Episode #269 Cultivating Life-Giving Thought Patterns – Unforced Rhythms of Grace

Do you ever feel like your mind is racing in a million directions all at once? Well, what if we could redirect that mental energy towards something life-giving? That's what we're talking about today.

We're continuing in our series on spiritual disciplines. But if you're just joining us for the first time, don't leave. Don't stop the episode. Spiritual disciplines are a good thing. They're actually given to us by the Lord as a way to posture ourselves to receive who he is more fully. To receive his transforming work in our lives, so we're becoming more of who he's created us to be. And they're actually delightful, which is not how I grew up thinking about spiritual disciplines.

But we're exploring the discipline of study in Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline, he says something that I can't stop thinking about. He says, "Study is a specific kind of experience in which through careful attention to reality the mind is enabled to move in a certain direction."

Now that sounds, I don't know, esoteric or something, but let's think about it for a minute. Whatever we focus on shapes the way our minds work and the patterns of our thinking. And therefore, how we engage in the world. What we study informs our mind, which informs our actions.

We live according to how our thoughts live, where we set up camp, what we think on, meditate on, and give our attention to. We see this in the encouragement we have from Apostle Paul in Philippians, and I'll read chapter 4, verse 8.

He says, "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 4:8)

Paul's not giving us a nice suggestion here. He's revealing a profound truth about how our minds work. What we choose to study, what we give our attention to, literally shapes our mental pathways.

And we see this in all these neuroscience, brain chemistry things that are far outside my scope of expertise. But experts talk about this all the time. The ways that we think train our brains to keep thinking that way.

Now, I have personal experience with this as we all do, and for me, I immediately start thinking about my struggles with fear and anxiety. For years, anxiety plagued me. Things that we're not logical fears, we're not present dangers that should trigger a fight or flight response. But ongoing, hypothetical, worst case scenarios that I would just spend so much mental energy on. Even sometimes still today, these mental tabs that I'm closing at the end of the day are worries sometimes. They can be stressed about how I came across in a conversation with someone or I wonder about what's going to happen down the road that I have no control over.

It's like I'm studying anxiety and in a sense, becoming an expert in fear. And in the seasons, the years where that was this huge struggle for me, my mind kept conforming to that pattern in part because that's where I kept allowing my thoughts to live. But God's invitation is so much better than that. He invites us to redirect that same mental energy towards truth that brings life.

Not to stop thinking, like that was possible, but to think differently. To focus our attention deliberately. And this isn't just about positive thinking or distracting ourselves. It's actually about intentionally placing our minds before what is true and noble and right, and pure and lovely and admirable. It's about becoming a student of what brings life, not what drains it.

And so the wonderful part for all of this is that we don't have to figure it out or accomplish it all on our own. God is present and eager to help us redirect our mental energy. As we focus on him, because God qualifies for all of those things, as we focus on things that are of him, we allow other things to fall in proper perspective or even simply in their proper places outside of our constant awareness. Some things that we think about all the time don't actually belong in our minds.

And so here's a question that I invite you to take to God today and to talk with him more about this topic:

God, what thought patterns in my life need redirecting? And what would you like me to focus on instead?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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