Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
We share stories of how the blood of Jesus has transformed ours and others' lives.
Hey everybody, I'm Denalee Bell and welcome to the Red Ledger. Hey, have you ever felt completely drained before your day even started? Like it's 10:00 AM and you're already running on empty? Your mind is scattered, there's chaos, you're overwhelmed, you've got too many things to do, and you don't know how you're gonna do it all because you're exhausted.
'cause you didn't sleep the night before because your marriage is in a turmoil. Your kids aren't right, or your parents are sick. You have all these things to worry about. Maybe you don't have enough money for your bills this month. Okay? I don't know what it is, but sometimes we have things that come up in life and we worry about them or it becomes a pattern and this is just how we are.
If this sounds familiar to you, this episode might be for you. Uh, if you have a history of being exhausted because of your brain, this episode might be for you. I am gonna share with you some of the things that I've learned along the way, um, from God that help me to learn to discipline my mind, because an undisciplined mind will exhaust you, especially if you've lived in dysfunction and this has become your normal.
You might just think, this is how life is. Okay? This is like, I quit drinking milk and I quit getting bloated, and I'm like, oh, there's a whole new life. Like, I don't, that's just not how I feel all the time. So there's a whole new life out here for you where you can get a lot of things done and you can have supernatural energy and you can complete the process, and the God can complete his work in you because you are walking where he wants you to be, and you are fulfilled because you're, you are using your talents, gifts, and abilities to glorify God.
And that's where the super excitement of life is. If you wanna be there, I want you there. Okay? So I think. We need to understand that God has a best for us, and it isn't a life of chaos. We have a savior who came and died so that we could live in peace and hope and ab have a life of abundance. Those are our promises to us if we are saved Christians.
Okay? And if you're not saved, you can be okay. Whosoever believes in Jesus, God's son will not perish. And we'll get to that a little bit later. But just know that these promises can be for you too, and God's word works for you whether you believe or not. But the promises are not for you. Like we want you to live and not perish.
We want you to live a life abundantly. So listen to this and if my story speaks to you, or if anything does, please, please, um, hang out to the end and we'll help you get saved. We'll help you show you the way to being one with Christ. So for years. I've been a Christian for many years, but I probably didn't look like one.
I was messy. My mind was chaotic. I was worried a lot. I was insecure and thinking righteously didn't come naturally at all. I had to really learn how to unlearn dysfunction. I had to learn how to surrender my thoughts to God. I had to learn how to let him renew my mind, and I had to learn what my part in that was.
And maybe you need some help too. So here it comes. God tells us in Timothy one, seven that God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. So what is a sound mind? Hmm. So the Greek phrase translated so sous, which means a spirit of self-control. Good judgment wise, discretion.
And I like some of the words Strongs uses, which are correction and discipline in their translation, because I do believe that it does require some discipline to have a sound mind or it has for me. So a sound mind means that we have some mental clarity, we have emotional stability, we have self-control.
And when we have these things, it allows us to make good decisions. It allows us to hear God. It allows us to live righteously. When we don't have a sound mind, we can't hear him because the chaos has taken over. Okay? The worry, the fear, the anxiety, the depression, the battle in here has taken over and we're not hearing from God.
Okay? So if you want to live that abundant life that Christ promised you, you're gonna have to. Work towards getting that disciplined mind. Okay? And it's not a lot of work. It's just having revelation. It's listening to God. The, these aren't hard things. When I say work, it's believing in Christ. That's our foundation.
That you must believe in him so that you can hear from him. Right? Here's the problem that I had, and maybe you have too. Um, I know that I'm supposed to have the mind of Christ, which means I have the mind and understanding of his perspective, right? That is cultivated through the Holy Spirit. I know that I have a sound mind, but I wasn't living it.
I wasn't portraying any kind of life that anybody would want. It was messy. It was chaotic. Dysfunctional. In fact, I think most people would. We're running as far away from me as possible. Okay? Um, when we're saved, we are a new creature in Christ, okay? But maybe your walk of salvation ends there. You just get saved.
And I, I think, I think that's part of the problem. But I also think I was dabbling in lukewarm Christianity, meaning, Hmm, I'll hang out with God when it suits me, but if I want, I'm gonna hang out here. And nothing good happens there. It's why God isn't a fan of it. And we need to walk out our salvation. And walking it out doesn't mean just stopping when you're saved.
It means living and moving forward, moving glory to glory with him. Romans two 12 tells us that we should not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. It tells me there's a choice. You're either gonna be conformed by the world or transformed by the renewing of your mind.
And I think it's an active choice. Do we want to be conformed by the world and all it has to offer, which is not much or transformed by Christ? And I think that's the first. The first part of this gig is to understand who Christ is so that you do want to trust him so that you can move forward so that you do wanna be transformed.
Because I remember hearing these words before and think, yeah, that sounds good, but I kinda like my life the way it is. Um, until I didn't, until that exhaustion, until that mental chaos got so overwhelming that I was no longer functional. And you don't have to get there. You don't have to get there. You can learn from me.
You can stop any of that chaos now. It just requires some discipline. That's what Godly character requires. And that starts with our mind. Everything we do and say starts with a thought. Okay? And so we have to really be careful about what we think because Proverbs tells us that our thoughts run our life.
So what you're thinking is running your life and what are you thinking? I'm gonna tell you one of the biggest things, one of the biggest reasons that people live in chaos. And I think it's fear. Uh, there's so many reasons that we. Live in fear. And I think the devil wants us there for sure. It's one of his favorite tools.
