I AM

Do you ever think about the way you talk about yourself?

I am tired.

I am lonely.

I am scared.

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I am confident.

I am able.

I am energized.

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I am unable.

I am [my diagnosis].

I am what they say.

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I am supported.

I am loved.

I am in community.

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Which words give you energy? Which words sap your strength? Which words cause you to reach out to others? Which words lead you to self-pity? Worth thinking about....

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On the flip side, have you ever studied how God talks about Himself?

"I am the bread of life" (John 6:48)

"I am the light of the world" (John 8:12).

"I am the gate for the sheep" (John 10:7).

"I am the good shepherd" (John 10:11).

"I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25).

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).

"I am the vine; you are the branches" (John 15:5).

"I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades" (Revelation 1:18).

"I am making everything new" (Revelation 21:5).

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End" (Revelation 22:13).

"I am coming soon" (Revelation 22:20)

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Jesus also says things like, "I am thirsty" (John 19:28). Most of the time, though, when He said, "I am," He was talking about His enduring character, His enduring nature as God. He talked in present tense, about who He was, about what he could do. Could we learn from this? What we are is because of what the eternal I AM made us. What we can do, what I am is because of I AM.

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If He is the bread, I am energized.

If He is the light, I am light.

If He is the gate, I am on a path.

If He is the Shepherd, I am directed.

If He is the resurrection, I am eternal.

If He is the truth, I am true.

If He is the vine, I am able in His strength.

If He is the life, I am living.

If He is Creator, I am creative.

If He is eternal, I have purpose.

If He is coming soon, I am living with hope.

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I AM because of I AM!

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*This post was inspired by Ashley LeMieux's "I Am" podcast.

Quieting the Mind

I'm and introverted perfectionist, and as such, my mind has a tendency to try to run away from me. I often equate the struggle keeping up with my thoughts to being in a hamster wheel that is spinning faster than I can keep up. Anyway...A friend asked the other day how to quiet the lies that Satan speaks into our minds, and I thought that question was worth addressing here. I am clearly not an expert on controlling the mind (which is why I need Jesus), but here are a few things that I do when my thoughts are going a mile a minute, and often in a negative direction.

1) Say, "Jesus" out loud over and over again.

There is power in the name of Jesus! (There's a great song about this, too: "Break Every Chain.")

2) Say, "I rebuke you, Satan, in Jesus' name" out loud.

A friend once told me that Satan is a spirit, not the Holy Spirit, and therefore cannot read our thoughts, so it's necessary to rebuke him out loud. "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power" (Eph 6:10, New International Version)

3) Sing praise songs.

I'll never forgot the day that my best friend moved to another state. I was crying ugly tears and having a pity party when the Spirit was like, "Are you going to cry, or are you going to praise me?" I started singing through my tears and though I was still immensely sad, I remembered that God would never leave me (Deut 31:8) and was sovereign over this change in my life.

4) Scroll through social media (not always healthy, but distracting).

Social media is a double-edged sword, in that it can feed negativity and comparison. But it's also very stimulating, and switching from picture to picture takes me away from obsessive thinking for awhile (so long as I'm not looking at a feed that ties in with the subject of the hamster wheel thinking that led me to go to social media for distraction in the first place).

5) Do a hard crossword.

My supervisor in graduate school told me that it was necessary to find a hobby that would take all of your brain power so that the mind couldn't think of anything else. Hard crosswords, when I apply myself, do that for me. If I have my phone or dictionary out and am hardily searching for clues, I can't think about much else.

Friends, what do you do to slow down your mind and keep from overthinking? Please share in the comments section below.