Fighting the Fires of Dangerous Thoughts.Sample

Normally, I’m not a person who asks a lot of “why” questions to God. But it’s important to ask why when it comes to the things we struggle with because it helps us identify the root of the “why” instead of just focusing on the symptoms.

Isaiah 26:3 says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”

What if a root cause of our wildfire thoughts is that we really haven’t asked God to counsel us through the thoughts, the what ifs, or the feelings because we don’t fully trust him with them? Maybe we haven’t gone to him with our troubles because we don’t think he can fix it.

Sometimes we don’t want to release control of someone or something to him because that might mean we have to accept that he’s in control (like we can ever control an outcome anyway). Do we believe that our way of handling things is better than God's way or that our plans are better than God's plans?

Romans 8:28 says “he works all things together for the good of those who love him,” but sometimes we think His good should be our good. Maybe we don’t trust that he will work it out how we want it to work out.

Do we believe that God can work out the best possible outcome? Do we really trust him to answer prayers, to financially provide, to fill us up with joy and happiness, to heal marriages, to heal sickness, to restore relationships, or to help us to forgive?

Listen–all of these things are unnerving and unsettling, but when they consume our thoughts, it means we aren’t praying over them with trust; instead we’re stressing over them. Praying produces peace; stressing produces nothing good.

Today, ask God to search your heart and thoughts and reveal where your roots are so that you can identify where the wildfire thoughts are stemming from.