Mind Games - Week 4: “Reframing Your Mind”

See, it's the same God, but it's a different frame through which we are viewing him. So how do we reframe that? How do we see correctly? Well, again, Paul writes it all happens through gratitude. God's word tells us. Notice what he says in verse eight. He says, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things. [00:24:57] (33 seconds)  #ThinkOnPraiseworthies

See, gratitude doesn't deny reality. It doesn't say that the times aren't tough. It says, yes, this is hard, but God is still good. Yes. I don't know how I ended up in this situation, but I know that God is faithful. Gratitude helps us trust God no matter what our circumstances tell us. Reframes how we view the world around us. So gratitude reframes our minds with right prayer, with right thinking. And finally, number three, gratitude reframes our minds with right living. With right living. [00:28:22] (38 seconds)  #GratitudeAcknowledgesReality

And I think a lot of ways, that magic eye book is a lot like our lives. We have so much chaos in our lives. We have so many things that if we are to look at our circumstances, it's hard for us to see the goodness of God. Bunch of squiggly lines on a page. And yet if we will frame our lives with gratitude, it helps us look through the circumstances of our lives to the goodness of a good and faithful God. Gratitude helps us see through our present circumstances to the goodness of who God is. It reframes our lives with the right perspective so that we can see clearly. [00:36:34] (47 seconds)  #MagicEyeGratitude

See, the truth is that some many of us have been staring at our own problems when God is inviting us to look through those problems and look to him. So how do we do that? With gratitude. Framing up our lives in the correct way, starting with prayer, continuing on to our thoughts, living our lives with gratitude. And when we do, the peace of God reigns in our lives. See, this is what we see with the apostle Paul. You know, Paul's life looked anything but peaceful. But because he viewed everything through the lens of gratitude towards Christ, he experienced peace. And that same peace is available to us today. [00:37:22] (41 seconds)  #LookThroughProblemsToGod

And it's interesting that Paul uses the language of practice. See, this is not a one time decision. This is a daily habit. It's choosing again and again and again to frame up our lives, to view through the lens of gratitude, and to live that out every single day. Christian philosopher Dallas Willard says this, we don't believe something by merely saying we believe it or even when we believe that we believe it. We believe something when we act as if it were true. When we act as if it were true. [00:31:27] (36 seconds)  #PracticeGratefulLiving

God is huge. He is so big, and he cares so much about us. I love what holocaust survivor and author Cory Tim Boone says, there's nothing too great for God's power. There's nothing too small for his love. We can bring everything to God in prayer. And when we do with gratitude, his peace guards us, watches over us. So winning the mind game starts with gratitude reframing our minds with right prayer and then it continues as gratitude reframes our minds through right thinking. [00:21:11] (29 seconds)  #BringEverythingToGod

Prayer literally changes our brains. By the way, I love it when science finally catches up to God's word. Don't you? Ain't that cool? See, the good news is that God has given us prayer as a tool to help us as we win the mind games. So what kind of prayer are we talking about here? Well, it's the right prayer. The right prayer. Let me give you a caveat. When I say right prayer, I'm not talking about right words. Alright? I'm not talking about right words. Pastor Jim has said before that you don't have to have perfect words to have a perfect prayer. [00:14:48] (32 seconds)  #PrayerChangesBrain

Friends, can I suggest that we all need a little more peace of God in our lives? We all need to experience that. And when we reframe our minds through gratitude with right prayer, right thinking, and right living, everything changes. Now your circumstances, those may not change immediately, but your perspective can change right away. And when your perspective changes, the peace of God shows up. [00:38:49] (28 seconds)  #GratitudeTransformsPerspective

The perspective through which, the way I look through these glasses, if I take these off, everything is blurry. If I put them on, I can see correctly. But if the lenses are not right in these glasses, then the way that I view life is not going to be correct. See, the truth is that in reality, we don't just see things the way that they are. We see them through the frame that we are using. We see them through the lens through which we choose to live this life. [00:07:05] (25 seconds)  #SeeThroughRightLens

It's hard to have gratitude sometimes, but when you look through that lens of gratitude at your past, you will see the good of what God is doing. You know, maybe it was a job you didn't get. Maybe a relationship that didn't work out or a circumstance where it seems like your prayers went unanswered. And I think if we were all being honest, we would say that there's been times in our lives that have felt like our prayers have been unanswered. But is that reality? Here's the thing. It all depends on your frame. It all depends on your lens. [00:16:08] (33 seconds)  #GratitudeReframesPast

How does that happen? How does that happen when we're having the exact same experience? You both saw the same movie. You both saw the same play. So how can you have two different experiences of it? Well, the truth is that people can walk through the exact same situation but frame it up and experience it in different ways. You know, one person hears a song and thinks it's the greatest song of all time, then they send it to someone else and they say that's absolute trash. You know, someone recommends a book to you. They say this is the the greatest book I've ever read in my entire life. And every single time, three pages in, you are falling asleep. [00:22:05] (34 seconds)  #SameEventDifferentFrame

Apologize for that. So it starts with gratitude in prayer, then it moves on to gratitude and thoughts. We start with gratitude and prayer saying, God, I'm gonna focus on what's good no matter my circumstances. I trust you. Then it goes to gratitude and thoughts. Literally, the prayer then changes our thoughts. Then after that, it leads to gratitude and action in our lives, and eventually this leads to experiencing the peace of God. Gratitude and prayer, gratitude and thoughts leads to gratitude and action, leads to experiencing the peace of God. So this is amazing. [00:33:10] (37 seconds)  #GratitudePrayerThoughtAction

And sometimes the truth is that frame can be off. So how do we change this? How do we win this particular mind game when it comes to framing our lives correctly so that we can have a correct view of the truth of what is around us. That's what this whole series has been about. Because as pastor Jim has said, where your head is, your life follows. And the truth is that our lives are always moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts. So when it comes to our thoughts, what kind of frame are we using in our lives? [00:07:30] (33 seconds)  #WinTheMindGame

It all comes back to that frame. It comes back to that lens of gratitude in our minds. Gratitude is the shift. See, gratitude forces us to remember what God has done. It forces us to look for the good in our lives, to see how God has and is and always will be faithful to us. It reframes our entire situation. I mean, think about your past. A lot of us have a really bad association with our past. [00:15:30] (31 seconds)  #GratitudeForGodsFaithfulness

But here's the problem. The problem comes in when we let our cognitive bias affect our view of the Lord and distort the truth of who he is. Distort his goodness. When our lens, when our frame through which we are viewing the world, especially when we are viewing God, when it gets messed up and causes that to be distorted, that is a problem. And and based on our past circumstances, our cognitive bias can point us in totally different directions. Right? You know, maybe you had a great dad growing up. [00:24:01] (32 seconds)  #GuardAgainstCognitiveBias