How to renew your mind and finally have peace

The process of renewing the mind can sometimes feel arduous, but I am praying and believing you will find keys to help you walk in newness of life, even today!

Age of enlightenment, a time of exploration, information unlimited, everything at your finger tips.

And yet our Nation has one of the highest percentages of depression and anxiety. Why is this?

In Corrie Ten Booms book, The Hiding place her Father gives us profound insight into why it might be.

Picture this, they are on a train and Corrie asks her Father at the age of six what sex means.

Instead of responding he stands up and asks Corrie to please pick up and carry the luggage filled with clocks, watches and other heavy parts for the store. She agrees but then quickly say’s, Father it is too heavy for me.

He smiled and nodded and said, Corrie somethings are too heavy for you to carry, I will carry them for you until you are able to. Corrie was more than pleased with this answer her Father had given.

I wonder how content are we with this answer. We have a loving God who loves us, who all along has wanted to protect us.

We see this in the very first book of the bible in Genesis 2:15-17 we read;

“¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Knowledge of good and evil.

Not all knowledge is good. Some is evil.

Are we able with certainty to always distinguish what is good versus what is evil?

When our baby girl was diagnosed with severe hydrocephalus at 20 weeks in the womb, The Lord gave me a strict command, “do not look any of this up, do not search anything up.”.

What did God know about my frame? What did He understand about faith that I didn’t? About fear?

So much.

There is so much that we do not comprehend. So much that doesn’t make sense in This Kingdom that is so upside down from the world.

Sister, sometimes the more we know, the more responsibility we now have to bear. The more we have to filter out. The more we now have to wrestle against.

Based on this scripture in Genesis, was it Gods desire for us to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil?

No. It wasn’t.

And ever since then we have been trying to find our way back to peace. Back to knowledge.

King Jesus brings peace and a renewed mind:

Jesus Christ tore the veil for you and I to approach our King with confidence.

He tells us we have the ability to approach His Throne of Grace because of the finished work of His Son Jesus Christ.

What does this mean for you and I?

Everything.

Christs sacrifice paid for our lives! Literally.

He took us from the domain of darkness and He transplanted us into His Kingdom!

His Kingdom of light.

Sister, we have such turmoil and torment in our minds at times because often, what we are carrying is far too heavy for us.

How do I know this?

Because He has said, “Cast all of your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”

Sister, the word for ‘all’ in this passage means all. The word for burden is “pasan” meaning a heavy burden carried on the shoulder.

The Lord wants you to give Him every single care. Hold nothing back for yourself.

He wants ALL of our cares. All that worries us. All that keeps us up at night. All of it.

What does He want us to do with it? “Epirrhipto” the Greek word, which means to throw upon, to cast.

Quite literally Father is saying, throw all of the cares, each and every single one towards me, drop them at my feet.

It is not a gentle expression, sister. Father knows the weight of what we are carrying and He doesn’t want us to be weighted down by this anymore.

Lean in with me, can you trust Him?

Can you look upon His Face. Can you look up at Him sister, and just be honest that sometimes we just feel afraid that He doesn’t really care.

Because the truth is sometimes we believe these cares are better kept in our own hands, for us to toil and worry over.

As if worry could ever change anything.

If we are honest, sometimes we believe the lie, just as Eve did all the way back in the Garden, God is holding out on us and He doesn’t really care. He knows in that day our eyes will be opened, I will be like God.

The truth is that Eve was already like God. We are already like God. We have already been given the mind of Christ.

In the beginning Father said, “Let us make man in our own image, in our own likeness.”

We must get to a place in our lives where we say, If The Lord doesn’t have this thought towards me, I don’t want it.

If The Lord believes this knowledge is too much for me, I don’t want it.

What has it profited us to know more, apart from His gentle and careful, loving instruction?

What have we received from our endless google searches?

Sister, in our day and age we have to be so careful that we are running to Father, inquiring of Him first.

Sit with Him, I know He will show you.

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Gods Word illuminates our feet, makes the path more clear.

Reading His Word will help us to hold on tightly to the truths that will set us free.

In Jamie Winship’s book He shares this so beautifully.

“He helps us to exchange the lies of this world, with the truth of Gods Word.”

We need this!

More than ever we need to behold His beauty and to inquire in His Temple.

We have so much information at our finger tips. Little screens they fit in the palm of our hands.

It is not lost on me that there is a bitten apple on this tiny device I hold in my hands.

A sobering reminder to me to not believe everything I read and see.

Sister we have to filter everything through the lens of Jesus Christ.

In this blog post I wrote more on learning to hide Gods Word in your heart, practical steps for storing up a well house of His Word within us!

Sister, if we are not at war, then why did Father tell us in Ephesians 6,

“Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the authorities, against the powers, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

Why did He tell us in 1 Peter 5:8 “… Be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, our enemy the devil, prowls around like a lion seeking someone to devour.

Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

Please listen, we are at war. The war is in our minds.

The war is for our souls!

The war is for our mental space. The war is for our peace!

I don’t want to scare you, especially if you’re just waking up to this truth and maybe you’re new to this spiritual reality, and you’re wondering what you just signed up for.

Maybe this whole time you thought these passages were written poetically and not actually factual.

His Kingdom has no end:

Sister, life in the Kingdom of God is one of the most beautiful and exciting adventures, and it is also a very real nightmare sometimes.

When we are faced with a medical diagnosis of death, what are we going to do? Where will we turn to?

A month after we had received our baby girls diagnosis, a month into warring for her life in prayer and worshiping a Holy God who never leaves us.

I received this message from a very dear friend of mine. Her message gave me the courage and hope I needed in that very moment.

It was like the psalmist when He says, “He prepares my hands for war.”

