Renewing of the Mind pt 5

[joannbkkpr]

Chapter 4

Suspend Your Doubt

(STEP 3)
“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.”

Hang your doubts out to dry. Something will happen during this process that will temp you to doubt God. This is the time to take a good look at those doubts and shoot them down, hopefully once and for all. If you are having doubts, it’s because you doubt God will do this for you. Ask yourself, Why wouldn’t He?

If your answer has something to do with your past or present mistakes, your doubt may be stemming from feelings of unworthiness. Another reason I’ve encountered doubt is because I was comparing my situation to other people’s problems. Comparisons and unworthiness are two faith-barriers that can be knocked down by the word of God.

Dealing With Feelings of Unworthiness-For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; (Romans 9:11)

My greatest barrier to doubt-free living was feeling unworthy. I’d made so many mistakes in my life that I didn’t believe I deserved God’s help. It’s taken years to get over this false belief. Still today my tendency is to wonder if I’ve been good enough to receive what I’ve asked for.

I believe this partly comes from our childhood conditioning-like not receiving a gift because we’d been more naughty than nice. Or you could only receive something valuable when our behavior was considered good. And sometimes as punishment things were withheld when we were not “good”.

When my car broke down or I got sick, I immediately wondered what I’d done wrong. I felt God must be punishing me. The truth is adversity comes for different reason.

At times they are results of our own bad judgment; decisions we made based on limited information. Own it. Take responsibility for it and ask God to help you fix it. Other times, challenges are caused by what I call the Job factor (Job 1:6). Job was minding is own business, living happily and serving God when BAM! Everything in his life started falling apart.

God is not like man. His gifts do not come with strings attached. Yes, there are consequences for doing wrong, but God is not withholding good from us because of our mistakes. We separate ourselves from His goodness when we sin. It makes us feel unworthy and unloved. Even then there is forgiveness available to us. Sin is designed to drive a wedge.

The good news is we can remove that wedge anytime. We are worthy and loved because Christ redeemed us, not because of our good behavior. Don’t allow feelings of unworthiness to keep you from receiving what God wants you to have-life and more abundantly (John 10:10)

God is not punishing you and you are worthy. So, don’t give up praying and believing.

Overcoming Negative Comparisons- For God shows no partiality.” (Romans 2:11)

One of the ways, I overcome doubt is by refusing to compare my situation to anyone else’s. when we compare our journey to others we may (1) limit our expectations to the blessings we see in our neighbor’s life (2) feel like a failure (3) become frustrated and give up (4) open our hearts to envy and jealousy.

It’s okay to compare yourself to someone who has achieved a victory that you yourself believe for ONLY if that comparison motivates you. Otherwise, I have found that comparing my journey to my neighbor’s is counterproductive.

There’s nothing like going through a trial and witnessing the person next to you have a breakthrough after breakthrough. You’ll start to wonder, ok God, what about me?

You must keep in mind; we are all on our own journey. You never know how long someone had been waiting or what they have endured to get to where they are. Don’t compare yourself to them. Instead, use the victory as a motivator. God won’t do anything for them that His is not willing to do for you. But, it will be done in His way in His time and custom made for you.

Doubt is a feeling. You have the power to change feelings. It’s all about your focus. If you choose to focus on comparisons, limitations, and lack, your doubts will increase.

Give yourself a chance. Even if you are having trouble believing you will get your desired out-come. Resolve to suspend doubt for a period. during my faith fights I usually fast for 21 days as I focus solely on a victorious outcome.

Even after you’ve prayed, confessed, journaled, and sought advice and support, the enemy still tries to persuade you that your efforts are futile. This persuasion may come in the form of a setback.

When I was faith-fighting the foreclosure, I was denied three times. Each time I refused to give up. I went back to step one. I prayed again, “Lord I was denied. I don’t believe this denial is form you. Show me another way to approach this.”

Later this evening I found a website for people facing foreclosure actions. It was a forum and hundreds of people just like me were in similar distress. I read through all the information and one suggestion that I believe I was led to. I tried it and that was the beginning of my victory.

God will show you a way if you trust Him and choose not to doubt. As difficult as it may be, and He understands the difficulty of temptation. But He also knows He has placed within you a victorious Spirit that can overcome it.

“There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be temped above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

I recall these words of a song from my childhood, “God said it. I believe it and that settles it.” You must settle in your mind that God has your back. If you don’t, everything around you will persuade you to doubt.

About Face!

We’ve spent several pages talking about problems, doubts, and fears. You’ve quarantined them; prayed about them; and counseled with your tribe. That’s awesome. Now it’s time to leave the problem and head in the opposite direction.

It’s time to do an about-face. It’s time to pivot. Just like a soldier, I want you to make a mental 180 degree turn toward the opposite direction. You’re going to do an about-face in your:
• Attitude- turn from negative to positive; from doubt to faith
• Behavior- turn from moping to standing tall; from head down to head held high.
• Perspective- turn from this is horrible to this is working in my favor

There’s a simple thing that I do sometimes that makes me laugh. I want you to try it too.

Anytime you have a thought contrary to a victorious thought, I want you to say to yourself,
about-face! This is your cue to make a mental turnaround. I see myself in my mind’s eye standing at attention and quickly pivoting 180 degrees from my problem toward my promise.

Try it. Have fun with it. See how many times per day you are mentally doing an about-face.
Whether you use the exercise about or not, the important thing is that you get into the habit of casting down contrary thoughts immediately, before they turn to doubt.

Now that you’ve changed directions and you’re no longer focused on the problem, you’re ready to fully release the outcome to God.