ON THE VANGUARD

CONTINOUS PLAY
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…”
Proverbs 23:7a KJV

Are you like me? Are you the kind of person who plays over and over in your head the terrible things you have done? Do you find yourself stuck on continuous play when it comes to thoughts or words spoken to or about you? I don’t think that this behavior has anything to do with us being bad people, but I think it has everything to do with the enemy keeping us down. As I have shared before, the devil’s main goal is to steal, kill, and destroy. He may do that through an action, but he can also work to do that in our thoughts. Our mind is a battlefield, and in her book, The Battlefield of the Mind, Joyce Meyer writes, “Our actions are a direct result of our thoughts. If we have a negative mind, we will have a negative life.” Does that not sound like the plans of our enemy, stealing, killing, and destroying us?
In Proverbs we are made aware that as we think in our heart, so we become (Prov 23:7). Now this principle works both ways. However, before we get into that, let us define two important words in this scripture. First is the Hebrew word SHA’AR, meaning think, reason, calculate, reckon. My mind journeys back to other ways this term has been used. A calculated guess. An answer that has been reasoned. Or even just responding to a question with, “I reckon so.” The idea behind it is that it wasn’t hap-hazard but rather thought out. Time was given to it, deliberating both sides of the issue or equation before giving an answer.
The second term we should review is NEHPESH, the Hebrew word for soul, self, mind, passion. The Bible translates it as heart, but it is so much more. It is the seat of our emotions, the appetite of our life, and the breathing substance of our being. It is this that needs our protection, our consideration, and our well thought out, calculated response.
The Bible tells us in I Corinthians 2:16, that we have the mind of Christ. So then if we have the mind of Christ, why is it that we are allowing the record player of our faults to continue to define us? What do I mean by this? For me, one of the biggest struggles I have is in regards to rejection. From an early age I have struggled with people’s opinion of me. I can tell you I do not care what you think, but inside I do. I think too much. I play over and over in my mind the terrible things I have done and the negative things people have said about me. I have listened to them for so long, and have reasoned them for so many years in my mind, that I have come to believe them. I know they are lies, yet still I cannot shake them. And what’s worse is that now I look for them to happen. I expect people to reject me, hate me, and want nothing to do with me because I have listened to these words for so long.
But remember, I told you it works both ways. In my struggles with rejection I have found myself coming back to see what God says of me. Although this has been a hard task, it has begun to take effect. I have made it my goal to focus on Him and His love for me as opposed to continuing to play the records of my past. I have found myself thinking, reasoning, calculating, and reckoning on His records of me. And because of this, my soul, self, mind, and passion is being re-birthed. Is it easy? No. The enemy hates anything of God, so he continues to try to overcome this right way of thinking.
I guess what I am trying to say today is that I, and maybe you also, battle so much with thoughts and actions of the past that we paralyze ourselves. We continue in this mindset that we can never be more and listen to the voice of the enemy as our confirmation. But that is not God. God does not play condemnation over and over in our minds, nor any negative thought. I find that I get stuck in that rut of thought. This is where I have to cry out to God and question His thoughts of me, His plans for me, and take on His idea of me. This is where I have to allow my mind to play His records of me…and believe them. My mind will never be renewed until I open myself to His pure and loving thoughts of me. I want God to win this battlefield in my mind. I want to continuously play his records.