When we take Gods Word in, we are allowing it to take root and transform us from the inside out.

Death and life are on the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

“As I asked the Lord what he wanted to say to you through all of this, l heard Him say, do not allow the doctor’s words to become more powerful than my words.

My words are truth and life.

The doctor can only tell you what he sees in the natural, you have the ability to speak forth that which is not as though it is.

That’s the supernatural.

Do not declare the doctors words, but mine

over this child.

And do not fear.

Thank the doctor, but you not have to believe it or receive it.

You choose. Choose words of life and health.

For you can change this diagnosis with your words.

So declare that as of today your baby girl is healthy and whole and that every part of her little body is and will function perfectly, that there is no problems or malfunctions

whatsoever.

Let Gods word move you in the right direction.

Agree with God’s promises.

And as the passion Bible says so beautifully in Psalms 103:3

you kissed my heart with forgiveness, in spite of all l’ve done. You killed me inside and out from every disease.

Now claim that for your daughter.

Everything’s going to be okay.

Do not fear.”

Her words wrecked my heart. I had never been taught to pray this way. To believe this way.

I was so desperate to believe that I asked The Lord to increase my faith!

I told Him I wanted to believe His Word above the words of the Dr. above and beyond what my eyes could see, I would choose to believe Him.

I want you to know this is not easy.

Week after week. Appointment after appointment of hearing difficult news it is hard to see beyond what is right in front of us.

Sister, I want to remind you, this Kingdom we are a part of is not of this world!

It cannot be easily seen with our own two eyes, but it is far more eternal than the one we live in.

How do I know this?

Because 2 Corinthians 4:18 tells us, this world which we can see is temporal, but the one we cannot see is eternal, therefore He says, fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen!

I know that what I am sharing with you may be difficult to hear, especially if you have prayed fervently and received a different outcome than the one you prayed for.

I have been here too.

Like I shared in another blog post I told this person very close to me when they asked,

“What will become of your faith if she dies?”

‘Then if she dies, I know God will heal me because He has done it before, but I refuse to believe anything other than what God has already spoken”

No matter how many images we saw.

No matter how many experts we met.

God had the final say, and at 36 weeks I bowed low to the ground, my tears streaming down my face saturating the carpet beneath my feet as I told Father,

“I know what you have spoken, I know what you have said, but if you choose to take her, she is yours Lord.”

I felt the sting and pain of those words my flesh couldn’t believe I was uttering as it heard them pour forth from my lips.

I will not withhold my praise. I will not withhold my love from The One who knows me the best and loves me the most.

Like the Samaritan woman who runs back into her village to tell all the people, “come and see, this man who has told me everything about my life! Could this be Messiah.”

I have encountered the living God, I have tasted of His goodness and have seen His Power, I cannot deny His existence nor His Word.

Even when life turns out differently.

It is only because of Gods love and faith that He pours out on us that I can even say this.

I remind myself, “what do I have that has not been given to me?”

Sister, even my ability to write, to share with you these parts of our lives, that your faith might be strengthened, that you might be encouraged.

It. Is. All. A gift. All of it!

That I may never boast.

I haven’t earned Fathers love, He freely gave it.

His Word tells us, the thoughts Father has for us are much too wonderful, they are so numerous.

We cannot count them!

How to renew our minds:

Sister, we’ve got to get better about speaking out His promises over ourselves, rather than our own defeats, our own shortcomings, our own sin.

Please hear me, I would rather gaze upon the beauty of my King than to spend a single moment tearing myself down because I make mistakes.

Repent yes. Always. But then receive His forgiveness, forgive yourself too and then lets move on.

Hear me, this learning and growing is all a part of life.

I marvel at where Father has me, and only He knows how much it has cost me to follow after Christ, but I can promise you that any sacrifice that we make will pale in comparison to what He has already given for us, in Himself!

Let Him have it all sister, all of your fears, failures, limitations, your insecurities, your triumphs, your security, your certainty, let Him have it.

Faith is truly the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

We are in a spiritual war, but He has not left us to ourselves.

Sister, He trains your hands for battle. He has given us His Spirit who stands with us, within us, instructing us, even in the night.

We are in good hands.

I want you to know, this is how our minds are transformed. This is how our gaze becomes fixed on Christ, not by receiving all of the answers, but by believing the ones He has already given in His Word,

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.”

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares The LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

“… but let him who boast, boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight. Declares The Lord.”

Sister, we have been called to a higher purpose, one that looks beyond the veil.

We are women who are not to be preoccupied with how far we fall short, but instead transfix (to be filled with awe struck wonder) our eyes on Christ, and I promise as you do this, everything else will fall into place. Matthew 6:33

The peace you’re seeking. That sin you just can’t seem to break out of, the more you look upon The Son and spend time in His presence, adoring Him, He will give you the desires of your heart.

Keep looking up sister! Your deliverer is coming and is already here!

He will not leave us to ourselves.

I am praying for you. Pouring out praise and tears on your behalf asking that Fathers goodness may go before you, make the crooked places straight and bring healing and restoration to you and to your families. In the Name of Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen.

There are a few precious children’s books that I have loved reading to my own children. They speak of the power of words, of purpose and destiny.

Seeds and Trees, A children’s book about the power of words. Healing from trauma. Such a precious book.

A little more beautiful, is a lovely story about taking our gifts and abilities, however little we might feel they are, to bring beauty all around us!

The Oak inside the acorn It is never too early to start speaking life over our children and reminding them they were created on purpose and for a purpose.

This beautiful book S’more Feast, is written by one of my dearest friends, Cheyenne Kizer, a story about friendships.

Jennie Allen’s, What to do with your whirly, swirly thoughts, I am telling you, we are training these children to recognize thoughts and what to do with them!

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