Having returned from my latest adventure I thought I would finish sharing my thoughts regarding the passage in Philippians Four. Verse Eight was a good one to heed on my travels, as it is every day.... no matter where I may be!
I often marvel over what a generous, gracious God my Papa is. He does not leave us defenseless. Our God equips us with the weapons and tools needed for this life. They are available to all who would care to take them up.
Every single person in this world is broken. We are broken people in a broken world and our LORD understands that fact. So He has fashioned what we need to find wholeness, healing.
It is His Truth, which reveals what we need and it is one of the weapons He makes available to us.
How privileged we are to be able to find ourselves in such a position. One that leads to victory through the brokenness! So many struggle and never progress from that place, yet anyone who comes to Him will find freedom from that very struggle.
Many in my family struggle with addiction of one kind or another. At times it is difficult to watch them living such broken lives. It would be easy to want to step in and "fix" them.
That never works.
All it does is draw you into the problem.
Another temptation is to project into the future all that could happen and our thoughts usually run toward the awful what ifs!
Of course, we could just get angry at the destruction that we are witnessing. This also doesn't take us anywhere good.
Let's see what that verse has to say and what tools we find to help us in the midst of this broken world we live in.
I heard a speaker many years ago who suggested we imagine each piece of this verse as a part of a fence that we use to corral our thoughts.
There are eight pieces to this fence: truth, honor, rightness, purity, loveliness, good repute, excellence, praiseworthy.
We set the corral up and then we ask Papa to help us keep the pieces in place. We also ask Him to get our attention quickly when one falls out of place.
I cannot tell you how many times I have heard His small, still voice drawing my attention to errant thoughts.
The more you practice it, the more it becomes a natural reflex.
Sometimes He simply speaks to me about what emotions are churning inside me and I realize that a piece or two of that fence needs to be erected again!
When we have our thoughts corralled then we will find that we are renewing our minds and that brings great blessing to not only ourselves, but all those other broken people God brings our way!
Here is how the Twelfth chapter of Romans, the Second verse puts it:
I often marvel over what a generous, gracious God my Papa is. He does not leave us defenseless. Our God equips us with the weapons and tools needed for this life. They are available to all who would care to take them up.
Every single person in this world is broken. We are broken people in a broken world and our LORD understands that fact. So He has fashioned what we need to find wholeness, healing.
It is His Truth, which reveals what we need and it is one of the weapons He makes available to us.
How privileged we are to be able to find ourselves in such a position. One that leads to victory through the brokenness! So many struggle and never progress from that place, yet anyone who comes to Him will find freedom from that very struggle.
Many in my family struggle with addiction of one kind or another. At times it is difficult to watch them living such broken lives. It would be easy to want to step in and "fix" them.
That never works.
All it does is draw you into the problem.
Another temptation is to project into the future all that could happen and our thoughts usually run toward the awful what ifs!
Of course, we could just get angry at the destruction that we are witnessing. This also doesn't take us anywhere good.
Let's see what that verse has to say and what tools we find to help us in the midst of this broken world we live in.
"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things."
I heard a speaker many years ago who suggested we imagine each piece of this verse as a part of a fence that we use to corral our thoughts.
There are eight pieces to this fence: truth, honor, rightness, purity, loveliness, good repute, excellence, praiseworthy.
We set the corral up and then we ask Papa to help us keep the pieces in place. We also ask Him to get our attention quickly when one falls out of place.
I cannot tell you how many times I have heard His small, still voice drawing my attention to errant thoughts.
The more you practice it, the more it becomes a natural reflex.
Sometimes He simply speaks to me about what emotions are churning inside me and I realize that a piece or two of that fence needs to be erected again!
When we have our thoughts corralled then we will find that we are renewing our minds and that brings great blessing to not only ourselves, but all those other broken people God brings our way!
Here is how the Twelfth chapter of Romans, the Second verse puts it:
"And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."
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