{"id":5688,"date":"2019-03-24T16:45:42","date_gmt":"2019-03-24T06:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=5688"},"modified":"2019-03-24T17:29:37","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T07:29:37","slug":"how-to-control-your-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/how-to-control-your-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Control Your Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How to Control Your Thoughts<\/strong>by\u00a0Fr Anthony Messeh<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Reposted from http:\/\/www.franthony.com\/blog\/how-to-control-your-thoughts\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Fr Anthony Messeh is an American Coptic Orthodox Christian living in Arlington, VA. The aim of his blog is to spread the message of a real, relevant and rewarding God.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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That title is a bit misleading (but it sure is catchy isn\u2019t it?<\/em>).\u00a0 You can\u2019t actually \u201ccontrol<\/em>\u201d your thoughts \u2013 at least not in the same way that you can control other things, like a blender or a remote control car or a group of dancing robots.<\/p>\n<\/header>\n
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It would be great if you could, but you can\u2019t.\u00a0 You can\u2019t control every thought that comes into your head. \u00a0Thoughts will creep in that you have no control over.\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n

Insecure thoughts:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not good enough and ______ probably thinks I\u2019m annoying.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Fearful thoughts:\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ll never be able to fix this or get to that point in my career, marriage, etc.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Negative thoughts:\u00a0\u201cMy life is so difficult and everything is working against me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Impure thoughts:\u00a0(no explanation needed for this one)<\/em><\/p>\n

Dealing with thoughts like these isn\u2019t easy.\u00a0 It can be debilitating at times.\u00a0 It feels like you\u2019re in round 4 of a 15-round sumo wrestling match with this guy.\u00a0 No matter what you do, the thoughts just keep coming and coming and coming\u2026<\/p>\n

Is there a solution?\u00a0 Is there anything we can do?\u00a0 Or are we destined to be slaves to our thoughts forever?<\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus said,\u00a0\u201cAnd you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.\u201d John 8:32<\/em><\/p>\n

The solution to your thought problem is often the exact opposite of what you might think.\u00a0\u00a0The solution isn\u2019t to REMOVE those pesky old thoughts, but rather to REPLACE them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Imagine you have a 1,000 gallon tank of water. \u00a0Imagine that it\u2019s full to the brim and you want to empty the water of it.\u00a0 How would you do it?<\/p>\n

You have two options:<\/p>\n

Option A: try to pick up the pool and dump the water out (aka, the dumb way<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Option B: throw a rock in (aka, the smart\/I-obviously-listen-to-Fr.-Anthony way<\/em>)<\/p>\n

What would happen if you tried the first option \u2013 to pick it up and dump the water out?\u00a0 YOU WILL FAIL.\u00a0 You will fail and you will be exhausted as well.\u00a0 That\u2019s because trying to REMOVE the water doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

But what would happen if you tried the second option \u2013 throw a rock in?\u00a0 A little water would splash out.\u00a0 And if you threw another rock in?\u00a0 A little more would splash out.\u00a0 And what would happen if you continued to throw rocks in there \u2013 one a day every day for 10 years?<\/p>\n

ALL THE WATER WOULD BE GONE!<\/p>\n

The same is true for your thoughts.\u00a0 Stop trying to remove your old thoughts and instead seek to replace them.\u00a0 How?<\/p>\n

Below are four ways (or rocks) that you can use to replace those negative thought patterns.<\/p>\n

1) TALK IT OUT<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As long as your thoughts remain hidden inside your head, they have power over you.\u00a0 But once you let them out, they somehow become a lot easier to deal with.<\/p>\n

2) \u00a0READ A LOT!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Reading is the fastest way to put new thoughts in your head.\u00a0 For me personally, there is no more important habit than this.\u00a0 I believe that reading will bring more fruit into life \u2013 when done consistently \u2013 than just about any other spiritual practice.\u00a0 It certainly has for me.<\/p>\n

3) \u00a0PRAY, BUT NOT A LOT<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There\u2019s a good way to pray about your thought problem \u2013 \u201cLord, I surrender my thoughts to You and ask Your Holy Spirit to guide my thoughts this day.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s a not-so-good way to pray: \u00a0\u201cplease God help me to stop remembering my mistakes and thinking that I\u2019m a bad person.\u00a0 I know I made mistakes but please help me to stop remembering them all the time \u2013 especially that one mistake that was just so awful.\u00a0 Please please please help me stop thinking about that mistake and how awful I am\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Prayer is good, but obsessive prayer is not good.\u00a0 The kind of prayer you need is the kind that a) is THANKFUL, b) is TRUSTING, and c) PRAISING.<\/p>\n

4) \u00a0JUST SAY NO!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Learn to reject thoughts that you KNOW are not true and from the devil.\u00a0 JUST SAY NO!\u00a0 Say what Jesus said when His disciple Peter introduced a thought that He didn\u2019t want\/need to hear, \u201cGET BEHIND ME SATAN!\u00a0 You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.\u201d (Matthew 16:23)<\/em><\/p>\n

Trust me, if you struggle with your thought life, you are not alone. \u00a0It is something that everyone struggles with to some degree. \u00a0Believe me, there\u2019s help for you.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need to live as a slave to your thoughts forever.\u00a0 But you must be committed to taking small steps every single day and being patient as those small steps add up to major changes in your way of thinking.<\/p>\n

See more from Fr Anthony Messeh at\u00a0http:\/\/www.franthony.com\/<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to Control Your Thoughtsby\u00a0Fr Anthony Messeh Reposted from http:\/\/www.franthony.com\/blog\/how-to-control-your-thoughts\u00a0 Fr Anthony Messeh is an American Coptic Orthodox Christian living in Arlington, VA. The aim of his blog is to spread the message of a real, relevant and rewarding God. That title is a bit misleading (but it sure is catchy isn\u2019t it?).\u00a0 You can\u2019t … Continue reading “How to Control Your Thoughts”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5689,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[95,96,97,98,99,100,101],"class_list":["post-5688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-anxiety","tag-fear","tag-insecurity","tag-mind","tag-spiritualgrowth","tag-thoughts","tag-worry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5688"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7293,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5688\/revisions\/7293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}