Even though I’ve learned so much about toxic thoughts and their effect on our body, I still fall prey to feeding on fear accidentally! Dwelling on frets and dread of the future is an addiction making counselors busy and medication sellers rich. The excitement of a movie or the drama of the news is hyptnotic and addictive yet we will suffer mentally, emotionally and physically if we allow ourselves to become intoxicated by them every day.
Like a pimple that’s just been popped, our world has exploded with hopes and fears colliding. In the U.S. and abroad, new history is unfolding by the minute. We must intentionally find peace if we want to live through it! “Labor to enter into that rest.”
In an effort to hear the things I want to know about, I am listening to the news because some good things are happening. However with every dose of good news, there is a pile of bad news right in the same spoonful. If you’ve lived with anxiety you are used to the feeling and it seems normal. You can actually retrain yourself to stop allowing adrenaline to drip into your gut, causing you to feel like you’ve run a marathon by 2:00 every afternoon, passing out on your keyboard. However if you are addicted to that feeling of excitement it feels boring to live without anxiety. Choosing peace is a decision we must embrace if we want to function with our full potential. Life without anxiety is strangely calm, happy and simple. Renewing our minds to choose peace regardless of the drama we face daily is a decision to agree with God. “Peace I give you,” He said. ” not as the world gives.”
So by accidentally allowing myself to dwell on drama, I have been suffering physically, first with a cold and then with bouts of exhaustion until I finally realized what I was doing. I was accidentally feeding on fear. Starting off my day in the word and in prayer, moving on to the drama of the news by receiving news texts and twitters every few minutes, my adrenaline was pouring into my gut and causing waves of exhaustion throughout my day. I had to get in bed often to control my sleepy cycles and nap for five minutes here and there. This adrenaline causes tummy bloating! Controlling our thoughts and focus is absolutely a part of our Christian walk. Praise God for his wisdom and the power of praise, song, praying in tongues and Bible verses. Toxic thoughts will get you if you don’t have your strategy lined up. If you’re feeling sick lately, exhausted, suffering from head colds and fevers, be careful what you’re listening to and thinking on. Purpose to focus more on things that are lovely, noble, honest, of good report! {Philippians 4:8} You can do it! “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
When I first learned the power of my thoughts and the fact that they have physical effect on our bodies, it made perfect sense to me but as I shared this with others, I got strange responses. People don’t want to believe that they are responsible for their thoughts. The Bible tells us to take our thoughts captive. And yet people don’t want to accept that responsibility or even acknowledge that they have the ability. Using the word as a sword against fear you can speak all the verses you know about peace and thought control like this:
“Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and the peace that passes all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee because he trusts in Thee”
Bam bam bam! Like a machine gun you must speak the word of God out of your mouth and focus on things lovely. “Laughter is good medicine “so find something to focus on that is going to make you laugh. “The joy of the Lord is our strength” Remember to stay away from anger at people. “Where there is envy and strife (drama) there is confusion and every evil work” but stay angry at the devil, not giving him a foothold. Yet we must not be passive but rather take the kingdom of God by force and violence of spirit.
The Kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent take it by force” Mt
“Let the peace of God rule in your heart and mind in Christ Jesus”
It’s empowering to know that you can control your thoughts and that we can therefore control what happens to our bodies especially by focusing on God’s word. Praise God for his wisdom! Peace be with you.
