What's Your Invitation?

They say that the mind is a battlefield and that the enemy will attempt to wage war there.

But sometimes, we wage our own war there.

I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again here, I overthink 99.999% of the time. So because that’s where I am, I have a hard time not overthinking. And it’s been this way for most of my adult life.

Over the last year or so I’ve felt like overthinking was a tool of distraction to keep me bound in my mind. I couldn’t focus because my mind would take me elsewhere, I couldn’t spend time with the Lord in prayer or in stillness, because my mind would take me there. No matter how hard I tried to shut the thoughts down, or brain dump … nothing seemed to work. But I recently had a conversation with someone that shifted the way I see it and now, I desperately want out. They said overthinking was my defense mechanism - it was the way I guarded myself from the external. I think it being a defense mechanism makes more sense to me, especially when I reflect on the instances that my mind has gone into overdrive. Overthinking feels safe to me, I can go over every possible scenario, outcome, and response in my head, but is that really safe? Is it really safe to go down a rabbit hole of what if’s, I should haves, or I could haves? Is it really safe to tell myself that people don’t love me or that they don’t value me or care about me?

Well, I perceived that it was safe for me so I kept coming back - I KEEP COMING BACK. And when you form a habit out of doing something for so long, it’s harder to break. When I think about the freedom that lies on the other side of no longer using overthinking as a defense mechanism, it scares me. I know that it will require a level of effort and intentionality that I’m honestly not sure I believe I can take on. Because to me not overthinking requires more work, because overthinking is easy. I can quite literally do it with my eyes closed. 

But I know that I cannot continue to operate in this way because it's really not healthly.

Threre's so many layers and vehicles of santification that God uses and I believe the mind of one of those places where sanctification can take place. Think about it, marrraige, ministry, motherhood and so many others can be used as grounds for santification to take place. God will literally use anything!

And so, I'm constantly thinking about these three scriptures regarding the mind: 

1. Romans 12:2 NIV, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

2. 2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

3. Philippians 2:5, NKJV, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,”

The things that stand out to me in these scriptures that I’m constantly turning over in my mind are, renewing my mind, taking captive thoughts, and my mind being like the mind of Jesus. They all require faith, they all require action, and they all require accountability. Do I really believe that I have the authority through Jesus Christ to take captive my thoughts? Do I really believe that I have an advocate, a helper, and friend in the Holy Spirit who can help me daily renew my mind? Do I believe that God’s word that is alive and well can help me renew my mind? The answer is yes, it's possible because of the finished work on the cross, it's possible because Jesus conquored death, hell, and the grave. So if Jesus conquored all these things, I know that I am more than a conquorer too. I have been give the authority and power to not allow overthinking to run laps around me.

We have the power to choose how to respond.

I have the power to choose if I want to overthink and send myself down a rabbit hole. 

I have the ability to be able to call on Jesus to help me in these moments. 

I have the ability to cast every single anxious thought onto Jesus because He cares for me. (1 Peter 5:7)

The thing is it’s harder when we try to do everything in our own strength, when we try to do everything apart from the Father. But His word in fact says apart from Him we can do nothing. And quite frankly, I’m tired of trying to do it without or think I’m doing it with Him and I’m actually not.

The easy way out of all of this is for the Lord to just take away the overthinking, but I know He won’t do that cause I've asked Him multiple times lol. I know there is some good there and He’s going to get the glory out of it. I may not understand it or know the reason behind it but I have to trust Him at his word. Because why would the Creator of the Universe who says I am fearfully and wonderfully made, the One who knit me perfectly together in my mother’s womb place something inside of me that wasn’t good? Even though I’m having a hard time seeing the good … but, I also know his ways are higher and so are his thoughts.

I believe the Lord always uses something as an invitation to draw us closer to Him. I believe that overthinking is one of the ways that He is inviting me closer and at some point I have to stop resisting out of fear and the unknown. Everything about the Father is safe - regardless of how unsafe we try to convince ourselves we are, or how unsafe people around us make us feel, and furthermore how the enemy tries to convince us that we’re not safe. We are safe because the Lord is with us. 

He is with me in mind even when I spiral in my thoughts, and He is with you too. 

So if overthinking is my invitation … What's yours?