NOTHING CHANGES UNTIL YOUR MIND CHANGES
The greatest battle we face in our lives is the battle within our own minds. The mind is a battleground - we war within ourselves wrestling with our thoughts, our conscience, the endless echoes of the harsh words that have been spoken to us, the contemplations of our own self unworthiness. It's all going on inside our minds and it is difficult to recognise sometimes, and even more difficult to overcome.
Our society does nothing to help us have a healthy mind, in fact this must be the most mentally perilous age of humanity. We are constantly bombarded with stuff to process. Data flies at us all the time through TV, phones, social media, radio, advertisements everywhere you turn encouraging the deeper infestation of consumerism. People have a constant stream of news from around the world, and precious moments of lives are being eaten up by the continual feasting on the minutiae of other people's lives through social media feeds, blogs (yes, I realise the irony! remember moderation with your online presence!) and - something new I learnt this week - vlogs. We are developing a warped view of normality, and our expectations are being manipulated beyond the realms of healthy, with women especially feeling the pressure to have the perfect bodies, be the perfect working mothers, and have homes that look like something from a glassy magazine.
The world is becoming so fast paced that people are struggling to keep up, and we are being morphed into something we were not created to be. I remember when I used to live for holidays when I could escape from our hectic lives, and enjoy the peace of not thinking too deeply, of having space to breathe, to stop and relax. Two weeks a year - maybe four weeks a year if you're fortunate - to be relaxed, to let our minds breathe is not how it is supposed to be.
Our minds are not meant to be bombarded constantly by noise and information. As a society, we have become a people who live by the pull of our emotions, and it's hardly any wonder given that we have no space in our lives to do anything else but react instantly in our velocious world. As our emotions soar up and down throughout our busy and hectic days, like a magnet, they pull our thought patterns with them. This is potentially destructive as a surge of high and low emotions pull along thoughts, these thoughts giving way to desires, desires giving way to actions, and actions becoming habits. We become creatures that act solely on emotion, because that's all we have become accustomed to doing. That, coupled with the bombardment of our minds through unrealistic ideals portrayed in the media is crippling us as a society.
Emotions are not bad or sinful, they are God-given for our well being and our pleasure. But they were never given to be our mental compass leading us in our decisions or our actions.
They fluctuate with the circumstances in our lives and are a warning signal - something isn't right when it makes us feel sad or angry. Something isn't right when it prickles at our conscience. To be lead by emotions, react and to make decisions based purely upon emotions that change from one moment to another, was not the plan. When we act solely on our emotions, we bypass the part of us that should guide us - our spirits, which are linked to God by the Holy Spirit.
Emotions are not reliable - even the good ones. I can feel angry at someone today because of a trivial incident, whereas they day before, I felt happy and loving towards them with no trace of anger or irritation. It happens all the time, our feelings change by the minute. The emotion anger isn't sinful, it's what we do when we are angry that is the danger. We all know many people who fly off the handle, or who are "hot headed". They give way to the emotion acting on the emotion itself, rather than dealing with it and the reason behind the emotion.
So what do we do when we have become so accustomed to being lead by emotions and our unhealthy thought processes? It is a difficult battle to overcome, as the mind has become linked to the pull of emotion, and negative thought patterns, once well established, are tough to change. A negative thought pattern is not broken simply by asserting that we shall be more positive, because thought patterns operate at a sub conscious level too. In fact changing them ourselves is so difficult that many people find themselves in CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) to help change their ways of thinking when they have lead to mental issues or anxieties. How often do we tell ourselves we can't do that, we aren't good enough, we don't deserve this or that. It's all a pattern of thinking that has been forged in us but it is damaging to who we are. To have a negative inner voice is a sure path to self destruction. That’s no way to live a victorious, happy life.
There was a Man facing such a stressful time, His emotions were in so much turmoil, the stress manifested in His physical body, His capillaries burst and He actually sweat blood - that Man was Jesus. (Luke 22 v 44) Here is our perfect example: Jesus, although fully God, was also fully human and He had emotions just like we do. Knowing what was about to befall Him, He very understandably had much emotional feeling regarding it and He was in "great agony of mind" we are told. The emotions and the stress were very real and very overwhelming, yet through it all, He prayed, sought His Father, and never let the emotions rule His thoughts or His actions. Our goals should be the same, to feel the emotion but not be ruled by the emotion, to overcome the negative thoughts, the wrong thoughts and the sinful thoughts that run through our minds.
For the Christian, we are told that we need to be changed by the renewing of our minds, by stopping being pulled about by the sway of our emotions and replacing our thoughts with His thoughts. We need to renew our minds in order to be transformed, part of the process is the part taking place in the mind, and part of it is outwardly by not being conformed to the world. We have good news though, as we have the Holy Spirit to help us, but He can't do it for us, it does take hard work on our part. A daily, in fact a moment by moment battle will take place at first when we begin this journey. Each thought that is contrary to the Word must be taken captive, and every emotional decision must be overcome with a decision based on our collaboration with the Holy Spirit through wisdom and prayer, just like Jesus.
The battle is in the mind, and the incomplete process of renewal of the mind will hold back the body of Christ as we simply cannot live a victorious Christian life with a mind that has not been renewed; the process is vital to complete the will of God .
Romans 12 v 2 - "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God."