Unleash Your Inner Warrior
Your name is Life, Your name is Hope inside me, Hope inside me. My dear warrior, Just like the lyrics above say, His name is Hope, His name is Life inside of us! He is our hope. Beloved, if there is any place in your life for which you have no hope, it is under the influence of a lie. I will say that again. Any circumstance or situation for which you have no hope is under the influence of a lie. So if you have found yourself having thoughts that are hopeless, thoughts that leave you without hope, or thinking about things for which you have no hope, have another thought! Have a better thought. I love neuroscience, and here recently I learned that those moments we relive in our minds, those thoughts we play over and over and over in our minds are actually reinforcing wrong beliefs that were created in that moment. When you replay those thoughts and moments in your mind and think about how much you are mad at someone, or how much you messed up, or how much you hate someone, or how terribly someone wronged you, or think about how angry you are about those situations, you are actually creating a rut (or a highway directly to negativity). By dwelling on those thoughts, you are reinforcing the negative/ wrong/ bad/ wonky thought patterns that were created in that moment. They are not true, and going over those moments in your mind is actually causing you harm and is damaging your soul.
When you reinforce those beliefs that were created in those moments, they take hold in your mind and become actual strongholds in your life. I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to have a stronghold in my life, I don’t want it to be one of the enemy. I don’t want to give the devil legal permission to create a stronghold in my mind. The only strongholds I want are the solid fortresses that God builds. God tells us to renew our minds, so why would you allow a stronghold of the enemy in your mind? Why would you allow strongholds of hopelessness? Again, any thoughts that leave you without hope are under the influence of a lie. Any circumstance for which you have no hope is under the influence of a lie. When we come to a point where we CHOOSE (yes, it is a choice) not to have hope, we are choosing to be bereft of Life. (Remember the lyrics at the beginning?) God is hope and life inside of us. He is Hope! It is with Him and in Him and through Him that we have hope. So if we don’t have hope and we feel anxious and fearful and we feel like despairing, we know those things are not from Him. God cannot give you anxiety, fear or despair because He doesn’t have them; God cannot give us anything He does not have. Anxiety, fear and despair are counter to Him and counter to Kingdom reality. We know that faith, hope, and love are from God. Faith is defined as God’s divine persuasion, which is different from our own earthly, human belief or confidence. It is always received from God, and cannot be created or generated by us. Hope is Biblically defined as divine, confident expectation. It is an expectation of good, an expectation of what is sure. Finally, Love. For those of you whose translation of 1 Corinthians 13:13 says “charity,” do not be thrown off. The original Greek word used is “Agape.” Love (or charity) is defined as affection, goodwill or benevolence. If your stronghold does not fit one of these, or is counter to faith, hope and love, then carefully re-examine your thoughts. If your thoughts are counter to faith, hope and love, then they are most likely strongholds of the enemy. You don’t have time for that. We aren’t called to live in the past. Rather than living in the past, reliving those moments over and over again, live from a point of victory! You must choose to consciously let go of those thoughts, of those moments, and choose to forgive those people, to give those situations and memories up to God. Rather than getting lost in your thoughts, ask God: what is You say about me? How do You see this person? What is Your truth about this situation? What do You want to teach me? How can I grow and move past this rut of hopelessness I’ve created in my mind? Ask God to help you live from hope, to give you hope where you have none. Our God is the One who was and is and is to come. He already knows what the future holds – and you have victory in the future. So ask Him to show you the victory in the future, and then bring that victory back into the present. Bring it into the here and now. Let Him give you hope for here and now, and for your future, instead of dragging dead circumstances from your past around with you. We are called to live future-present (pressing forward, moving forward with hope, leaving the past where it belongs), not past-present (carrying our hopelessness into present and future circumstances, allowing our lens to be tainted by a few things that didn’t go the way we wanted). My dear warrior, stop carrying your disappointments, anger, anxiety and fear from past circumstances around with you. Stop reinforcing negative thought patterns, and negative beliefs by reliving those moments in your mind. They are causing you unnecessary pain, they are damaging your current life, and are tainting your present reality. Your world is being colored by your past lack of hope, by your anger, by your wounds. Those things may have been the reality in that moment, or you may have fabricated them in your mind. Either way, they are irrelevant to your present and future. Even if whatever you believed in that moment was true, I’m here to tell you that it is not the truth. Some things may be true, but the truth sets us free. Speaking something that was true is not the same thing as speaking truth. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life.” If what you are speaking is true, but it binds you (or someone else) up, and causes you fear and anxiety, if it drains you of hope, it is not the truth. So I encourage you, Beloved, have another thought. Renew your mind with the truth, and have a better thought! Don’t allow those thoughts (which you now know are under the influence of a lie) to stay. Take heart, renew your mind and have hope! Check back tomorrow for my next blog in this week’s series: There is Always A Solution Don’t lose your hope on the battleground, Warrior Beloved ©Michèle Aimée, 2016
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