The Doorway We Choose is in Our Control

Oh. My. Goodness. I’m so done to listening to all the rancor that goes on in social media and the tv/online news reporting agencies. Honestly, I don’t understand how people can be so caught up in such negativity as an investigator or a reporter. How their minds must swirl with “He said. She said. They did.” How they might have trouble sleeping at night as they conjure up ways to get the next most negative news they can find. Oh, I know, in many cases – some look for great, upbeat, and positive news angles. But, in either case -- that’s the doorway they chose to walk through. They chose the good – the bad – or the ugly door and they live on that side of the doorway daily.

Now, that I’m back into my real world at home where I daily make decisions about how my day will go, I’m discovering what doorway I should walk through at any given time -- meditating on what’s good or what’s negative. I’m finding myself watching some social media videos and posts to bring me up to speed on what’s going on in our world. But, I keep hearing these words: “Choose you this day who you will serve” and I know it is about lending my eyes and my ears to the latest gossip and news or lending my eyes and ears to what God wants me to see and hear in this day. Remember St. Paul’s spiritually-elevating words in Philippians 4:8? “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, THINK on these things.” That, my friends, is a great doorway to walk and think through.

Joshua in the Old Testament gave powerful words of choice to the Israelites right after they conquered and took Canaan. He put a choice before them -- whether they would serve the Lord or not. “Choose this day whom you will serve…..as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15. The same choice is set before each one of us each day. The choice is up to us. God will not coerce us into serving Him. It is our daily responsibility to choose the doorways of life. Jesus came to give us an abundant life – but if we choose to listen to lies and the evil-workings of the enemy, we’re choosing death instead of life.

Proverbs 4:23 says: “More than anything guard, protect your mind, for life flows from it.” We can control the doorway to what we’re going to allow in. We can dwell on every negative thing people have said, every derogatory comment, or we can choose to delete it and dwell on what God says about us.

Let's shut the door on the enemy of our souls who keeps trying to get us to choose the doorway of defeat, fear, and anger! We are winners -- the enemy is the loser! Let’s shut the door on the enemy and choose the doorway of abundant life!

We Need Mind Control

Oh, but if we had the power to put our minds on "lockdown" when they are being bombarded with negative overload. I've found the more I think about something, the stronger it takes hold of me, which is why the Bible teaches "Run from anything that gives you evil thoughts, but stay close to anything that makes you want to do right”. (2 Timothy 2:22)

How do we halt those negative thoughts from entry? I think it can be compared to the TSA inspectors that check us and our baggage before getting through to our flight gate. They make sure no weapons or items come through that could be potentially dangerous to travelers. We need thought inspectors at the gates of our mind that declares "NO ENTRY!"

We have the ability to HALT those negative thoughts, but we have to do it on purpose, as soon as they try entry. Here's the "how-to" stop them and one of my favorite scriptures: "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." (Philippians 4:8) That, is the TSA for our minds. We purposely and intentionally THINK good thoughts and when the alien, negative thoughts come....they get quickly replaced by focusing our attention on what and WHO (God) is and the good, true, excellent, and praiseworthy thoughts.

It's a matter of discipline and taking authority over negative thoughts. With God's Word, we can have mind control and furthermore, we can put our enemy in captivity when he tries to mess with us! Here's God's Word that confirms it: "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." Isaiah 26:3.

When I was looking for an image to go with this blog, I searched "guard your mind" and, lo and behold, this second picture showed up in the images. I know that girl. That's my girl and her "Brand New Life" album which includes her "Guard Your Mind" song that she wrote and sang. Some of the words are: "Let your thoughts bring hope to help you do your best; champions know their thoughts determine their success.....guard your mind." https://open.spotify.com/album/2K5B8q6A5BrkjCBkR5uMvh?replay=1

Listen and you'll be inspired to "Guard Your Mind" because we know the most effective way to have mind control is keeping our minds on what God says about us in His Word. Proverbs 4:23 says “More than anything you guard, protect your mind, for life flows from it.” Let's be mind controllers!

Shut the Front Door!

"Sticks & stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!" We've said that, but we didn't mean it. Some words DID and DO hurt us! Someone spoke negatively about us when we gave something our all, or someone spoke ugly about one of our kids or family members. Or our mind is playing the same old record: “You’re not good enough. You’re not pretty or handsome enough. You're not slim enough. You’re not smart enough.” But we don't have to accept those words or let them into the doorway of our hearts and minds. We can close and lock those doors.

We have the opportunity every day to “Shut the front door!” I heard Kristin Chenoweth, as a judge on the “So You Think You Can Dance” show, give her remarks about the exquisite and inspiring dance by a young lady. She exclaimed “Shut the front door! Shut the back door! Shut the garage door! Shut them all!”

And that’s the message I’m conveying to you AND me today. It’s time to SHUT THE DOOR to those voices – the ones that say “You might as well give up. You’re going to fail again.” And to those that whisper in your ears “You’ll never outlast this setback!” Or, “You’re getting old. All those aches and pains are just going to get worse.” Or those inner voices that taunt you and say, “Those kids of yours are the most unruly, impolite, rowdy, and uncontrollable kids on this earth.” Or, “You’re never going to get that promotion!” On and on…..those voices that continue to get louder as they scream "FAILURE" in our heads.

Proverbs 4:23 says “More than anything you guard, protect your mind, for life flows from it.” Actually, we should be guarding our minds like the army guards Fort Knox. Below the fortress-like structure of Fort Knox lies the gold vault that is protected by a blast-proof door weighing 20 tons and 21-inches thick and made of the latest torch-and-drill-resistant material. Members of the Depository staff must dial separate combinations known only to them. Beyond the main vault door, smaller compartments provide further protection. That's the protection we should be providing for what we allow in our minds.

