Mindset Matters - The Spirit

Do you ever just have a great day? Like you wear an outfit that you love, and you are just the right amount of caffeinated, and your body feels good, and your spirit is light? Ever had one of those days? Many of you would say that those days are a blue moon occurrence, a once in a lifetime, rare percentage of this thing we call life, and it probably requires a solar eclipse, earthquake, and bank robbery to make it all happen. Okay... so maybe not that extreme, but you get the picture. Sometimes it's just hard to have a great day, and you're not alone in thinking that!

Now can I tell you a secret? I've had a lot of great days recently. Like just back to back, riding this high of life, that is produced through proper caffeination, Jesus, and graduation. But it wasn't all those things happening that made my day so glorious: it was my mindset going into these moments that made them great, which in turn shaped the rest of my day.

You see, our mindset matters more than we will ever know, because it is a reflection of the state of our hearts.

Throughout most of my high school career, I have struggled with feelings of anxiety and depression. Normally, it just looked like a feeling of lethargy and uselessness, and quite frankly numbness. This is because I don't like getting "sad", so I shut down. I turn it all off so I don't feel anything, and believe me when I tell you that is no way to live. It's heartbreaking for yourself and others. It wasn't until the summer after my sophomore year that I really started looking into this though; I had reached a particularly low spot in life, and cried pretty much every day. It was almost like I couldn't feel anything other than this overwhelming sadness and anger, and any time I tried to express this, I would dissolve into a pool of tears.

Now, I want to preface that there are two parts to this story: a physical one, and a spiritual one, because that's the way God designed us. We are temples for the Holy Spirit, and with that comes a physical and spiritual responsibility; hence the reason this is a two part series (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Today I want to focus on my spiritual battle with anxiety and depression, and how altering my mindset changed that, and tomorrow I will share the physical side of things.

My breakthrough that summer came on a swing set in Clermont where I cried out to God, asking "what happened to the old me?" The old Emma who didn't care what people thought of her, who pursued her passions with reckless abandoned, had shrivelled up in a corner to cry and she was broken. And I missed her. I missed who God designed me to be: beautiful and brave and strong. I thought that my failures had broken me beyond repair, and that I was unworthy of love because I wasn't "perfect". I failed to realise that as good as I had once been, I had never been perfect. As a human, I was utterly broken, and every step along the way in life was going to break up my perfect image even more, because humans are flawed. Romans 5:12 tells us that, "through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned". What does that mean? That WE ARE ALL BROKEN, WE HAVE ALL SINNED, and WE HAVE ALL FALLEN SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD! What I thought made me unlovable, was what made me human, and it was that humanness that Jesus died for. If God wanted something perfect and unfeeling, then he would have made angels, but instead He made us! My brokenness that I hated so much, was the exact thing that gives me the opportunity to have a personal relationship with God. I was beautifully broken, and created with a purpose that no amount of lies from the Devil could take away.

Isn't it amazing how much better a situation seems when we look at it from a Heavenly perspective? The very first thing that Satan tries to get at us with is our humanness, because our flesh is weak. If it wasn't, Proverbs never would have said to "protect your mind, for life flows from it" (Proverbs 4:23)! Both God and Satan understand that the thoughts we have, have power to shape our hearts, which in turn shapes our actions and days. And as we know, what we spend our days doing shapes our passions and in turn our purpose.

So ask yourself, how much would your day change if, like the kings in 2 Chronicles, you entered your battles every day with the mindset that God has already gone before you and declared victory? How would the way you live change, if instead of falling into the tempting, down trodden mindset that the Devil offers, you seek to focus on the beauty of the world around you that God so clearly places?

Because the truth is, God has declared victory over your life, regardless of if that "victory" looks like what you want it to look like. Coming out of my sophomore year, "victory" looked like being a better driver, that guy liking me back, and time with my friends, and that is not what I got. Because that wasn't the Lord's victory for my life, He wanted me growing, and serving, and digging in deeper to HIS plan for my life.

We are more than conquerors through Christ. We are more than simply having a "great day", we are victorious in life. Prosperity is not guaranteed as a Christian, but peace and solace in Christ is (John 14:27). Take that with you as you go into this day, seeking a new found mindset that matters...

More tomorrow!

-Emma

"Be fearless in pursuit of what sets your soul on fire."