Broken Minds

Sitting with God is not easy for me. It is a discipline, a practice, and something I regularly struggle with. This morning I was sitting with John 15, and the invitation to abide in the love of God. Not easy for me. Yes, I love productivity and achievement and checking things off the list, but at the heart of my rejecting the invitation to abide in his love is the fear of his love.

Sounds crazy, right?!?!

Who in their right mind would reject the invitation to sit and enjoy unconditional love of the God of the universe?

This person right here.

A person who is not in her right mind because of: painful life experience, my described personality, the effects of the brokenness of this world, and my sin. All these things tell me to keep God’s love at a distance.

You see, my mind is broken, and so is yours.

My mind is broken, and so is yours.

My mind believes that I have a difficult personality so why would anyone delight in me? My mind believes that if you let someone come too close, they will see the real you and reject you. My mind believes I am someone to be tolerated rather than enjoyed.

My mind is broken, and so is yours. And we are incapable of fixing it ourselves.

So, what do we do with our brokenness? What do we do with our broken minds … and broken hearts? (PS these are in no particular order or formula, simply the truths of God applied to our worlds)

Pour out your heart to God.

Psalm 62:8 says,

“Trust in him at all times, you people;
    pour out your hearts to him,
    for God is our refuge.”

Pour it out. Whether you scream it or sing it. Run it out or wrestle it out. Pour it out. Let it out. And take your time.

Question yourself.

Question yourself against the truth of God.

In 2 Corinthians 10, the Apostle Paul says this:

³ For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴ The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Our minds are places of strongholds, and places to be redeemed by the power and truth of God’s love. Since we do not wage war as the world does, we need the Holy Spirit to show us what we believe about ourselves and about God. He sees and knows the depths of our hearts and minds beyond our human knowledge.

For a long time I had no idea how to “take my thoughts captive” yet I heard it ALL THE TIME. Then, the Lord gave me these two questions:

1.       What do I believe about myself?

2.       What do I believe about God?

These questions have been CRITICAL for me. You see, what we believe about ourselves is not selfish navel-gazing or a pep-rally for our emotions, but it is an unearthing of the truths we believe and do not even know it. We are simply bringing our thoughts to the light and asking God to align them with his truth.

These two questions prove over and over again the reality of our minds, the depts of our hearts, and ultimately how we move with our hands.

Hope in God.

The light of Christ is greater than any broken mind and the forgiver of any sin. Our brokenness and our sin cannot beat the love of God. It. Is Impossible.

The Apostle John says this,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Trust God with your heart, trust him with your broken mind, trust his power is greater than anything in this world.