the mind is a powerful thing

Why do I journal?

Simply put, I can’t stop thinking (mostly crazy thoughts) and I love to talk. Therefore, I need to transfer my thoughts somewhere so I don’t unleash them onto my poor husband. HA! No, but really. I’m pretty sure that he has spoken more words to me in the past 3 years of being together, than he has in the previous 30 years combined. Uhhh, sorry not sorry? This is one of the many reasons I carve out time every day to journal.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love to talk (as my husband and friends can attest). Long ago, my love for talking evolved into writing. I have journals that spill out prayers full of desires, heartache, struggles, wins, relationships, and praise from the time I was a little girl. Journaling has helped clear my mind and serves as a canvas to which we I can vent my thoughts.

What can I say? I have SO many thoughts and ideas running through my mind at once. Sometimes, I feel like superwoman. I can be doing 3-5 tasks all while thinking about another 25 tasks…ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Incredible, right? Not if you have no control over those thoughts. Or a place to unleash them.

I once read that the average person thinks a minimum of 50,000 thoughts per day. That’s 2100 different thoughts an hour. That’s crazy. And as most ladies know, one can snowball into another thought, which leads to another. Unfortunately, if they’re negative, it’s just a downward spiral from there. My husband tells me he wishes he could visit the world I create in my mind because it’s so far from reality. Sometimes it sounds like an exciting world he would like to visit compared to the real world we live in. LOL he’s right. We often fabricate the world sometimes compared to what is really happening. And it’s more true with negative thoughts. We think things are worse than they really are, and that leads to the next negative thought which makes it even worse. For the average person, 80% of our thoughts in a given day are in fact, NEGATIVE (according to a recent study done by Cleveland Clinic Wellness).

So how does one control their thoughts?

And thus, here is the problem ladies: A simple THOUGHT (true or not) can lead to a FEELING and that feeling can lead to ACTION. That action can lead to RESULTS that can negatively affect you.  

Scripture says: “Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5)

In other words, the first step to controlling your thoughts is to take it captive. Take control of IT, before IT takes control of you and takes you spinning out of control. Gals, you know what I’m talking about. This is easier said than done, I know! But we have to the power to do this because we are bigger than the enemy (Satan) who whispers these negative thoughts to us.

Please hear this ladies – those whispers you hear are from the devil himself – and those whispers are LIES. John 8:44 says Satan “was a murder from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is not truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. “

The first person in the Bible who was tempted was none other than Eve herself. And do you know HOW she was tempted which ultimately led to the downfall of the world we live in today? She was tempted with a LIE from Satan questioning the TRUTH that God told her which was to “not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if you do, you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Satan whispered a lie to Eve asking Eve “Did God REALLY say that to you?” (Genesis 3:1) A simple LIE that contradicted the TRUTH God told Eve. It started with a thought Satan placed in Eve’s mind…that led to a feeling that she was missing out on eating from the tree of life…that led to an action of her disobeying God and the result was it forever changed the perfect world God designed before her.

Sometimes it’s harder to see the thought we are being told. Sometimes it’s disguised. And it can come from anywhere. Satan met Eve in the Garden of Eden in the form of a serpent. Scripture states that Satan can “transform himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14) Satan can appear and whisper to us in many forms entering our minds ALL DAY LONG through many different avenues as well. This can happen through other people, tv, social media, or in the very own isolation in the comfort of our own homes. All the more reason, we need to control our thoughts. We’re being told lies and negativity all day every day. If we don’t control our thoughts, they will lead to feelings which lead to action…and…well…you know how this goes…

Romans 12:2 says that we should not be “conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”.

How do we do that? We need to ask ourselves one question every time a thought comes into our mind.

Is it TRUE OR is it a LIE?

And if you don’t know the answer to that, turn to the Bible. Sharon Jaynes says in her book “Enough” that “when it comes to the devil, you don’t have to outmuscle him, outsmart him, or outshoot him to be free from his influence. You just have to outTRUTH him”.

But in order to outruth the devil, we need to know what the truth is, right? The only way to do that is go to the source of all truth, the Bible. His Word is the TRUTH. You may have amazing parents you turn to, along with amazing friends who lend advice….and read amazing books or follow blogs like this one. ALL are great resources to turn to. But the only true infallible source of truth is the Word of God (the Bible) and we have access to it with our fingertips. And it’s the GREATEST weapon we can use against the enemy’s “scheme-y” shady ways. In fact, Ephesians 6:17 says the we should arm ourselves with the “sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God”. The Word of God is our SWORD to slash down every lie that enters our mind.

This past year, my mind truly consumed me. The only way to describe it: I felt like I was in and internal prison of my own mind. I felt I had no control over the crazy thoughts and stories I made up, no matter how BADLY I wanted them to just go away. It caused me a lot of pain. My thoughts led to feelings which led to actions. It started as simple thoughts that snowballed downhill, one bad thought led to the next. I knew I had the power somehow to overcome this. As God promises us in 2 Timothy 1:7 “for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a SOUND MIND.” A sound mind? This is what I so desired and so needed to feel the freedom from this internal self made prison I was living in.

So it wasn’t until I started journaling my thoughts to paper that I realized how many crazy thoughts and lies I have believed. I was able to see the lies I was telling myself or that I was being told. I couldn’t believe the way I connect the dots leading my mind down one crazy rabbit hole after another.

Journaling my thoughts and diving into the Word of God, aka the Bible, aka the TRUTH…this is where the peace and freedom began entering my mind. I have been able to recognize any thoughts that do not line up with the truth allowing me to take captive those thoughts and replace them with truth. The truth has given me peace and allowed me to free my mind from the thoughts that tormented me. Afterall, when you “know the truth, the truth will set you free” as we are promised in John 8:32.

And ladies – the lies will never be totally silenced. I still hear them every day, and continue to free my mind one lie at a time. I encourage you all to take up your sword DAILY and do the same. Journal your thoughts. Don’t let them become feelings that control you, and then seek peace and truth in the Bible itself.

Satan started with the mind of Eve in the Garden with a lie and He comes for us using the same techniques. I don’t want to give him credit, but he’s deceiving and knows exactly which lies to whisper in our mind. He was watched you and me over the years and is well acquainted with our insecurities, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities. But remember – we have the TRUTH at our fingertips and as a sword to out TRUTH the lies.

XoXo,

Alisha Headley