And fear fuels worry. It fuels anxiety. And I think it is even the root of procrastination for most, for, I mean, not all procrastinating, some people are just lazy, I think. But fear, fear is a bigger motivator. It's a huge motivator. Fear of loss is a huge motivator for marketers. They want you to feel like you're losing out on something so you buy their thing.
Okay? That's why they create urgency in their messages just for three more days. And or, you know, for the first five buyers, whatever, their urgency, right? We don't wanna lose out on it, so we wanna move forward. Um, the problem with fear is there's so many types of it, right? Well, I mean, there's one fear, but you know, we see fear of failure or fear of rejection, a fear of abandonment, um, a fear of loss of control.
If it's fueling anxiety and worry and depression, it's also causing us health problems. Okay? Not only is it making your mind crazy, it's also keeping you up at night. It's causing autoimmune issues. It's causing, uh, sleep disorders, heart issues. I think the list probably goes on and on. You can look that up, but I am pretty sure that that's true.
Um, and the enemy wants to keep you here in this place. Why? Because it renders you powerless. You are a powerless person if you're living in fear. Power. People living in fear are paralyzed. They're afraid to move forward. Fear's not from God. He does not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and a sound mind.
Remember, his plan is for us to live in peace, to have faith in him, to trust him. I want you to just think about this. If you have kids to let go of fear, you really want to, and I'll give you some steps here in a little bit, but your kids, if you're living in fear, will grab onto that. It is contagious. They will follow you.
Our kids model us in our behavior. So if you're somebody that is a high fear person and living in lots of fear and stress and worried all the time, you're teaching your kids to do the same. You're teaching them that they cannot trust in God that this world is too unstable and their footing is wrong.
Okay? So what happens to them? They're paralyzed. They don't move forward and step into who they are recreated to be by God. Is that what you want for your children? No, I. You don't. Um, if you are a child, think of your future children. Okay? We've got to learn. Trust God. We have got to learn to trust him. We have to believe that we should trust him, and we have to know who we are in Christ.
These are the game changers. When you know who you are, whose you are, and the path that God has given you. It is so easy to walk with boldness and courage. The problem is when we are not sure, okay? So recently somebody in my life made a pretty life, pretty big life decision and was stressed about it. They were up at three o'clock in the morning, three nights in a row, not getting anything done, worried, having doubt and insecurity about the choice they made.
And so we kind of talked about it a little bit and because it got to the point where it's a little debilitating, I'm like, so. What's the worst thing that could happen? And you know, there's some pretty good things that could happen that were bad, but you know, it's all relative. And then I said, I asked the person, I said, did you talk to God about it before you made the decision?
And they said, no, they didn't. And I was thinking about the reasons why a person wouldn't consult God on a huge decision, especially a financial decision. Um, because it's kind of my practice now. And the reason why is because I have failed a few times and I've made some really bad decisions that have cost me and my family.
Money, time, energy, resources, peace of mind. Okay? When we're walking in our own strength and trying to figure it all out for ourselves, it's a little harder to not let fear seep in. You know, it's really easy for me when I'm walking with God and hearing him. Like if he tells me to put my foot in the right position, I'm putting my foot there because God is good.
He is not fallible and he does not fail. So if he wants my foot there, it's for good reason. Okay? It doesn't necessarily mean things are gonna turn out like I want them to. It doesn't mean that I won't have hardships or struggle, but it does mean it's where I'm supposed to be. So I can stand there. I can stand on that foundation of who I am.
Who I am, because he told me to. Okay. When Denel Lee says, stay, Hey, go hang out here. It's a little harder to believe that something might not go wrong. Okay? Because my own understanding is so limited. God has the whole picture. I just have that small slice of the blueprint. He's got the whole set of plans when I am.
Walking with the one who can see the future, who can see where I'm supposed to going when I'm walking, where he lights the lamp feet for my feet. That's where I get courageous. That's where I get bold. That's where I have confidence, okay? Because I know that where wherever he leads me is where I'm supposed to be.
It is going to be for the benefit of his plan. And we have to start being more eternal minded, more kingdom minded, and less world minded and less self minded. And I think that's part of the problem when we're so focused on ourself and what we want and what we need and these, these small slivers of life and not thinking about the kingdom.
And where it could be in five years, 10 years, a hundred a thousand years. Right? If we're not thinking of the people who we want to see in heaven and we're thinking about our small wants and needs right now, it can get a little murky. Okay? But if I'm thinking of the bigger picture of, okay, I want people to know God.
Okay? 'cause that heals. I want people to know his love because when I learned what love meant, I was able to love the people around me. And that helped heal. And it kind of creates a ripple effect, right? But if we're walking in self, self self, me, me, me, we're not really walking in the kingdom. We're walking like the world does.
Okay? And nothing really good happens there. I mean, maybe on accident, but. But all the good stuff happens when we walk in our God-given talents, gifts and abilities that glorify him, that show people this is a life worth having. Okay? So if you're really worried about something and it's you're, you're living in that state of fear, I want you to just do a thought experiment with me.
Think about those things that you were worried about maybe last year, last night, last week, and how many of those things actually came to fruition. The truth is that most of the things we worry about never come to past. If you're not sure, write down what you're worried about and let's check on it in a month.
