MastermindSample

Mastermind

Imagine you own a house. Every day, you take the same route from the street to the front door—straight through the yard. Over time, a well-worn path scars your front lawn.

Your mind is a lot like that front lawn.

It is intricately and mysteriously tied to the electrical chattering between the neurons in your brain. The communication paths used most become strong and reinforced.

Some of those paths help you learn math and laugh at jokes. But some create scars. They wire you to shut down, react in violent rage, or become addicted to harmful substances and behaviors.

As our Creator, God understands the complex relationship of our minds to our brains. He also created your mind to be much more than the brain’s system of electrical impulses: it is your sense of self, your identity, your memories, hopes, and dreams. And in that, there is hope.

When you choose to follow Jesus, your old, scarred self is made new. God’s Holy Spirit gives you miraculous power to master the scarring paths you’ve been a slave to.

I know, because I’ve been there. I was wired to shut down when triggered by unanticipated changes and social situations. I was a slave to anxiety. It took years to identify the scars in my mind, and even longer to realize I wasn’t doomed to follow the same path time after time.

There was freedom when I confessed my weakness to God and to trusted friends who spoke God’s truth into my life. I’ve sought counseling, medical help, and searched God’s Word for a new path I could follow. I daily meditated on 2 Timothy 1:7 to prove to myself I wasn’t a slave to the scar of anxiety, but instead master over it.

Triggers still come up, but the old path is weak. I am the master of my own mind through the power of Jesus Christ.

You can be master, too. As you read today’s passages from the Bible, think of ways you’ve already been transformed by God’s Holy Spirit. Ask Him to reveal areas where you are still a slave to your old ways instead of to God’s Holy Spirit. Pray and ask God to show you the new path He has for you, and talk it over with a trusted friend.

—Samantha, Mastering Scars Through Meditation on God’s Truth 

Pray: Jesus, help. Help me to see the scars in my mind. Help me to make the choice, moment by moment, to stop ruminating on negative, hurtful, familiar lies. Help me to choose to take a new, truthful path in my thoughts. And, then, help me to take Your path again and again.