That scripture in Proverbs tells us to guard and protect our minds. We control the doorway to what we’re going to allow in. We have the “Master” filtering codes. We can dwell on every negative thing people AND the enemy of our souls have said, every derogatory comment, or we can choose to kick it out the door, then lock the door, and dwell on what God says about us." Let’s shut the front door, the back door and ALL doors AND windows where the enemy likes to sneak in and infiltrate his lies and keeps trying to take us down with his nasty words of defeat and fear. WE ARE WINNERS -- he's the LOSER!! Now SHUT THOSE DOORS!!

Guard Your Mind

Our minds are like a computer. What we put in, is what comes out. On a daily basis we input data, type emails, letters, and use our graphics software to help us make impressive powerpoints and presentations on our computers. We download photos and images. In my case, lots of photos and images. The memory in our computer continues to take in more and more, but eventually, the memory gets filled to capacity, resulting in slowing down its performance.

Yesterday, a friend of mine said, after she couldn’t remember the name of someone, “I hate growing old!” While “maturing” may be attributed to memory loss, I would like to suggest that our memory bank just gets overloaded -- just like our computers. Think of all our minds have consumed all the years of our lifetime. No wonder we have trouble finding where we left our keys or remembering that person’s name.

Our minds are special gifts from God. Our minds can potentially store 100 trillion thoughts. Now that’s what I call an “expanded” memory bank. And it is a tool that God wants to use in fulfilling His purposes for our lives.

That’s why we have to be choosy. We have to control what -- or who we allow into our minds. What’s true of computers is true with humans -- garbage in, garbage out.

Proverbs 4:23 says “More than anything, guard and protect your mind, for life flows from it.”

One of my greatest “aha” moments came when I realized that I can choose my thoughts and think things on purpose. Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”

Maybe your mind has been bombarded with bad news -- something that was such bad news that you became sick to your stomach. I've been there. I had choices to make. Allow those negative, fearful and crippling thoughts to shut me down, or REBOOT. Like the most high tech, leading edge computer that needs to be rebooted when there is a conflict inside, so do we. That same computer can be infected with a virus, and our computer needs to be scanned and cleaned out. So do we. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to come in and remove the doubt, fear and unbelief. I think that’s why God urges us to take one day a week to “recharge”, rest, and go for a charge up at the battery station. Maybe that’s our church, our parish, our place of plugging into the CENTRAL CHARGER.

We put up fences around our homes to keep the pets and children in and the varmints out. Literally we need to put fences around our minds that keep the good, beautiful and pleasant thoughts in and keeps the junk, negativity, fear, evil reports out. We control the doorway to who we allow in our homes. We need to do the same thing with our minds. We can dwell on the negative, think about it, mull it over, and complain about it OR we can do what any great computer can do.....WE CAN DELETE IT.

"You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You" . Isaiah 26:3

Are We Listening WELL to God?

Photo 242 of Photo Inspirations -- Are We Listening WELL to God?
Emmett from the Lego Movie  said, "I think I got it, but just in case, tell me the whole thing again.  I wasn't listening."

During her talk at the Sisters Event, Amy Groeschel said, “Have you ever read a text message and realized that it was sent four hours ago, and by then it was too late to respond?  God is sending us messages all the time, but we’re not listening well.  We’re distracted or preoccupied or just maybe, we don’t even want to listen.  You know how our children have selective hearing?  You can call them and call them, and they don’t respond, but if you say “Ice Cream”, they’ll come running.  Just like kids, we, too, have selective hearing.  We listen to what we love.  God is communicating with us all the time.  He wants us, like we want our kids, to LISTEN WELL!”

Ever been texting, and someone was trying to talk to you at the same time?  We say, "I'm listening....go ahead!"  But in reality, we're not listening WELL.

So how do we listen well?  We listen well by guarding our hearts.  It's so easy to be sidetracked from the things that matter most, especially when we're so busy.  We're running here and there, taking care of business and trying to figure out how to do this or that.  When, all the while, God is speaking to us, but our hearts are being controlled by stress and anxiety. We must guard our hearts so that when He speaks....we're tuned into His frequency and can hear Him loud and clear.

He also wants us to guard our minds.  Amy said, "Our kids know all the words to every Taylor Swift song, but do they know God's Word?"  The enemy wants to deceive us and the best way to know his lies are to know and be grounded in God's Word. It's like learning a foreign language.  We must immerse ourselves in it in order to learn it.  The same is true for knowing God's Word -- every key to victory and success is found there.  Why wouldn't we immerse ourselves in the Word?  When we do, we'll be listening WELL.

Isn't it time we pay attention to His nudges, His promptings and His voice?  He holds the answers to everything we need to live a victorious life, so why would we allow anything to come between our ears AND His voice?  Isn't it time for us to start LISTENING WELL?

You Control the Doorway

Sticks & stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!" We've said that, but did we REALLY MEAN it -- "words will never hurt me"? Actually, there have been times that words DID hurt. Someone spoke negatively about us or something we did when we gave something our all, or someone spoke ugly about one of our kids or family members. But we really don't have to accept those words or let them into the doorway of our hearts and minds.

I love what Joel Osteen said in his post yesterday....."The Scripture tells us to guard our mind. You control the doorway to what you’re going to allow in. You can dwell on every negative thing people have said, every derogatory comment, or you can choose to delete it and dwell on what God says about you." YES! I agree with Joel again! Let's hit the "DELETE" button on those words that come to us from others -- especially from the enemy of our souls that keeps trying to take us down with his nasty words of defeat and fear. WE ARE WINNERS -- he's the LOSER!! Now SHUT THAT DOOR!!