Okay? Tell me, did any of it happen? God loves you. He does not want you wasting your life with emotional burdens that. Are not necessary. His burden is light. Okay? His yoke is light. When we have burdens and things we worry about, and this is just a, a quick way to handle this, um, we're gonna go into a deeper set, is I, I want to cast them on him like he loves.
Let's say I'm worried about my kids. I am worried about them 'cause of a decision they're making or not making, or you know, my son recently got married and you know, it's a big step. He's really young. And so instead of worrying about it, I'm like, God, you love him. Um, I did guide him and say, you know, when they were first going and I said, did you pray about it?
He did. He got the right answer. I'm trusting that he's hearing from God. I'm trusting that God's speaking to him, and I know that God loves him more than I do. Okay? So I'm good. And I'm like, put me in Coach if you need me to say or do something. Shut me up if I'm not supposed to. 'cause that's really, you know, uh, my job as a mom is to guide, you know, at this point he knows he has a relationship with God, but also to let him be him.
And it kinda works well. 'cause then I don't have to worry about things that don't need to be worried about. 'cause he married a lovely woman who has become my new daughter and I could not be more happy. We are so blessed. But had I turned that into worry, that could have turned into something crazy. Maybe I would've damaged their relationship.
I don't wanna do that. I want to be part of their family. Okay. Um, I don't want them to not wanna hang out with me 'cause I'm causing so much stress and worry. And for what? For what? He married a lovely girl, so he doesn't want you wasting your life on these things that cause health issues, mental health issues, chasing solutions for problems that you shouldn't even have in the first place.
You know, chasing, trying to fix your health issues that stem from you, worrying needlessly. He's your source. He is the one who will provide strength here, shelter, and he's the one who leads you. Okay? His desire for you is to trust him fully, to be in relationship with him so you can hear him, so you know where to put your feet so that you can live in the confidence and peace so that you can be bold and courageous in this world and glorify his name and bring people to him.
Okay? So fear, fear. Is what we wanna stay away from. It's what the enemy wants you. We wanna reject fear-based thinking. We wanna replace it with faith-filled thoughts. And we want to remember that this is the place the enemy wants you because you're powerless. You are powerless with a crazy mind and living in fear.
So the next, um, area of where we can see like the mental chaos happening in our lives is when we actually live in a lie. And the reason, um, I probably was the most exhausted in my life for many, many, even a few decades, was that I was living in a web of lives. I didn't know it. Okay? But it doesn't matter if you know that you're living in a lie or you're purposely living in a lie, the result is the same.
It is bondage it. And not living in the truth is a prison. Okay? But freedom is found in truth and Jesus is all about that. So if you wanna be free from these prisons of fear and exhaustion and living in a lie, I'm gonna help you out. So just to kind of help you understand, like if you might be living in a lie, I'll give you, um, kind of an idea of what I was going through and then I'll share some commonly, uh, believed lies that I hear from other people.
Um, one was, if I don't do it, nobody else will. Okay? Now I'm not talking about stuff God calls us to. I'm talking about anything, okay? I was taking a lot of responsibility for everybody. Those people really need me. If it's going to be, it's up to me. So here's the problem. I used these ideas. To give me reason and rationale to be taking over other people's responsibilities that I had no business taking over.
Okay. I became a self-appointed savior, AKA codependent so that they wouldn't have to deal with their addictions, their mistakes, the hard things in life, because I didn't want them to have to live in any pain. And here's, here's the selfish part of codependency, and here's the li Uh, I'll tell you the selfish part.
The lie is you think you're helping somebody. The, the truth is, you're just trying to relieve this anxiety or uncomfortable feeling you have for yourself, right? And put it on somebody else. So I was trying to relieve this anxiety I was feeling, or discomfort because something was wrong in their life, which made my life outta control.
So I'm gonna step in and control and fix it. And it wasn't. Necessarily, if I look back on it, of course I don't want people in pain, but it was really outta selfishness because I wanted that feeling gone. And here's the selfish part of it. What happens when you take over somebody's problem and they don't have to work through it?
They don't get to learn. They don't get to grow out of it. So for instance, I had somebody who, um, and this could be any addiction, but I had somebody who suffered from debilitating anxiety in my life and I was constantly trying to help them not feel anxiety. I would cater to them. I would not give them information that they might need to make good decisions because I thought it might create anxiety.
I would create situations where there was no anxiety. I would manage the people around them to manage their anxiety. So what happened? They never had to grow out of it. They didn't have to grow out of it. And that was super unfortunate, right? 'cause now you're an adult who hasn't learned how to deal with anxiety and how fair is that?
How kind is that? And when I saw the truth of this help I thought I was giving was really hurting somebody, it set me free to be the right person in the situation and to allow that person to live the way they're supposed to, to work through their own things. You know, we cannot give everybody their fish all the time.
We can teach 'em. You can point 'em to Jesus. You can show 'em how to not worry about things, but at some point you gotta let them catch their own fish. I. Or they don't get to figure it out. And that's life. That's the journey. That's the path. And here's the other lie is I really was helping all of these people because I didn't wanna deal with my own stuff.
I didn't wanna deal with fact and the trauma and the stuff that was underneath. Okay. If I was working on their problems, then I didn't have any. There's the next lie. So sometimes if you're so busy, you might wanna think about why you're so busy. Sometimes when we're so busy, we're running from not dealing with our own stuff, okay?
And we have to work through it. We have to go through life. You gotta go through the things. You can't just sweep 'em under the rug. You can't pretend they're not happening. You have to go through the things. The Bible tells us that each person has their own load to carry. And we are called to help others when God leads us, whether it's through his word or a direct prompting.
