Peace

                            Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things |Colossians 3:2|.

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My mind is at peace right now; I almost don't know what to do with it. I don't have anything to write. It’s as though if I don't have an affliction of some sort the peace has nothing to offer me. Strange, right?

Is there something in my peace that I can write about?

I am reading Joyce Meyer's Battlefield of the Mind, which I believe is allowing me to experience this peace. I am learning to take hold of the thoughts that are in my mind, to cast aside worries, and be intentional in the way that I think.

I am learning not to add fuel to fires that do not exist. Or contending with imaginary fires. I've known that my mind gets ahead of me and draws me into its anxieties and despairs and over-amplifies situations, making pebbles into boulders, and anthills into mountains. But the more I study and reflect on how I think, and what I think about, the greater my peace. It's something to practice; the panic and anxiety still creeps in, but talking myself down, and getting to the root of why I feel the way I do has allowed me insight into the source of my fears and anxieties. A still, small voice walks me through it, so I do not fall into the ditches of my own making.

The book has helped me slow down, and tasked me to be self-controlled in thought for the building of my faith. I can hold faith in my heart, but if my mind is a wild, un-kept garden, how can my faith ever thrive or grow. How can I hope to move forward if I'm chained by wild, boisterous thoughts that negate my faith rather than cultivate it. How can my heart contain both faith and fear? Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks [Matthew 12:34] and so I find myself speaking both faith and fear. Can fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? [James3:11] This double-mindedness is the product of an unruly thought life. One cannot exercise dominion whilst being double-minded.

  I think slowly gaining control of my unruly thoughts is allowing me to enter into God’s rest, having peace in the midst of opposition.  It doesn’t feel natural to fight the worry and anxious thoughts, but the small victories that I’ve had make the effort worth it.

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Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. 

Philippians 4:8-9 (MSG)