Things Worth Remembering

These are things that I have found that are worth remembering:

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray.
Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers,
letting God know your concerns.
Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness,
everything coming together for good,
will come and settle you down.
It’s wonderful what happens
when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.
Summing it all up, friends,
I’d say you’ll do best by
filling your minds and meditating on things
true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—
the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly;
things to praise, not things to curse.”
Philippians 4:6-8, The Message

Excerpt taken from Stasi Eldredge’s Captivating, pgs 99-100
“You see, we all pretty much handle our brokenness in the same way- we mishandle it. It hurts too much to go there. So we shut the door to that room in our heart and throw away the key…But that does not bring healing. Not at all. It might bring relief- for a while. But never healing. Usually it orphans the little girl in that room, leaves her to fend for herself. The best thing we can do is to let Jesus come in, open the door and invite Him in to find us in those hurting places. It might come as a surprise that Christ asks our permission to come in and heal but He is kind and the door is shut from the inside, and healing never comes against our will. In order to experience His healing we must also give Him permission to come in to the places we have so long shut to anyone. Jesus asks, ‘will you let Me heal you?’”

From Beth Moore's Esther
“We [have] talked about how the enemy and our own self-destructive natures combine to taunt us with ‘what ifs.’ Once we are in Christ, Satan has no authority to destroy us, so he settles for the next best thing: threatening to destroy us. Based on our histories and behaviors he deduces what we ourselves are most convinced would raze us.
To the Devil, the irony is delicious. Our distrust of God tattles on us, telling our enemy exactly how to get to us. Many of us habilitually rehearse, ‘If ___ ever happens, then I’ll just ___.’ Our fears become like long, bony index fingers pointing at our vulnerabilities. Once Satan sees what we believe would be the end of us, he threatens and torments us with it.
Our natural human defense is to grovel before God and plead with Him not to let those things happen. Our conditional trust not only makes us an open target for enemy torment; it also positions us as negotiators and beggars before God instead of secure children who trust their lives to their faithful Father…
The most critical breakthrough of faith you and I could ever experience is to let God bring us to a place where we trust him–period. We don’t just trust Him to let us avoid what we fear most. We determine to trust Him no matter what, even if our worst nightmare befall us. We have no greater victory and can render Satan no harsher blow.”
A few Bible verses I am finding helpful to replace worries with truth in my mind:

• “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” (Romans 12:1).

• “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:5-6).

• “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:6-8).

• “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2).

• “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7 KJV).