Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.
Psalm 143:8 (NIV)
Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.
Last night, I had yet another bout of worry and paranoid thinking. Just about 2 am, as usual. After sleeping peacefully for several hours, my body wakes up with sudden distress. Then I lay in my comfortable bed, imagining terrible things that usually involve something awful happening to one of my children.
While my overnight worrisome thoughts are based somewhere in reality, they are also completely useless. Why spend any time thinking about bad things that could happen but are not true right at that moment?
But the real question is “How do I stop doing this?”
For a while, I have been working at stopping destructive thinking by replacing the evil thoughts with good and pleasant ones. It is hard to just say “Brain, stop!” but it is not too difficult to say “Brain, think about this instead.”
The most fruitful replacement thoughts are from the Bible.
This verse from Psalm 143 adds a new way to frame my overnight episodes: “Okay, God, I am having trouble right now, but I know that in the morning, when I am refreshed from sleep, You will yet again bless me with word of your unfailing love, and continue to show me the way I should go. I do trust You, God, and I know that tomorrow morning, I will as always see proof of your love for me. Maybe a rainbow, maybe my purring kitten, maybe a hug from my children . . . all of these are blessings from you, and I will think on them until I fall asleep again. Thank you, Father.”
[Please share a comment! Ed.]
This was really helpful Becky. I sent this to a friend and loved my early morning run this morning and this verse reminded me of that fact that God’s mercies are new every morning.
Thanks, Julia! Every day, He gives us a new opportunity to praise Him, right? 🙂
Thank you Becky! Thats the key- replacing instead of just stopping. Focus on putting on Christ in the way we allow our minds to think; instead of just focusing on putting off the works of the flesh. True transformation happens at this level.
God has given us so many words of comfort to fill our minds with but we have to make an intentional effort to think of them. Phil. 4:8
Exactly, Tillie!