But we are not supposed to take responsibility for what isn't ours. That is the truth that has set me free. Okay? And I'm not saying that's your lie, or I'm just saying, do you see how easy it is to be living this way? Saying I'm just a nice Christian girl helping people, when really I was acting like a codependent, self-appointed righteous savior when people have their own savior and I should have been directing them to the savior, okay?
I was hurting them and hurting myself. And that's what lies do. They break our brain, whether we know it or not. Um, Caroline Leaf wrote this book called A Mental Mess and talks a lot about that, that brain breakage that happens. And whether you know it or not, that's what lies do. It, it, that's why you feel depression, anxiety, worry.
Okay, so there's other common lies We believe, um, I have control over everything. If I drop one ball, everything's gonna come crushing down. I'm not worthy of love. I deserve poor treatment because of my past mistakes. I should live in shame and guilt forever for what I've done. I need other people to fill me up to complete me.
This was a dangerous one that I, um, thought was true. I thought when you're married, your spouse was supposed to fill you up. Um, and we've heard that. I've heard this. Uh, your love tank, they need to fill this. It is garbage, okay? God fills you up. Anything that your spouse gives you is overflow. I'm telling you when you come to that place and not a place of need, the more love comes in anyway.
Um, here's a crowd favorite. If I just had more money, everything would be all right. You could use this with anything. If I just had the right job, everything would be all right. But here's the problem. If you're having problems here, you're gonna have problems here. If you are having problems at your job here, you are still gonna be you at the next job.
If you are having problems with this amount of money, more money isn't gonna solve it. Okay? And I get it. There's some, um, there's need, like there's true financial need for our basic needs. Um, but I'm, I'm, I know from experience that my same problem stayed when I had less. And then when I had more, I was still here.
Okay? So these lies that the enemy wants you to believe, keep you in bondage, okay? They keep your brain from. Acting appropriately. They keep the chaos going 'cause you're focused on the wrong thing. Like in order to be loved, I have to please people. That was a big lie. I thought, I didn't think that I could just be love for who I am.
I didn't even know that was a thing. I thought you had to earn love with everything in everyone. 'cause we live in this merit based society that tells us that. And if you grew up with a family who kind of, that's their thing. That's what you believe, right? Like you have to earn it. If you do A, B, and C, then I will show you love.
Well, that's not really how the real love works of the Bible, okay? And that's not how God works. You don't have to earn his love. He just accepts you for who you are today. Come as you are. Come as you are and he'll clean you up. Okay? We have to walk in truth. But how do you walk in truth if you don't know you're living in a lie?
If you don't know you're believing a lie. Um, this is, this is an interesting thing. Like if I look at the news from five years ago before Covid, I believed a lot of lies. I just believed the news. I didn't, I don't know, it just didn't occur to me that they would lie. But I know differently now, right? My world abuse changed.
I don't believe a lot that's happening on in the media, okay? But first, I had to uncover that I was believing a lie. And the same is true of our minds. We can be programmed into believing a lie by, you know, early childhood abuse might tell you you're not worthy, or your dad or parent leaving when you're young might tell you, you know, you're worth being abandoned.
You're not worthy of love. If your parents didn't love you properly, maybe you don't feel like you're worthy of love. And we have to undo those lies and replace them with truth. And we do that with God, okay? And God uses his word, he uses other people. If you're struggling in an area and, and you don't understand why, you kind of, you used all your tools, you might be believing a lie and you might not know it.
Find somebody who you can talk to or who knows you, A Christian pastor, a Christian counselor, a Christian life coach. Okay? If you don't have one of those available to you, this is our jam. This is what we're passionate about. We have Christian life coaches here at Red Ledger and we will help you get unstuck and step into that freedom that God has for you.
Okay? So reach out red ledger.com and um, we'll have something on there where you can set an appointment and. We can help you point you in the right direction, we can point you to Jesus in those areas. So the next area that we're gonna focus on, that we exhaust ourselves mentally is by engaging in battles that we're not supposed to be in.
Okay? Scripture gives us a really clear strategy of how to avoid the enemy, submit to God, resist the enemy, and he will flee. Yet we open the door for the enemy. We like open it, wide open and say, Hey, come on in. Come on in. We invite him into our lives and he creates chaos. We invite our flesh into our lives, and the self-inflicted turmoil wreaks havoc on our mind.
Okay? Um, there's obvious ways we do it. There's drugs, alcohol for pornography, lust. You know, let's go do drugs. And this is here. Here's one issue that I want you to think about that I hear sometimes from people who do drugs. They say they meet God, they talk to God when they're doing drugs. That's not God.
You know how I know it's not God? 'cause his word is true and accurate. And if he said, Hey, go do some ayahuasca and then we'll hang out, I would believe it. But he doesn't say that. He tells us to be sober minded, okay? He tells us to be clear. He tells us he wants us to have a sound mind. Now, does that describe somebody on drugs?
No. Now, I have no doubt you're hearing from somebody, but I don't believe it's God. Okay? You're not getting closer to God by doing drugs. The one thing I will believe that he might be saying to you while you're doing drugs is Stop doing this. Okay? Stop doing this to yourself. So anyway, back to our regular scheduled program.
So. When we invite the enemy in through these different obvious ways, right? We're, we're inviting that chaos in, we're inviting our mind to be distracted by nonsense. Okay? We're creating all kinds of issues. When we invite, let's say, sexual morality, let's say you cheating on your spouse. Let's say you're watching porn.
