A Saved Mind

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV)
 
The New King James renders this phrase in the Greek as “sound mind.” The other part of the phrase is where we get the idea of “salvation.” It refers to a saved mind.
 
When I think back on what Jesus Christ has done for me, I can tell you that He saved my mind. I truly was a tormented and insecure child coming out of abuse, second-guessing, self-doubt and self-loathing. With that kind of mindset, you absolutely despise yourself and believe that you’ll never amount to anything. You feel like you have to constantly prove something and perform.  Talk about torment of the mind! I lived my life in a cycle of defeat.
 
But the enemy overplayed his cards with me.  He tried to convince me that God could never change me after God’s Word said that’s what Jesus Christ came to do. Jesus did not come for the well; He came for the sick. He did not come for those that were already whole; He came for those that needed Him desperately.  I began to see what the Bible says and I decided to believe it.
 
I should give a disclaimer of sorts: I am not talking about genuine, medically-diagnosed mental illness. That is something that God can and does heal through various processes, but what I’m really speaking to are situational challenges where something has happened – a circumstance, sudden crisis, whatever it may be that has caused us to go through a pronounced season of defeated thinking. Maybe we’re even going so far as to make fools of ourselves externally, where our defeated thoughts come out in our defeated actions and we begin acting like the person we are thinking like.
 
Can you imagine what would happen if the enemy could just hold us there?  If we became convinced that we don’t have soundness of mind and got trapped in that place? All sorts of negative things could happen.
 
The Apostle Paul talked about it in Romans 7:15 when he said, “What I hate, that I do.” How many of us have done things and, while we’re doing it, thought, “I don’t even want to be doing this.” I can remember times of defeat in my life when I thought, “Why am I doing this?  I don’t even want to be doing this. This isn’t even where my heart is!”
 
It can come from rejection, loss and many other things. We can think, “I cannot mentally survive this.” We will reaffirm that idea in our minds over and over again. “I cannot make it through this. My mind will never come back together again.”
 
This doesn’t mean that we don’t grieve. The Word of God says we grieve, but not as those who have no hope. We certainly want to have a healthy grief, but forecasting ourselves as never having a sound mind is a lie from the enemy.
 
Victimization can do it. This is one I’ve seen over and over again because this is my specific past. I thought I would have a broken mind forever. I felt that if I had to look squarely in the face of where I had been that I would not emotionally and mentally survive it. I had to begin dealing with my emotional family tree. That is the biggest drop-out rate in the journey, because people are convinced they are not able to tolerate it. But that is a lie!  We are not wimps!  We have been given a strong heart and a sound mind. We are far more resilient than we realize.
 
I’m a big believer in seeking godly counseling. I’m a big believer in going to a professional and talking through some of the things we’re going through. We can’t let the enemy intimidate us from seeking wholeness and health in Christ by having it in our heads that we will never survive it. That is a lie! 
 
“He sent His word and healed them,” Psalm 107:20 tells us, “And delivered them from their destructions.” (NKJV)
 
God sent His Word to heal you. We can reprogram our thoughts to reclaim a sound, saved mind. You will feel like you think, so redeem your mind through the health and wholeness of God’s Word.
 
 
Adapted from Beth Moore’s teaching, “A Beautiful Mind.” Beth joins James and Betty all week on LIFE TODAY to talk in depth about reclaiming a sound, saved mind.