confront we don’t overcome!

Dealing with our anxious thoughts based on who or what we know instead on how we feel.

OPENING SCRIPTURE

DO NOT BE ANXIOUS ABOUT ANYTHING, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7 NIV)

  • This scripture here is not about how you feel but what you know and who you know.

KNOW GOD’S PRESENCE

  • Difference between to feel God’s presence and to know His presence.
  • Sometimes we can be so fixated on the presence of problems that we lose sight of the presence of God.

Why you panic and don’t think logically?

There’s a scientific explanation for this.

Amygdala – Part of the brain.

  • Responsible for the emotions and survival instincts.
  • Produces adrenaline to prepare the body for action.
  • The fight or flight mechanism.
  • The amygdala is not objective.

Prefrontal Cortex – Part of the brain

  • It is the logical part of the brain.
  • God gave us this part to keep the emotional side in check.
  • It recognizes the facts but points you to the truth.
  • It recognizes the potential danger but points you to the truth that God is for you.

Elijah needed to be reminded that God’s presence was more powerful that his circumstance.

While he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” (1 Kings 19:4 NIV)

We can get so fixated on the presence of problems that we lose sight of the presence of God

  • Elijah forgot that the Lord was near him. That He never left Him.

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a GENTLE WHISPER.  (1 King 19:11-12 NIV)

  • God’s presence was not in the wind, not in fire, not in the earthquake.
  • God’s presence was in the gentle whisper.

DO NOT BE ANXIOUS about anything, but in every situation, by PRAYER and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  (Philippians 4:6 NIV)

  • Prayer should never be last resort, but the first line of attack.
  • Carolyn Leaf wrote a book on the subject: “Switch On Your Brain”:

“It has been found that 12 minutes of daily focused prayer over an 8-week period can change the brain to such an extent that it can be measured on a brain scan”

Paul makes the theological connection in verse 7

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will GUARD YOUR HEARTS and YOUR MINDS in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7 NIV)

  • Prayer guards your hearts and your minds.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is TRUE, whatever is NOBLE, whatever is RIGHT, whatever is PURE, whatever is LOVELY, whatever is ADMIRABLE—if anything is EXCELLENT or PRAISEWORTHY—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8-9 NIV)

 

CONCLUSION:

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

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