How can God calm your mind?

Auto-generated transcript. It may contain mistakes.

How can God calm your mind? Recently, something happened at work that I could not stop thinking about. When I was trying to go to bed, it just kept playing over and over in my mind, thinking about all the different ways I could have done something differently. And then after finally falling asleep in the middle of the night, woke up again, and it just started replaying. What are we supposed to do with that? Well, the Bible says, "Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." Meaning, when we start getting those persistent thoughts, we are to hold it and analyze, "What does God want me to do with this?" Because thoughts can be helpful or hurtful. If it's hurtful, the Bible says, "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God." In other words, if a thought is hurtful, going against the words of God, we need to attack it and cast it out. But if it's helpful, aligning with God's words and commands, we need to receive it and do something with it. So, how do we know which thoughts are helpful or hurtful? Well, God taught me this in three parts. First, it says to take out anything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. How do we learn about God? The Bible. As we read stories, hear what he said, we learn his character, how he thinks, and what we should or should not be thinking, and what we should or should not do. So, part one, we need to pull out the knowledge of God and say, "How does this measure up against it?" But what does that look like practically? My wife and I once had this huge argument, and I just kept spinning on all the things I should have said, all the things I could have said, all the things I shouldn't have said. And while I was at church, I had this thought, "Go home to your wife and fix things." And I could not get rid of it. She was already very angry. I thought it would make it worse if I do that. So, I took it captive, said, "God, what do you want me to do with this?" And he reminded me of this verse, "If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar and first go be reconciled to them, then come and offer your gift." So, the thought that was stuck in my mind, if I'm making it obedient to God's word, matching it up to God's standards in the Bible, it was something helpful I needed to act on. So, I did it, and God was with me, and everything got resolved. Thank you, Jesus. But what about the hurtful thoughts? Part three. I once said something at work that I thought ruined my career. I thought I lost trust with everybody that knew me. Even though they said it was fine, I just kept thinking, "You're just saying that. I should have known better." And I couldn't sleep or eat cuz I kept thinking about it, and I just kept beating myself up. And then after waking up in the middle of the night and getting so fed up, I finally grabbed that thought, cried out to God, and said, "What do you want me to do with this?" I felt so ashamed, and then he reminded me of the scripture. He himself, Jesus, bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. The Bible says we are to take those thoughts and make them obedient to Christ. Jesus died on the cross for our mistakes before we ever made them, knowing we would make them. So, I don't need to feel ashamed of that thought because he died to get rid of it. So, yes, I can get better, but I'm not a failure. I didn't ruin everything. Because I believed and accepted the sacrifice of Jesus, I can be set free from that shame and cast out that thought. That's what finally gave me peace. It's not easy taking every thought captive, but marking it safe or casting it out based on the word of God is much more effective than letting it continue to mess with us. I'm praying that you will be set free today in Jesus' name. God bless you, friends.