What does that do to your mind? Okay. Let, it's just common sense. Is that helpful? Is that bringing peace? Is that bringing you closer to Jesus? No. I mean, we're inviting the enemy in hiding from God. 'cause that's what we do. When we sin, we're hiding from God. I, I'm never walking into sin going, okay, God, let's go hang out here.
I know he can't abide in sin, and I know he doesn't like it, so I'm not gonna do that. But here's the. Sneaky trap that happens. There's, um, sneakier ways that don't seem so obvious to us. So they're more insidious, I guess, ways that we give enemy access. And one of those is through judgment, whether it's of others or ourselves.
It might start subtly like forming opinions about somebody's behavior. Maybe we're not genuinely concerned of their eternal web being, and we're just being caught up in some gossip. Um, I had this happen to me recently. There's a, a recent news story about Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. There are these two actors, if you don't know, and they're suing each other.
And I found myself getting pulled into this nonsense and drama. I do not know why. I think it's because. I am kind of a justice warrior and I do not like unfairness. And something set felt deeply unfair about this. It felt deeply unfair that Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds seemed to have all the power, but are accusing this smaller actor.
It just didn't set right with me. So it sparked my curiosity and my anger. And I think when we let a little bit in, I don't think this, I know this, when we let a little bit of judgment in, right? I wasn't, I'm not talking about righteous judgment. I'm not talking about the judgment where I am judging sin, okay?
Where I'm saying, okay, this is not beneficial. This is separating me from God or my brother and sister in Christ, where I see you headed down a bad road and I'm trying to pull you back saying, Hey friend, it's not for you. It wasn't that kind of judgment. It was condemnation. Okay? And. What is interesting about judging a celebrity about, uh, their actions?
Um, it was easy to rationalize, right? She doesn't know me. This doesn't count, right? This is just some celebrity on TV and who probably deserves it? Hmm. Doesn't really sound like love does it, and love is what we're called to do with one another. Sin is what we're called to judge. We're not called to condemn anyone, okay?
But do you see how easy it is to do? Like maybe, maybe you're doing it in politics. Maybe you're letting a little yeast in by rationalizing and justifying this judgment. But the problem is it grows. It grows into me just having a thought about it to, oh, look at my YouTube algorithm is now filled with it.
And now guess what? Now I'm liking stuff. Now I'm liking when somebody's mean about her. Right? So the yeast grew from a little into a lot when we let a small amount of judgment in like, okay, I had unknowingly let a little yeast, and what happens with yeast, it grows. And if you don't believe me, ask the Pharisees.
Okay? So there are a ton of ways that we can do this. We just kind of have to think about it. Um, pride. Pride is huge. Okay. Thinking we have it all figured out. Pride, the original sin is what got the enemy ousted from the garden. Pride. Okay? It, it's hard to see sometimes. Okay? Especially when pride is exalted as a good thing in our society.
Comparison. When we measure ourselves against others instead of God's truth, and one of 'em of the pastors at my church said this really well, when we're me, when we're comparing ourselves against other people, we're often measuring the best of them against the worst of us, right? So we're looking at this life or what they have or what they can do based on where we are today.
It doesn't mean we can't rise and get better at pickleball. It doesn't mean we can't, you know what I mean? But we're measuring against a weird, a weird thing that has nothing to do with us and is none of our business. God created each of us individually with unique DNA, okay? He created you with talents, gifts, and abilities unique to you.
Um. Somebody said this once. An orange can't be a blueberry. A blueberry can't be an orange. Okay? You can't be somebody else. You are you. So measure yourself against God's truth for you who you are. Are you reflecting his image? Show him. Ask him. Ask him to show you. Okay. Another area that the enemy likes to seep in and cause chaos in our mind is control.
When we believe that we must manage everything to keep our life together, that we are in control of everything. Um, that enemy loves to play havoc there. Okay? You are not in full control. There's too many variables. God knows the whole story. You don't, um, I think of this like. When we're even trying to control our finances and what to invest in.
I cannot imagine not doing that with God. I cannot imagine. I don't know the future, but he does. He does. Okay. But when I start thinking, I got it all sewn up. Sounds like pride and control. They might go hand in hand. Complacency. This is when we're spiritually passive and we allow the enemy to take ground.
I just recently did this. It was over Christmas. I got sick and I was kind of excited. I was sick. I was like, oh, good. I get a couple days off and I don't have to feel guilty about it. Okay, a few lessons here. One, I do not have to feel guilty about taking a couple days off. I create my own schedule. If I'm too busy, I need to work that out.
Okay. Two, I. The problem got enhanced. Okay, so I have been healed of many things. God is our healer. The Holy Spirit lives in us. The same power that rose Jesus from the grave lives in us. We, we have been healed by his stripes. We are healed. I know this. I live in this. I have victory in this area, okay? I have seen it true.
I have experienced it to be true. I kept getting more sick and more sick and I wasn't getting better. And I started praying 'cause I was getting mad at God about it. I was getting frustrated and he said, clear, Isabel, you seeded ground to the enemy. You never see gr onto the enemy. I'm like, oh, I did. I seeded ground.
I let him into my health. I let him take over my health. And we don't see ground to the enemy. This is the problem with complacency. We give him ground. Okay, don't do it. Neglecting time with God. This is where we stop abiding in him. Okay? When we're not hanging out with him and living with him, we become really susceptible to lies.
