How to Change Unwanted Thoughts God's Way

Difficult Relationships - Christian Wisdom for Life's Toughest Ties - A podcast by Kris Reece Ministries - Thursdays

In today's episode we talk about how to change unwanted thoughts God's way.Ready to grow in your faith? Grab your FREE Mountain Moving Faith 5 Day Devotional   https://krisreece.com/5-day-faith-devotional-series/Building Faith Podcast from Kris Reece Ministries is a podcast to provide biblical solutions to life's tough challenges.TRANSCRIPTSWe are talking about how to change unwanted thoughts. Everyone has intrusive thoughts from time to time. But what do you do when those thoughts can be the difference between life and death? Intrusive thoughts can range from the sudden discontentment in your marriage to vile images that are popping into your head. You don’t want them, but they seem to be taking over and God never intended for you to live your life in a mental state of slavery to your thoughts, to change your unwanted thoughts.God’s way can set you free from the mental and emotional torment and set you on a path to true transformation.So, how do you change unwanted thoughts? God’s way.Step #1 – Recognize.  Mark 7:20 says, “what comes out of a person is what defiles him” and our minds have a clever and persistent way of convincing us that something is true when it isn’t or vice versa.And in this step, there are two things that I want you to recognize:#1 – Where is this coming from? Is it coming from God, Satan, or yourself? It’s doubtful that it’s coming from God. If it’s bringing destruction into your life unless you’re misinterpreting convicting, thoughts for destructive thoughts, convicting, thoughts are meant to lead you to repentance. And if that’s not it, then it’s coming from Satan or yourself.  And if it’s a thought that you’ve never had before or a reaction that you’ve never experienced. It’s possible that it is coming from Satan and you need to just rebuke and resist it. But if you have been fighting this a long time, then my friend. It’s likely you, meaning that the voice of a parent, an old partner, or your own habitual thoughts are playing into this dynamic. Believe me, my friend, this is actually good news because it puts you into a better position than you think.#2 – The second thing that is important to recognize is what’s going on inside of you. No one can make you feel think or react any way that you don’t want to. So in order to overcome inappropriate reactions, you must recognize what is being triggered in you. I know it’s tempting to blame your friends who are always using you and that’s why you get so upset with him or her, but that’s not going to help with your healing. Instead, it will be helpful to consider the co-dependency, people-pleasing traits that are driving you to meet the needs of self-centered friends. Make sense? The first step in improving your reaction is to recognize the lies that are invading your mind.Step #2 – Repent. Me?  Repent? You say what do I need to repent of, they are the ones who make me feel insecure and they are the ones who are driving me crazy. But the truth is, we are all responsible for our reactions. Better said your response is your responsibility and I used to do a lot of marriage counseling in the past and the most toxic spiral that I would see couples go down is the, you made me tunnel. If you didn’t do this, I wouldn’t have done this to you justifying. You made me feel so angry, which is why I punched the wall,  blame-shifting.Romans 14:12 is so clear when it says, “so then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”In other words, own your reaction. If it was inappropriate own it, repent of it. If your thoughts are not Life-Giving repent of it. If your reactions contribute to the toxic tango, repent of your parts. Don’t worry about what the other person does. Their bad behavior doesn’t excuse