The dangers of getting lost in your own head

Dear warriors, 

You were made to magnify. It is written into your very DNA. Whatever you focus on and give your attentions to, you will magnify. Specifically you were created to magnify your Creator, the Lord your God. The bible calls it "beholding." (To give your attention to)

Warriors, it is so important that you know where your focus is. Know what you are magnifying; realize to what you devote the majority of your thoughts. Then, if you are not beholding Him, refocus your attentions (renew your mind!)

Introspection can be such a dangerous thing. Have you ever noticed yourself become so lost in your head that you went from having a perfectly fine day, to being ridiculously distressed? When we become impressed by evil, (and by this I mean overwhelmed by, not fascinated by), and our focus is on how bad things are (the world, circumstances in our lives, what-have-you), we become overwhelmed and our worldview gets skewed. Our lens becomes distorted like a fish eye lens. We no longer see clearly, but rather we see through a glass darkly. 

When we see the world through this way, a few things happen: we despair because of the evil that seems to blanket everything and there seems to be no escaping despair, or we justify our bad behaviors, and convince ourselves that our our vices and wrongs are acceptable because our badness is not nearly as bad as the evil in the world. (To make matter so worse, we then become susceptible to pride and arrogance because we wrongly convince ourselves that we are the only light left in the world by comparison. This is hypocrisy.)

Do you see how distorted things become? It can happen so quickly. We were made to magnify God - not evil. 

Think of the difference between Elisha and his servant in 2 Kings 6. When the servant got up that morning and went outside, he saw the horses and chariots surrounding the city and he panicked! His focus was on the size of the enemy army surrounding the camp. Elisha prayed “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see!” Immediately his eyes were opened and he saw horses and chariots of fire that covered the mountain all around Elisha. Don’t be afraid, beloved warriors. There are more with us than there are with them. God wants your eyes to be opened to that same realization. 

Bill Johnson illustrates the idea of beholding wonderfully:

What do you think introspection is all about? Why does the enemy want you to be introspective? Because then you're not beholding. Do you know what feedback is, in a sound system? It's when the sound that goes into the mic comes out of the speaker and goes back into the mic, and it just does it at such a rapid rate that it makes this horrible, horrible sound. But that's what it is: it's illustrating introspection, what happens when you go inward and you recycle the same internal issues. What do you think fear and anxiety is all about? When the enemy is constantly trying to get you to look at this problem, this conflict, this issue? Why? Anything--anything— to get your eyes off of beholding!"

Beloved warriors, it is a choice. We choose to focus our thoughts on God; we choose to focus our attentions on Him; we choose not to focus on evil or become negatively introspective (recycling a noisy internal dialogue that excludes God from our conversation). You must choose. It is easy to simply lapse into discouragement, into dangerous introspection, into being overwhelmed by the size and scope of the enemy against us. That’s just laziness. You must actively choose to refocus your thoughts. You can refocus your attentions by beholding Him: by choosing to praise Him in your storm; by rejecting those thoughts that cater to your old nature and make you want to have a pity-party (simply say “no, I’m not thinking that, and I reject it in Jesus name!”) and by then choosing to pray and have a conversation with God instead; by choosing to read His Word. Beloved, don’t get lost in your head. Choose to magnify the One you were designed to magnify. 

Live in the battleground,
Warrior Beloved 

©Michèle Aimée, 2015