In the past few months, I’ve been exploring with you the topic of the power of our imagination and our God-given purpose, which is an essential part of our design.
If you haven’t read those, I would encourage you to go back and catch up.
As with any time in my life that I’ve taught about something, I always get tested in it. I realized this morning, as my brain woke up, that the first thing rushing across my imagination screen was what I call sudden disaster scenarios. And then, I remembered what I’ve been teaching about in my classes and on my blogs about the power of what is playing out on our mind’s eye.
When I was younger and far more in the throws of trying to recover from all the trauma I had endured growing up, my imagination felt more like a freight train, constantly throwing up images of disaster scenarios. So much so, that I planned my days to be within a close range to a hospital. Now, I didn’t frequent hospitals, and if I would have had to go to one, I would actually have been far more triggered with a panic attack of actually being there. Yet back then, that was the state of my mind.
As I have processed through so many traumatic memories and those places inside have come to peace, my mind has settled down most of the time. Commonly, my inner world is mostly quiet, with the occasional alarm going off, to indicate I have something further to process or that there may be legit danger ahead.
In the past several months though, the alarm system inside has been activated much more. Sometimes, with just normal life changes, but also with some large raging fires. Most of the time, the blaring sound inside has been more like a smoke alarm that often goes off in my house, because I’ve been cooking and the kitchen has gotten smoky. Yet, some of the alarms have been based on situations that have been truly precarious and heart-breaking.
And I’ve found myself slipping back into a state of sudden disaster images playing across my imagination screen creating a negative space in my head. I know the purpose of this to keep me from future danger, but it still can be difficult to navigate as it triggers off the fight or flight response inside. Last night was movie night in our house, and I choose to watch Inside Out 2. As I pondered the scene where anxiety took over the control board and everything began to spin out of control, I realized that it is my responsibility to kindly take over the board, and practice what I preach. 🙂
My method of doing so is inviting the true, Lord Jesus into my imagination space with me. I ask Him questions like “What do you want me to know about this, Lord?”, and I wait for His answer. So, this morning, I wrote a list in my journal that went something like this.
“I’m scared of …., Lord Jesus. What do you want me to know about this?” And I went through that list with Him, and allowed Him to speak truth to the lies that were persistently trying to come in and influence my imagination screen.
I also asked Him, meaning Jesus, to wash my imagination screen. That may sound pretty weird, but He has a way of doing this. Not swiping it clean, where I can’t think or see things on it. It kind of gives me a fresh start, as I submit my thoughts to Him.
I also asked Him, “Where do you want me to read in the Bible?” And normally, He gives me a scripture to focus on. Today, though, I didn’t hear anything, yet in my journal are scriptures at the bottom of each page, and no lie, every time I wrote something that I was struggling with the scripture at the bottom was the direct answer to that particular struggle. It was so on point, I finally just stopped in amazement, and pondered, “How do you even do this, Lord?” It’s like He knew the exact moment that I would be writing each thing in my journal, and had someone place each scripture on the very page I would need it.”
And people wonder why I believe in my God like I do?!
At any rate, we all struggle with the thoughts and images that flash across our mind’s eye. It’s where most of our battle is. The enemy seeks to implant lies there, that form our beliefs. Also, our brain is trying to protect us from future danger, which is a great thing, but can result in further driving those negative scenarios into our brain, ending in fight or flight responses.
Yet, God is very present to help us, and to speak truth in place of the lies, which is why believing the truth is so vital. God responds to our faith (our trust in Him), which is founded upon our beliefs, the things we believe to be true. The Lord Jesus desires to engage with us in our imagination to help us to “see” His perspective. Those moments with Him can change everything, because they help us to reset our minds to His truth.
Once such time, I was anxious over BIG things going on in our world that were troubling me. Utilizing my mind’s eye, I checked into ask Jesus what His perspective was. I perceived that we were walking in a garden, and He was untroubled and at perfect peace. I asked Him about the BIG thing I was so worried about, and He showed me the globe, the earth. He was holding it carefully in His hands. He just looked over at me, and said, “I’ve got it.” When He said this, peace enveloped me like a blanket and all my anxiety melted away.
It’s not always that easy. At times, I wrestle with things for months, even years. In the end though, the faster I can come to peace with whatever it is, and entrust it into God’s hands, I can then move forward into my purpose. It doesn’t mean I wait for complete peace every time. Many times, I’ve just obeyed and walked into my purpose with a level of anxiety inside.
There are times in life that we all will struggle to keep our imagination screen on track with positive experiences and receiving and contemplating truth, love, etc..
When that happens, I encourage you to reset your mind on the perspective that Jesus gives, resetting your imagination.
