“With God as your helper, you will discover a new way of thinking. These whirlpools of gloom and doom? He will stop them. That unhappy habit of craving what is not yours? God can fix that. Your tendency to mislabel yourself with words God doesn’t use about you? I am thrilled to say, those days are numbered. . . . A new you is about to emerge.”- Max Lucado
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.”‘ 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)
Max Lucado concludes Chapter 2 of Tame Your Thoughts as he exhorts that it’s time to receive your new wings. As a result, Max prefers to focus on three tools. Thus, he calls these tools the Tame Your Thoughts Tool Kit:
1. Practice Picky Thinking — guard your thoughts.
2. Identify UFOs — an Untruth creates a False narrative that leads to an Overreaction.
3. Uproot and Replant — weed out your most unhealthy thought patterns, then replace them with the truth.
In addition, Pastor Lucado stresses, these tools empower you to think clearly and right. While at times you need all three tools, at other times one or two suffice. But either way, these tools rescue you from the quicksand of ungovernable thoughts.
In conclusion, Max counsels:
“The big new is this: You have a choice. Your parents don’t control your thoughts, you do. Your ancestry doesn’t dictate your thoughts, you do. . . . Mind management is God’s gift to you. But the gift means nothing unless you use it. . . .
The moment you choose to change, however, change begins to happen. The moment you act, the benefits of that action commence. . . .
Can I be clear on something? No one can help a person who resists help. Our Maker wired us in such a way that healing happens when we seek it.”
Today’s question: What most helps you develop a new way of thinking — with God as your helper? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Strongholds that have a strong hold”