GET YOUR MIND OFF YOUR TROUBLES

SET YOUR MIND ON GOD

We take captive every thought

to make it obedient to Christ.

2 Corinthians 10.5b

Set your hearts...Set your minds

on things above...

Colossians 3.1,2

Give me relief from my distress...

I will lie down and sleep in peace...safety.

Psalm 4.1,8

To take distressing thoughts captive, write them down. When you write down what you are distressed, upset, angry, ashamed, guilty, jealous, bitter, dispairing, depressed....., you are able to take control of those thoughts. Under your control, you can remove them, be free from them and be filled with peace and sleep well tonight.

To control your thoughts and get your mind off your troubles, you only need to write them donw and replace them with God-given thoughts, as in Colossians 3.1,2. As God gives you His thoughts about what you are distressing over, write His thoughts down. Write His thoughts on 3x5 or 4x8 cards so you can carry them with you for constandt review, until you have replaced your old distresses with God's peace.

Pslam 4.4 tells us to find a quiet place, maybe a bedrooom, where we can have quiet and undistracted time to do our writing down of the thoughts we want to control and then read to find what God gives us to replace them with.

Psalm 119 shows us how to do this:

V. 13--"With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth..." Write these laws that apply to our distress on 3x5 cards.

V. 26--"I recounted my ways and you answered me..." When we recount our ways by writing them down, we are able to concentrate on the laws God gives us as we read Scripture. We carry our cards with God's laws about our distresses and His directions for us, we are freed from our distresses and find His peace.

V. 59--"I have considered my ways and I have turned my steps to Your statutes." When we write down our distressful thougthts about our ways and fears, etc., and then write down God's laws and statutes that He shows us about our distressful thoughts, and begin to take steps in obedience to God's statutes and directions, we will find the peace and safety of Psalm 4.8. Then we will sleep well and rise to be wiser, stronger, and better in all the ways of our life experiences.

This is how the Holy Spirit fulfills the promises of Jesus.

In this way, Grace and peace will be given you from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, according to the Scriptures.