And I just had this happen recently with my son's wedding. We were super busy the week before, the week of and the week after, and I wasn't spending that regular time, you know what I mean? That routine time that I have with him. So my recommendation here is when you are vacationing or doing something, always make time.
So what happened was is I got home and I was super tired after the wedding and I thought, I'm just gonna take a date and watch a movie. So I did. I turned the movie on and I thought, oh, it'll be okay. I kind of felt like I shouldn't watch it, but I did anyway 'cause it had, I. Some Catholic stuff in it. So I thought, okay, well I'm a Christian, they're Catholic.
Um, well it wasn't really that. It's an older movie and it was very popular and I watched it probably 15, 20 years ago and I don't think, I'm not where I was then. But I will tell you this, that movie made me doubt who Jesus was for a, a small, brief while and put some really dark thoughts in my mind. And I kind of started going down a bad rabbit hole.
And it was, it was pretty dark and it was really quick and it scared me like that was scary. The good news. God is so good. We don't have to let those doors open. Okay, we slammed that one shut. So the first step to victory is recognizing that I let the enemy in. Okay? We had to recognize I let the enemy in, submit that area to God, and he's so faithful that he restores and strengthens us when we align our hearts with his.
And he did quickly. And how did I align my hearts with him? I'll tell you, I just went overboard and immersing myself in him, in his word, in the Bible, in his word. Um, I listen to pastors who I trusted, who I didn't listen to, anybody knew. At this time. I'm just letting people who I know who I trust in my mind, in my worship, in my music, I am not letting anything else in.
And I got realigned really quick and things turned around. Um, all the dark thoughts left and thank you. Thank you, Jesus. So how do we break free from all this? Nonsense from all this mind stuff. And I gave you some kind of hints and clues along the way of like some real practical things. Um, you know, immersing ourselves in God and casting our cares.
Um, but I think we have to know the source of why all this is happening, okay? He wants us to a sound mind, the mind of Christ. And it requires discipline, a discipline mind. Great. How do you do that? Well, we start with that big reason, the big umbrella of why it might not be happening. And that is, I think all of it.
We're not really trusting God, okay? If we're living in fear, if we are living in a lie, if we are letting the enemy in, okay, we're not really trusting God. We're not really walking with him. So what is the first thing we do to trust someone? You have to know them. You have to know his character. You have to know who he is to you and who you are to him.
You have to know your identity in Christ, and that begins with the word faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. You have to have faith that God has your best interest at heart. You have to have faith that God loves you. You have to know what that means. And if you don't have this deep revelation of who Jesus is and what he came and died for, you need to get it because this is your identity.
You are now a coa in Christ. If you're saved, you are now saved, forgiven free. But if you're not living free and you're still living in bondage, maybe you don't have that revelation of who you really are in Christ. So. That is the big arching, encompassing and will help get you some more practical, um, ways to get that information.
Um, of course reading the Bible, okay, and studying. I think I started with my journey with studying what love was. 'cause I had this woman in my life and my son and I were having problems and she heard me talking to him and she was actually working for me at the time and we were both Christians. And she goes, have you ever tried just not judging him and just loving him?
And I'm like, of course I love him. But it spurred the question, what is love God? Like what is love? And the world has given us some ideas about love that are not true. Okay? I'm not talking about the emotions, the feelings, the things I'm talking about. True love from God. The Corinthians, love the patience, the not self-seeking, the not condemning, the not condemning, right, the patience, the long suffering.
Love that love. And he gave me great revelation, which I'm still getting to this day of what love looks like. Forgiveness, freedom, hope. That's what love looks like. So if you don't know what that looks like and you do not feel loved, start there. Okay? Um, we are gonna be doing an identity bible study. If you go to red ledger.com, we'll have a link that'll let you know when we get started as a group if you wanna join us, and we'll just put you on that list to inform you when that happens.
If you want to do that with us, we'd love for you to know who you are in Christ. We'd love to you to have full revelation and understanding so that you can walk in reassurance of your faith and who you are and that you. Might go that you might share your story and bring people closer to God. That's what we, that's our desire.
Okay, now, um, so the first step is knowing God. Right? Knowing, knowing who your savior is and what you've been saved from having an i, um, understanding of your identity in Christ. And then we need to align our thoughts with Christ. And how do we do that? Okay, well, I'm gonna use two Corinthians 10, five to help you think about that.
We destroy arguments in every lofty opinion, raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. I call this examining your thought life. Okay? I'm using this to help you process your thoughts and feelings. So I think when I say everything starts with a theme, a thought, I.
I've said that multiple times today. I really want you to take heed of that all action. Let's say, let's say you have an you. You were gonna have an affair, okay, with on your spouse. It started with a thought. It started with a thought that you didn't take captive. Let's say you quit drinking and you're headed down to the bar.
It started with a thought, okay? The thought proceeded the action. So that's why it's so important that we take those thoughts captive because as Proverbs told us, those thoughts run your life. Okay? So these thoughts that were taking captive, they have to be replaced with good thoughts, good praiseworthy thoughts.
So I'm gonna kind of take you through a practice, and I just want you to start by noticing your thought life. Like, what are you thinking about? Is it praiseworthy or is it not? Maybe just start there. Okay. The thoughts on aren't praiseworthy. Let's really think about keeping and taking those captive. But like, no judgment.
Don't judge yourself and don't judge your thoughts as, as a practice. I didn't just come here and start this. I, I am still practicing this. I don't get this right every time. Okay? And you won't either. So give yourself some grace. So we're gonna examine our thoughts and see what's praiseworthy and what's not praiseworthy.
