Voices in our Head

Dear Friends:

 The 2015 Pixar movie Inside Out is set in the mind of a young girl, Riley Andersen, where five personified emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, and Disgust try to lead her through life, as she moves with her parents to a new city. The film reminds us that we aren’t the only ones who sometimes have nagging voices inside our head. Most of the time, the messages we get are positive and edifying, but there are times when the voices feed us negative thoughts, feelings of inadequacy, or words of condemnation.

News Flash: Negative Thoughts aren’t from God!

So how do we filter the negative thoughts that come our way?

Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.^”

Trusting God isn’t always easy. At times, we may feel like the father of the demon-possessed boy in Mark 9, who brought his son to Jesus for healing. “Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.” The father pleaded. “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

The father in that story wasn’t the only one who struggled with faith? Jesus disciples had tried and failed to heal the boy. When they asked Jesus why they had failed, he explained, “’You don’t have enough faith’ Jesus told them. ‘I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there, and it would move. Nothing would be impossible’” Mark 9:20 (NLT).

So how do we develop that mustard seed of faith? Hebrews 11:1 identifies faith as “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Think about gravity. We can’t see gravity, yet we have confidence that if we drop something that is heavier than air it will fall to the ground. Where did that confidence come from? It came from experience; we dropped enough objects to trust the “Law of Gravity.”

Faith in God comes as we learn to trust Him more. So how do we develop this trust? By taking time to do the things that help us know God better.

Read the Bible to discover just who God is. The discovery phase should never end. Grandmother Alice, who loved and trusted the Lord, had a dog-eared copy of the King James Version on the armrest of her easy chair. That chair was her sanctuary. She read her Bible faithfully, and she passed that habit on to her children. Finding your own sanctuary and taking time each day to read your Bible can help you come into a more trusting relationship with God.

Expand your prayer life.
Moses, who was afraid to go before Pharoah because of his inability to express himself clearly, had no problems taking his case to God. In Exodus 33:12, Moses prayed “…You have said I know you by name and you have found favor with me. If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you …”

God knows you by name, too. When you pray, you open a channel of communication that never has a busy signal. It’s as easy as, “Lord, this is me again; let’s talk.”

Draw closer to God by joining with others in worship.

“And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage
one another …” Hebrews 10:25(a).

So, what exactly is worship? The Spanish word for worship may be a bit more instructive than the English word. In Spanish the word is adoración, which is a derivative of the verb “adorer;” which means to adore, to reverence with religious worship, to idolize; to love excessively.
The main purpose of a community of faith is to bring its members into a more loving relationship with God.

Tune out those negative voices and tune in to God.
When you have a relationship with God, those negative voices we spoke of earlier become easier to silence. Reading the Bible exposes us to heroes of the faith, who teach us to turn to the Lord in times of trouble. Praying and listening for God’s response will help us to appreciate the many ways God is acting in our lives, and joining with others in worship will help nurture that mustard seed of faith – that given time – will allow us to move what may seem to be mountains in our lives.

Verses for the week: Psalm 100 (KJV) “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.  Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”

Blessings,

Your friends in Christ