I was in a rut. You know the kind- it was hard to wake up in the morning, hard to smile or laugh. Everything just seemed so complicated and difficult. I had lost my joy, my spark- it was like I lost who I was. I didn’t know it then, but God was beginning to teach me what overcoming negative thoughts with Him could look like.
Life was overwhelming. There was so much I had to do for my daughter, my mother, and myself. I had homeschool to plan and do, a ministry I run at church. On top of that, there were household chores and yard work. I never could find time to relax. Somewhere along the way, I had also stopped reading my Bible. I used to read from it every morning before doing anything. I felt it started my day off right- I felt it helped me to include God in my everyday life.
Once I fell into the rut, that all changed. I wasn’t reading my Bible. My prayer life had fallen off too. I let the negative thoughts completely overtake and run my brain. That was easier than continually trying to fight the never-ending barrage of insults. If I had an off day where I wasn’t very productive, my brain was screaming at me. You’re just lazy. You’re a bad mom. Can’t you do anything right? My daughter deserved someone better as their mom. And that’s not even half of the negative things my brain would bombard me with, especially at night when I was trying to fall asleep.
Something Needed to Change
A friend at church had a post on social media talking about changing your mindset. I commented that it was hard; it felt almost impossible at times, but I was a work in progress. The following Sunday before church, we talked for a bit. We talked about how I was overwhelmed and what I was feeling. He gave me some verses to meditate on. Then we would talk about them the following week. The verses were these:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally brothers, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
Philippians 4:6-8
“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self control.”
2 Timothy 1:6-7
What God Showed Me Through These Verses
So I prayed. This is what God revealed to me. Reading Philippians, I felt relief. Relief that I didn’t have to carry this burden- I could simply give it to God, and He would give me peace. Anyone who’s felt the peace from God can attest that it is one of the most amazing feelings. Reading 2 Timothy, I felt power- I had the power to change my thoughts; I could control what I thought about.
A Biblical Roadmap for Negative Thoughts
Together, I thought the two books made a roadmap for dealing with these kinds of negative thoughts.
Philippians 4:6-7 tell us what to do when we are anxious: give the thing causing those feelings to God, let Him fight your battles, and you can receive the peace of God that’s beyond understanding. I think of those highly stressful situations where you see some people completely calm and collected while others are in total chaos, and you wonder how they can be so calm. We humans cannot comprehend it. But just because we can’t comprehend it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Philippians 4:8 tells us how to do it– you know the saying, ‘You are what you eat’? The same is true for our thoughts. If we are doing nothing but inputting negative things into our brains, we are going to be influenced by those things. What we watch, what we listen to, who our friends are- these things all have an impact on our thoughts. Paul tells us to focus our thoughts on things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. Now, I am not telling you that you can never listen to your favorite music station ever again, or that you have to change who your friends are. Not at all. But be aware of their impact.
2 Timothy 1:6-7 tells us why we should do this– God did NOT give us a spirit of fear; He gave us the spirit of power, love, and self-control. If God did not give us the spirit of fear, then I don’t have to allow fear to control me. The enemy may use fear and lies to pull my attention away from what God says is true. Why should I believe those lies over God’s Word?
Then I prayed about how I can apply this to my life. Here’s what I came up with:
What God is Teaching Me About Overcoming Negative Thoughts
- Be aware of what inputs I am putting into my brain. Negative inputs can feed negative thoughts.
- Be aware of what I am thinking. By being aware of my thoughts, I can notice when they start to shift into the negative. I want to be proactive with my thoughts instead of reactive. It is so hard to change negative thoughts once you have them, so I want to try to stop them in their tracks.
- Pray without ceasing and be in God’s Word as much as possible. I have recently started writing out the Bible by hand to really get into the Word. Jesus drove satan away by quoting Scripture- if I am not reading enough to memorize it, how will I be able to drive him away?
- Remember that I don’t have to accept fearful thoughts as the truth. God has not called me to live controlled by fear. I can bring those thoughts to Him and measure them against His Word.
- Going back to being in the Word- Paul tells Timothy to “fan into flame the gift of God.” While Paul is specifically talking about the gift God had given Timothy, the picture of tending a fire stuck with me. If you don’t feed a fire, it eventually burns itself out. In the same way, I need to continually feed myself with God’s Word rather than expecting yesterday’s time with God to sustain me forever.
- Philippians doesn’t say the peace of God may guard your heart, or if you do xyz, the peace of God will guard your heart. No- it says the peace of God WILL guard your heart. There is absolutely no doubt- God keeps His promises.
- When I feel tired, weary, in need of a break, or I want to throw in the towel, remember- Jesus will never throw the towel in on me. No matter how many times I struggle, He remains faithful. So I don’t have to give up either.
I wish I could say that after reading these verses, all the negative thoughts disappeared. They are still there. I am still a work in progress. I still have days where I feel completely overwhelmed, and the negative thoughts start to creep back in; days when it’s easier to believe what my mind is telling me rather than what God says.
A Roadmap for When the Thoughts Come Back
But now I have a roadmap.
When I am overwhelmed or anxious, I can bring it to God and lay it at His feet. If my thoughts start spiraling, I stop and ask myself what I am choosing to dwell on. When my fear tells me I can’t do this, I can remind myself that God has given me a spirit of power, love, and self-control.
One thing that helps, and it may seem a bit silly, is that I wear a WWJD bracelet. You know, the ones that were all the rage in the ‘90s. When I start to notice those negative thoughts, I look at my bracelet and think, “Is that what Jesus would tell me?” In the following weeks, this has helped tremendously.
Maybe you’re in a rut too. Maybe your mind has been telling you that you’re not good enough, you’re a failure, or things will never get any better. I can’t promise that those thoughts will disappear overnight. Mine haven’t. But I can encourage you to do what I am learning to do: bring them to God, fill your mind with His Word, and keep coming back to what is true.
I am still a work in progress, but thankfully God isn’t finished with me yet.