Then next thing we're gonna do is what's true? Is it true? Is your thought true? Let's say it's not praiseworthy. Is it true? Does it align with God's word? Okay. You don't know. Open up this book. Open up the Bible and find out. And Google is really awesome. If you're looking for a topic on unforgiveness, let's use that for an example.
Somebody hurt me really bad and I don't wanna forgive them. And that's right, because I shouldn't forgive them. 'cause they hurt me until they apologize. Okay? That's the, um, unraised worthy thought. Let's say, well, if I go to the Bible, it's gonna tell me, no, no, you, you forgive them. Somebody slaps you on the cheek.
Let 'em slap the other one. Okay? We forgive people. That's, that's who we are. We're Christians. We forgive people. We don't forget. We can put up boundaries, but we love them and forgive them because they're on their journey. And more times than not, they don't even know they're hurting you. Okay? But whatever.
Does it align with God's word? I, and then I kind of think, okay, am I making up a story? If I'm offended by something. So these are the kind of thoughts you might have if you're easily hurt, easily offended, um, if you're frustrated with somebody. Here's the problem. People are people and they're gonna do all these things, okay?
It's your job to not be easily offended. It's your job to not live in a state of hurt. It's your job to give and dole out grace, just like God has for you, okay? It's your job to dole out forgiveness like Jesus did for you. Okay? So if you are having this thought, let's just say it's an unforgiveness, like a bitterness, a root of bitterness because somebody hurt you, okay?
Do they know they even hurt you? Are you making up a story? Are you filling in gaps where you don't know the whole story? I do this a lot. This is where I get tripped up. I think I know what people are thinking and feeling. I don't. Okay. And so sometimes if I don't have all the information, I'll fill those gaps in with what I think and or somebody I feel like they don't like me.
Um, because I'm a lot, I get people, I'm kind of polarizing. People love Right? Me okay. And it's okay. Do you know what? It's none of my business how they feel about me unless I'm hurting them. Right. I don't wanna hurt people. I don't wanna offend people. I don't wanna provoke people. But outside of that, it's none of my business how they feel about me.
Maybe they just don't like my hair. Maybe. I mean, on here I get all kinds of crazy comments about issues and my features and all kinds of crazy stuff. It's none of my business. It's none of my business. If you don't like me because of my eyes are squinty, okay? I don't care. I love you anyway. Okay. So when we're aligning our thoughts with feelings with Christ, we separate the truth from the lies.
And how do we do that? Well, like I said, we bring it to God, we ask, we seek, we knock, we ask God, Hey, is this truth? Is this lie? How do I need to learn from this? Or do I just, is this for, am I casting this to you? And we ask him to reveal truth to us? Here's the problem. Sometimes again, like I said earlier, we don't know why you're believing a lie.
And sometimes those lies become hardwired. But God can renew our mind, his word renews. Read that Bible, read the whole thing. Rinse and repeat. Okay? And pray for him to give you revelation while you're reading that Bible. So I'm just going to go over that real quick again, what is the thought? Is it against the knowledge of God?
Hold it and examine it. Research in the Bible, ask wise counsel, is it in alignment with Christ? Is it truth, love, peaceful, merciful, compassionate hope. Freedom, victory. Does it have those components? Then it's probably not praiseworthy, and then we bring it into obedience to who Jesus is, okay? And who you are.
Now that he lives in you. We are gonna replace that wrong thought with the correct thought, the praiseworthy thought. Okay, so this person hurt me and it's unfair. They did something really unfair. Okay? God, please, please handle it. Please bring it to mind. Please bring reconciliation to us. Thank you, God.
Okay. He wants us to have reconciliation. He wants us to forgive, and he wants us to live with grace for others too, as we have for us. Okay? So we do that. There's our new praiseworthy thought. There's where we stand. That was just a simplistic view. So let's say you're believing that you're not worthy of love.
I want you to go in here and find scriptures that tell you how much God loves you, and you stand on that and you find one that resonates with you, that you believe, okay? The problem is, is if you don't believe it yet, ask God for that revelation. Because if we don't believe it, it's like a lie in our brain.
Okay? So keep finding the one that makes sense to you, but know this whole book is true. This whole book is true. It is infallible, it does work. It does change lives. It is a living word that gets into you, and when you read it and digest his word, it changes your life. Philippians four, eight. And I'm reading out of the NLT from one of our Bibles.
Okay? Shameless plug. We're not monetized. So we sell products. We, we sell these beautiful bibles, red ledger gifts.com. Okay? So Philippians four, eight, and now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right, and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.
Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me. Everything you heard from me and saw me doing, then the God of peace will be with you. Okay? Whatever's pure and lovely, whatever is praiseworthy, that's what we put our mind in. That's how we align our thoughts with God. Next step. Okay. We know God, we're aligning our thoughts with Christ, and now we're gonna renew our mind.
Like we said earlier, you're either being formed by this world and its age, or transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now, in the early translation of this Bible, the age they're talking about was the connotation, was that it was evil, okay? That the world is evil. So we're either being conformed by this world of evil or transformed by the renewing of our mind, and we are to be renewed daily.
We're renewed in his knowledge according to the image of our creator. And how does this happen? Well, the Holy Spirit resides in us and guides us. We have to renew ourselves and his knowledge. So. I wanna thank you to think about what are you putting in your mind? What is your mind absorbing? Is it being renewed or conformed?
