“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.” Matthew 5:3 MSG https://bible.com/bible/97/mat.5.3.MSG
This scripture was part of the message from Pastor Wes at Oasis Church this morning. We certainly identified with the message and have definitely reached the end of our rope, and are leaning on God to see us through.It’s amazing when you do that, the peace and joy that you experience, in spite of difficult circumstances.
I don’t know if you remember almost 2 weeks ago when I took Garry to the ER at SBGH that the doctor indicated Garry had a troponin level of 400 which indicated a heart attack. They repeated the bloodwork, which began to go down and so he felt that it wasn’t likely that was what was happening, along with everything else.
Back at PMH for Chemo 2/3, but this is about last night and some thoughts I had.
So, I’m up at 4:30am for the bathroom and I can’t seem to get back to sleep. So, what to do? I’m thinking all kinds of random thoughts and then I decide to pray about stuff, mainly for other people as they came to mind. Then in my mind I recited some key healing verses for me and did a little mental worship. After a while I decided to just listen and asked God if he had anything to say to me, always an interesting moment.
The first thought that came to me was “choose” and then Joshua 24:15
“… then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”
Choose today who you will serve really resonated with me. When we were “new christians” back in the day we were really excited about all kinds of stuff. We bought lots of bibles (which didn’t see too much use 😔), a cross to hang on the wall and a plaque which was Joshua 24:15 and it’s still hanging in our house. Something like this.
I was reminded that so many things in our lives that happen to us are beyond our control, and some things for sure are not our choice. However, we always have a choice in how we respond, we can choose:
To have faith
To believe
To trust
To respond in love
To receive love
To rest in the shelter of The Most High God
To worry less
To pray more
To praise more
In short, all of life is a choice. So many choices and many times I make choices automatically without thinking, we all do, but are the choices the best for me? That’s a mixed bag, am I right? Routines can be good, like not having to think about or choose how to brush your teeth, it’s wired in your brain. However, if I make an automated choice in response to an issue and then experience anxiety and worry, that’s not helpful.
I’ve been enjoying Craig Groeschel‘s new book Winning the War in you Mind, Change your thoughts, change your life, I highly recommend it. The basic premise is changing the way you think and make choices by renewing you mind. He supports the way to do this with both scriptural doctrine and science. I won’t attempt to explain it too much and if you’re not a book person his sermons based on the book are available on YouTube. Full playlist here.
At a super high level it’s about ensuring your thoughts are in line with God’s thoughts, and if they are not, how to go about replacing wrong thoughts with The Word. It’s about choosing how to think.
From a scientific point of view we can “rewire” our minds by creating new neural pathways. Once these pathways get entrenched our automatic choices will follow the new pathways. As Rick Hanson says “neutrons that fire together, wire together”. In the past it was thought that after a certain (young) age that the pathways in the brain were fixed. However, research has shown we can rewire our brains, it’s called neuroplasticity.
For those of you who have attended Springs Church for quite a while you may be thinking this is nothing new. Carsey Treat had it right with his book and teaching on “Renewing the Mind” and then later on Dr. Caroline Leaf came a couple of times with her book and teaching Switch On Your Brain. Seems I needed a little repetition to have it more fully sink in. 😂, plus I really like Craig Groeschel’s style and delivery.
All that to say, I spent a lot of time thinking about my choices in the middle of the night. I’m excited to be in the process of rewiring my brain to come more and more in line with God’s word and what He says about me. It’s a choice… every day.
… choose today…. But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.
