Do you need to reframe your thinking? I know I definitely do. I tend to lean towards way overthinking things and catastrophizing thinking. For example, we had a bad water leak back in the early Spring. I heard a loud sound, went looking for the object of said sound, determined it was something upstairs, and went about my business. Probably a good 20 minutes later I went to go into our master suite and there was water everywhere. The pipe under one of the bathroom sinks had pooped off and was spewing water in every direction. I immediately started snicker. By the time I got the water turned off it hadTl been flowing full force for a good 30-45 minutes. It was horrible and the damage was awful. It was going to be so expensive to fix. We just wouldn’t recovering from it. We couldn’t even get the water up out of the floor because towels and a mop wasn’t enough. Well, that was my thinking anyways. It turns out we got the water up with all the towels in the house, and a mop and bucket. We assessed the damage and determined that the only damage was the flooring in our bedroom was badly waterlogged and needed replacing. That was it! So I overreacted quite a bit in that situation. But I tend to overreact and overthink often. If I have something that I need to do I tell myself it’s going to be so exhausting and I’m going to feel so awful afterwards, and then it ends up not being half as bad as I told myself it would be. I can go on and on with examples, but I think you get the point. So I need a change in my thinking.
The Bible talks about changing your thinking. “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,” II Corinthians 10:5 This verse tells us to take every thought and evaluate it against God’s Word and His truth. Even modern day psychology has a term for this, cognitive behavioral therapy. The first step in taking every thought captive is being aware when I’m spiraling into overthinking. That can be a hard one. It has because me so engrained that it is an automatic thing that I don’t even realize it’s happening. But God is showing me, when I pay attention, when I need to stop and evaluate my thinking. It really does sound so easy, but it’s really not. Our thinking is engrained in us. Our neural pathways have learned to think a certain way and that’s they way it wants to keep on thinking. It’s like ruts in a road. Once you get into one they are so hard to get out of. Here are some tips for getting out of your thinking ruts and take your thoughts captive.
1. Pray! Prayers is the answer to everything. You may not think that it does anything but it does. Pray that God would show you your thinking ruts and help you to take your thoughts captive and evaluate them against His Word and His truth.
2. Ask others for help. I am so bad about not asking for help. (More on that in another post) Community and relationships are so important. Sometimes a family member or friend can help you see your overthinking when you can’t by yourself.
3. Remember that your emotions are always, always, always valid. But they are not always true. Name your emotions, sit with them, and examine them. Ask yourself why you may feel the way that you do. Then dig into God’s Word and find out what it says about how you are feeling. For example, every 6 months I have a series of 2 infusions of medication for an autoimmune disease. Well tomorrow I have the first of those 2 infusions. The medicine makes me feel bad for a few weeks, and the infusion itself is draining. So I’m dreading tomorrow, and really the next month or so. So how do I take these feeling of dread, exhaustion, anxiety, and maybe even a little depression, and evaluate them against God’s Word? Well first of all I remember that He promises to always be with me (Joshua 1:9) Also 2 Peter 1:3 days that “as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,” So I already have everything that I need for this next month. And also one of my favorite verses Romans 8:28 says “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” So I know that whatever happens this next month will be for my good and God’s glory.
The next month won’t be easy, but when I reframe my thinking I can hold onto God, or better yet let God hold onto me, and trust Him to take me through it. I need to remember that He is Immanuel, God with us, and that He is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord my Provider.
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