Okay. The idea is that we renew it daily, okay? We let this word shape our minds, or do we let social media and TV and books and craziness shape our minds? Like, what is shaping your mind, God or the world, God's word or the world? If you spend time in the word learning who God is, time in prayer, communing with him, time in worship and celebrating him, I wonder what your life looks like versus time on the internet or on Twitter, fighting about politics or on social media.
Comparing yourself to everybody. Like what is shaping your life? I'm just going to give you, uh, the answer Where you wanna be is the word. So you need to know how to read the word. This is key. Do you know his voice? If you don't know him and know his character. Get to know your creator. He wrote you a really big love letter and there's tremendous insight to how loved you are.
If you read this thing, we should really be looking different when we start this journey with him, okay? Than 20, 30 years later. I mean, I, I don't think I looked a bit different for 20 years after I got saved. We are being made like Christ, if we allow that transformation and we can't have this transformative journey, if we're choosing the world over God, we're not gonna be able to conquer the enemy schemes if we're seeding ground to the enemy.
Now God's will is good and perfect and pleasing, and we wanna be in it. Okay? If we want to completely get rid of this fear and this worry, and this stress, the best way to do it is our obedience. Okay? Now, obedience requires prayer and time with God, much like the other three steps we just talked about.
Okay? This is step four. There are blessings in obedience. If you're willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. Isaiah tells us, I walk so confidently, boldly when I'm walking in obedience. I know I'm on the right path. Okay? Remember, his plans are greater than ours. We've got to develop that kingdom mindset.
If we commit our ways to the Lord and trust in him, he will act. If we cast our burdens on the Lord, he sustains us. He never allows the righteous to be shaken. You, if you are saved, are righteous, okay? Commit to the Lord and your plans will be established. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all things will be provided for you.
Don't worry about anything, but in everything through prayer and the petition with Thanksgiving present your request to God. The the blessings and obedience are, we're in the right place at the right time. When we listen to him and plant our feet where he tells us to, we get to see and be part of exciting things.
We get to be used as a vessel for him. We get to be part of him and his story and other people's lives, and there's true joy in that true blessing in that we get to bless our families. We get to find new ways to glorify God and we get to be part of it. I just, I don't know that there's anything quite that fulfilling in life.
Um, you know, we sure we have basic needs that we need clothing and shelter that he tells us not to worry about. You know, if he takes care of the birds, he's gonna take care of us. But there is huge blessing and obedience and I, I don't want you to miss out on that. And it's also how we keep our mind, right.
And I think when, um, I, I've had moments of wild obedience where like if God said jump, I'm like, how high? Where do you want me go pray for somebody in hospital? I'm gone. I, I'm, I guess I'm kind, kind of there, um, but not quite. And I will tell you. The change that happened in my family and me was the most dramatic during that wild obedience time where like every thought, every action was prayer with him.
And, and I say I spend most of my day with him, but you know, in some things where I get wrapped up in busy at work, I'll forget to include him sometimes. Um, and this was just a really good reminder of that. Um, but the most change in my family, my husband, who wasn't really even a believer, was watching me and watching the things happen in my life and watching me and my transformation.
And it made him want more and made him question who God was. He came to me and asked, started asking me questions, and it was, it was beautiful, and he got closer to God and we got closer as a couple. You know, we weren't meant to do life alone. God wants to walk this out with you, so surrender your fears, step into his piece.
And please pray. You know, seek God's truth and mood forward and faith. And thank you for listening to me. If you're still here at the end. Um, I wanted to cover that eternal issue that if you're not saved, if you don't know who you are and whose you are, if you were saved and you're not sure, um, let's do it.
If, if you're ready to commit to Jesus, if you're ready to make him the Lord of your life, I am here for it. I wanna walk you through that. Um, it's just a prayer, you know, here's the thing. We've all shown, we've all fallen short of the glory of God. We've all sinned. And this is what happened. Adam e, they sinned in the garden and separated them from God.
Sin is what separates us from God. And God is holy and he can't live and abide in sin. So. There was a debt, a sin, and a price that had to be paid. Our atonement, and Jesus did that for you. He paid our debt. He died on that cross to pay our debt for our sin. His blood was shed so that we could be forgiven.
And this is the beauty of God's grace. There's nothing we could do to earn it. He just did it for us. The only thing that you have to do is believe, and God, I'm asking that you impart that faith on anyone listening right now, that they would believe that the Lord is their savior and want to be saved, and then we just say a prayer and you just repeat this prayer.
Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins and surrender my life. Please wash me clean. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross for my sins, and he rose again on that third day. For my victory and I believe in my heart and make confession with my mouth that Jesus is my Savior and my Lord, and I receive the eternal life that you have offered in Jesus' name.
Amen. If you have earnestly prayed that prayer, you've been saved. You're now a new creature in Christ. You are now my brother or sister in Christ and I'm really excited to hear about it. Um, feel free to contact us on red ledger.com and tell us, you know, what led you here, what made you want to get saved.
We wanna hear your story and congratulations. This is the first day of your new life. And also some, this is something that I didn't know and that, you know, we talked earlier about walking out our salvation. I didn't know what that meant after I got saved, which is probably why I stayed a very immature Christian for a very long time and why it wasn't growing and moving glory to glory in my life.
So we have a PDF there that you can download that says I'm saved now. What? Okay. So it helps you with your next steps so you know what to do. Anyway, congratulations and God bless.