Working on YOU: The MIND

The mind is the centre of thought and feelings; the roots of our attitudes and beliefs; and the vehicle to our imagination. It is very important to our entire existence. The mind can either be in a good or bad frame, depending on what we let in and what we let stay in.

Being a psychology student, the mind and brain is something that I find very interesting, especially when it comes to understanding the way they shape our behaviour and who we are. Our brain: the physical gateway and translator of everything that goes on in the mind, is very delicately made up by God that the whole concept of how the human brain work is literally mind-blowing.

Our mind, which is a part of our soul is very malleable and, in the wrong hands and under the wrong influence, it will be led and moulded to darkness. I don’t know how exactly to explain a mind clouded by and drowning in darkness, but what I know is, it produces the most overwhelming, most exhausting and most defeating feeling ever. It is like surrendering to a battle that didn’t even start, a battle that only you know you will lose. It has nothing to do with physical strength (all my gym sessions wasted).

Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.
Romans 12:2 GNT

Your hearts and minds must be made completely new,
Ephesians 4:23 GNT

The mind goes through so many thoughts and emotions and feelings and decides so many actions every day that it can get tired, and although it isn’t physically exposed, it feels like the most exposed part of whom we are to the world. In the period when I should have been working on my mind and healing from how overwhelming I was feeling, I was too damn busy hating how my skin was looking. I focused so much of my energy, and even money, into only what could be seen on the outside, what I saw in front of a mirror that I was neglecting the battle I was facing daily on the inside. We need to be renewed and refreshed DAILY. When our minds are not renewed and are tired out, we experience mental exhaustion. Our minds can go through so much stress because it does so much on a daily.

In the wise words of Joyce Meyer, ” satan loves to attack, the mind is the first place he attacks, the mind is a battlefield, you have to really pay attention to what you are thinking, you have to think about what you are thinking about. If you don’t choose your thinking, if you just become passive and become empty-headed, the devil will be happy to just fill your mind with stuff that will poison… ” The one thing that the devil will gladly play around with if we gave him the chance is our mind, and honestly I gave him more than just a chance.

In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable.
Philippians 4:8 GNT

When I think back on my thought process regarding my skin it was the exact opposite of this bible verse. My thought process was wrong point-blank, there was nothing true in what I thought about my skin, it wasn’t honourable, just, commendable and definitely not lovely, it was hateful and hurtful toward myself. Honestly, I was my enemy. A lot of the time we become our enemies and downfall from just the way we think and how our minds are positioned, it sounds simple but the impact it has on everything else in your life is extremely magnified.

You know, our minds are so precious, invaluable and we have only one and satan knows this. You know, asking someone if they have ‘lost their mind’ is a very insulting thing to say… but we say it so lightly… FORGIVE… When you are not in the right frame of mind, you can’t see your worth, you can’t see what God has designed for you and satan being the father of lies, will ALWAYS try to bring wrong and hurtful thoughts into our mind, about yourself and others, making us feel worthless, and not seeing worth in others. It is always a matter of, what are we doing to stop whatever the devil is trying to throw into our minds daily.

Its so good that God doesn’t just leave us to our own devices, because I might not be here today, and I don’t mean not writing a blog, I mean not here on earth.

You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.
Isaiah 26:3 AMPC

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:7 ESV

These two verses are small but mighty. Peace, which is a gift from God himself, is one that we cannot trade for anything, especially in this generation we live in. You cannot experience peace on the outside if you aren’t already experiencing it on the inside.

Our minds can get so clogged up and cluttered that we jumping from one period of being down to the next. A lot of the dirt and clutter in our minds come from carrying around the burden of being so bothered about the people around us and the opinions about us as well as the things the devil sneakily plants. When the mind is centred around what people think, it brings along with it so much unnecessary things that just take the place of where Gods peace and joy is meant to be living. Then our thoughts and emotions just spiral from bad to worse and then to the worst… then it goes further downhill from there. Thanks to the holy spirit, I didn’t dwell in that downhill spiral for too long. The holy spirit needs to cleanse the way we think and the way we act, because you can have a clean spirit (can already be a Christian), a clean body and your mind could still be clogged up and dirty.

Questions to ask yourself:

1). What kind of relationship do I have with myself ?

2). How does my mind treat and act towards me ?

3). What does my mind THINK, FEEL, MEMORIZE, IMAGINE about me ?

These questions might take a min for you to understand , or you might not realize how deep they are right now, but they are very important questions that you need to answer as often as possible to move forward with working on YOU.

GET PEACE…KEEP PEACE… THINK POSITIVE… BE POSITIVE. Being positive is a choice not a feeling.

No matter what we go through in life let us always remember… Tears may flow in the night, but joy comes in the morning.

Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
Psalm 30:5b ESV