Wouldn't it be great to have a soundtrack playing behind you as you navigated life?

For many folks, they do...it's just the things that have been spoken over them, at them or the internal voices that murmur....the mantras the world tries to sell us and the lies the Enemy whispers.

If we can change our thinking, we can change our lives!

These principles we will look at this month — will help you to begin rewire your brain in a godly way, to cut off harmful thoughts before they take root, replace lies and internalize the truth of Scripture, so that we can actually begin to experience the freedom of a renewed, steadfast mind.

Key truth for this series:
OUR LIVES ARE ALWAYS MOVING IN THE DIRECTION OF OUR STRONGEST THOUGHTS.

This series is being based off a book by Craig Groeschel entitled:
Winning the War in Your Mind (check it out - recommend)

What the Scriptures have to say about our thought life can help us live our best life.

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 12:2 NIV

Another translation:

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.—-Romans 12:2 NLT

Our brains have neural pathways—mental ruts we create through repeatedly thinking the same thoughts—which trigger our automatic response to external stimuli.

To stop a behavior, we need to remove the lie behind it and replace the neural pathway. We must dig truth trenches. How? You renew your mind with God’s truth. As you internalize Bible verses, they will become your new way of thinking and responding.

We know that the only antidote for a lie is truth. That’s why our first tool was the Replacement Principle: Remove the lies, replace with truth.

The antidote for a negative neural pathway = is a new neural pathway.

Instead of living in a rut, we must create a truth trench that runs deeper, diverting the flow of your thoughts from old pathways to new ones.

It might be helpful for us to put together some “declarations”—what I am declaring to be true in my battle against the lies I am tempted to believe.

The goal of the declaration is to have it become my new neural pathway, from my intentionally dug trench of truth.

LIST OF EXAMPLES:
(meditate on these Scriptures)
*Struggle with sense emotional depletion and brokenness & “I don’t have much?”
-Psalm 103: — lists many benefits that God bestows upon us.

*Struggle with abandonment/shame - a sense of wanting to quit/give up?
-Romans 8 — no condemnation for those who are bound to Christ through faith and so many declarations of how we can never be separated from God’s love! God will never give up on you!

*Struggle with anxiety?
-Philippians 4:5b-7 & 1 Peter 5:7
The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
==Declaration: worry / anxiety will not sink me; as I have a God who knows me, is attentive to me and promises to give to me from the surplus of His peace. He is the one I can cast my cares upon, because He cares for me. I’m not alone, left alone or ever abandoned.

*Struggle with being overwhelmed, stretched, busy, never enough?
-Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
==Declaration: I find my true rest not in a vacation but in my identity as a child of God and I find rest in His presence and not in my performance. I do not need to run myself ragged to gain approval of anyone else and I can breathe deeply in the love from the ONE who created me as He calls me to himself. I’m secure in his presence of peace and my identity is anchored as his son/daughter not in my accomplishments.

If Satan’s primary weapon is lies, then our greatest counter-weapon is the truth of God’s Word.

We also need to become better at being the air traffic controller of our minds...
-You and I can’t control every thought that flies into our mind, but we can control which ones you allow to land and linger.

Psychologists and others who study how our minds work talk about the law of exposure. The law of exposure says that the mind absorbs and reflects what it is exposed to the most.

*More than 2000 years ago, our ‘thoughtology professor’ - the Apostle Paul taught us this truth when he wrote,

“Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace” (Romans 8:5–6 NLT).

*side note: Romans chapter 8 is one of the best chapters in the bible in retraining and rewiring our brains with the amazing godly truths declared there...

That’s our plan:
Identify the bad mental rut. Create a new trench of truth with God’s truth.

Write out a declaration, think on it, and confess it over and over.

Repetition.
Rumination.
Meditation. (a filling of our minds with God's truths)

The One Minute Pause App - (find it in your app store and try it out)
*create a rhythm of pausing to ruminate, meditate on God’s truth over you each day…some sacred space to let you mind be controlled by the Spirit that leads to life and peace…

Whether you joined us on-site or online, thanks for being with us tonight!
May you have a blessed week ahead!

Join us next week as we continue our FLIP THE SCRIPT series -- You won't want to miss it! We look forward to gathering again next weekend.