For the past couple of months I have been examining my
thinking and despairing because the thoughts I have seem to be far removed from
the kind of thoughts God wants me to have. The Bible encourages us to think like
Jesus who lived a sinless perfect life. That tells me Jesus, unlike me, must
have had his thoughts sorted. Our thoughts are very important. What we think
determines how we feel, behave and what we say. For example if we have
judgemental thoughts about others, our words and deeds will reflect this.
The Bible tells us that as God’s thoughts are higher than our
thoughts so are his ways also higher. At that point we could give up and decide
we are never going to think like God. However, I believe God wants to renew my
mind and transform my thinking so I have his thoughts. Then I will start to
love people like he does. One way God requires me to love people is to show
mercy but it is very hard to be merciful when one has judgemental thoughts. I
need my mind renewed so I view people with mercy instead of judgement.
I have been reading a few books in my quest for wisdom as to how
to change my thinking. I found one written by Firestone, Firestone and Catlett
called Conquer Your Inner Critical Voice which has been very helpful. They
identify that each of us have a inner critical voice in our head that controls
much of our decision making and the way we respond to situations. Many of us are unaware of it chattering away,
as it is a well established part, of who we are. The voice is destructive,
critical, accusing and false and often overrules the good we feelings we have about
ourselves.
If you doubt whether you have a voice like this try and
discover what you are thinking the next time when something unexpected,
embarrassing or disappointing happens. The chances are your inner critical
voice will surface at this point to give you its demoralising perspective.
The critical voice is a system of thinking patterns we developed
in childhood while we were learning how to cope with life. It is made up of the conclusions we drew
about ourselves from the way our parents treated us, the negative feelings our
parents had towards themselves and each other, our parents view of life
including the things they did not talk about which we absorbed by osmosis and
the defence mechanisms we developed to help us deal with painful and stressful
situations.
These thinking patterns became the way we learnt to respond
to the different life situations we faced. It is our enemy because it will try
and sabotage our true selves; the person God has called us to be. For example
God may have gifted me with the ability and desire to be a brain surgeon. If I
fear failing because of past experiences which led me to conclude I am a
failure, there is playing in my head a little voice telling me not to be absurd.
I am not brainy enough to pass the exams necessary. Therefore I never
have a go at becoming a brain surgeon.
Often at work and in our relationships we revert back to the
thinking patterns we developed as children to protect us but these old defence
mechanisms can limit our ability to do well at work, handle success and relate
well to others. It is vital we learn to recognise the inner critical voice and
develop a new positive and creative voice if we are to achieve all God has
called us to be and do.
There is no doubt that God has done a radical work of renewing
my mind and transforming my thinking in
many areas BUT he wants to do more. I recognise that even though my inner
critical voice is not nearly as influential as it used to be, it still has far
too much say in the way I react. There is a lovely Bible verse in 2 Corinthians
10:4,5 that recommends we demolish the thinking patterns that set themselves up
against us knowing God. That is a scary thought that my thinking patterns can
limit my experience of God but I believe that is what the inner critical voice
does. It is a series of thinking patterns that need demolishing and replaced
with God’s thoughts which are truth and loving.
Now it is just a matter of identifying the times the inner
critical voice is still at work and breaking the habit of thinking by
reassessing the situation in the light of God’s truth and focusing on that.
Sounds simple really….
No comments:
Post a Comment