I have a very active imagination. I know it is a gift but I have found myself misusing it more than once in my life. It is especially difficult during times of challenge. No matter the cause, the stress can drive me to what God has shown me are “vain imaginings.”
As I began to wrestle with my thought life some years ago, I saw a scripture that helped me to define what was going on:
Rom 1:21 Because when they knew {and} recognized Him as God, they did not honor {and} glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. But instead they became futile {and} godless in their thinking [with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid speculations] and their senseless minds were darkened. AMP
I realized that as a follower of Christ, what I wanted was to have my mind renewed by the Word of God and no longer practice foolish reasoning, stupid speculation and vain imagining. While in context, this scripture refers to those who refuse to belief the truth, I new that I needed to stop practicing thought patterns that hung on from before I was a new creature in Christ.
For me, vain imaginings occur when:
1. I try to see the future before it unfolds by God’s hand.
2. I try to build hope by creating scenarios instead of remembering God’s faithfulness in the past.
3. I try to make myself either heroic or pitiful by imagining tragedy in which I am either a rescuer or a victim. This is in order to attract attention or concern by a person or group I want to recognize my value or my need.
4. I try to make real what I want for those I love by imagining what is best rather than petitioning God on their behalf.
5. I try to mentally resolve situations before God’s plan is shown for my good.
6. I speculate on the reasons things occur or on what the motivations of others are and arrive at incorrect conclusions, making plans and decisions based on lies and not truth.
Red flags in my thought life: ‘if only’ and ‘what if’ and ‘maybe someday.’ Imagination is a very creative process when led by God. When my soul leads, I’m in trouble.
NEXT: 5 steps to a new way of thinking
Scripture references from QuickBible Amplified. version 1.0.0 , Copyright (c) 2000 by The Lockman Foundation
Boy this sound eerily familiar. I always seem to try to figure out what I did to cause a situation. How do I trust God with the mistakes I have made. Especially when I see people I love struggling because of them.
You trust God by remembering that He not only saves but heals, delivers, redeems and restores. And what He restores us to is what He intended in the first place. My goal is to stop wasting time in my mind with the past and future.
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