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No Fear in Love


Below are some notes from a Max Lucado blurb from his new book about anxiety (Anxious for Nothing), which apparently 110,000 people are going through now (he's put it up online for free).

Pick what you ponder, just because you have a thought, doesn't mean that you have to think it. You can be the air traffic controller of your mental airport.

Proverbs 4:23 - Be careful what you think because your thoughts run your life.

Thoughts come from the outside and get into our head. The devil is to hope what termites are to an oak, he will eat us up from the inside.

Phil 4:4 - Think on those things (God-based).

Coronavirus Check-in: Think About What You Think About (3.30.2020)

It's one of those things that is easier said than done, and seems quite obvious (and again) easy. But the amount of people that do terrible things, to themselves and others, is evidence that we have real difficulty with thought management.

As I consider my own thought life and how I've been with my wife, I think of all of the waste of time and damage in our relationship. Basically, I spend so much time in tit-for-tat mode, in comparing my hypocrisy to hers to estimate if I come out on top (less hypocritical). It's a mess. It's stupid. My wife has called me on it thousands of times, and I have not listened. I argue instead, in my head, that she still has changes to make. "How can she be ok with being so short tempered, with making everyone victim to her mood?" I think that to myself, and justify any approach that I might want to take to rectify her shit. Usually the approach is backlash when I perceive her hypocrisy, her expecting behavior from me that she doesn't exhibit herself.

But what a waste all of that is. We all need to make changes, and Jesus said quite clearly, get the stick out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to get the speck from your brother.

Heavenly Father, with great regret I pray that You help me manage me thoughts as a sentinel that really understands the importance of his mission. My life and the life of my family depend on me keeping faith thoughts in front of me, not those derivative of fear. You are love, God, and perfect love casts out fear. Let me not operate from a place of fearing that things won't be good enough, they won't get fixed, they'll stay broke. But quite the opposite, let me consider that with God all things are possible.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

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