Archive for the Category »Brain overhaul «

30
Aug
How to Deal With the Accuser Living in Your Head
Susan Gaddis

Do you ever have one of those days when you feel like there is a little voice in your head telling you what a poor example you are of the human race? Be assured that the little voice is not you. It may sound like you, but it is not. That voice is actually thoughts being thrown into your mind by someone known as the Accuser—and he is out to destroy your life. Here are some facts about the Accuser and some tips on how to deal with him.

How to know you are being condemned by the Accuser

You will feel one or more of the following emotions: depressed, discouraged, guilty, shamed, inadequate, a failure, hopeless, stupid, unloved, disliked, rejected, blamed, useless, lonely, discarded or condemned.

You will think thoughts along the lines of the following: “I’m a failure.” “This will never change.” “I’m a jerk.” “There is no hope for me.” “No one likes me.” “It’s not worth it.” “Why me?”

He is not flesh and blood! 

The Accuser is not human. He is a type of spirit, and he has been around for a very long time. He goes by the names of Satan, Devil, Accuser, Adversary, Angel of Light, Father of Lies, Lucifer, Serpent and many more that describe his character and activities (see Ephesians 6:12).

The Accuser does what his name implies—he accuses. “For the accuser of our brothers is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night . . . .” (Revelation 12:10 NIV).

What to do when the Accuser assaults you

1. Don’t agree with him! Recognize who is speaking. Even if the voice sounds like your own voice, don’t believe it!

2. Put on your spiritual armor and use your spiritual weapon (see Ephesians 6:13–18).

3. Apply the finished work of Christ through repentance if you have sinned (see 1 John 1:9).

4. Remind the enemy that the Lamb’s blood identifies you as sinless. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Revelation 12:11 NIV).

5. Then speak your testimony to the enemy. “Yep, everything you say was once true, but in Christ that is no longer who I am” (see Revelation 12:11 above).

6. Reaffirm your total commitment to Christ and expect a little more practice in laying down your life (see Revelation 12:11 above).

7. Rebuke the enemy! You’ve been given authority—now use it! Just say something along the lines of, “Accuser, I rebuke you. You have no power over me. I have been bought with the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and he now owns me and has authority over my life. You have no authority to accuse me of anything. Take your accusations about me, and tell them to Jesus. Stop criticizing God’s property”  (see James 4:7).  

Dealing with the Accuser can be an ongoing battle when we first realize who is attacking us. But the more we practice the above steps, the more we find freedom from mental torment and the tendency to believe the lies of the enemy.

What suggestions can you add that would help in dealing with the Accuser? Please leave your input in the comment link below. We would love to hear from you.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: Brain overhaul, Prayer, Spiritual Warfare  Tags: , , , , , , ,
20
Aug
4 Tips on How to Get to Know the God of the Possible
Susan Gaddis

Someone once said that a rut is simply a grave with both ends knocked out. Many of us end up in such ruts when we get trapped in old habit patterns and ways of thinking. Then we wonder why our lives seem boring or hopeless.

In their book, The Art of Possibility, Rosamund and Benjamine Zander state, “Every problem, everything hindering us from pursuing our dream only appears unsolvable inside a particular frame or point of view. Enlarge the box, or create another frame around the data, and problems vanish, while new opportunities appear.”

Most of us have lived with our view of God for so long that we find it hard to enlarge our “God box.” Yet God is the creator of the universe, and He continues to create. He is the God of possibilities and promise. His perspective of our life and the possibilities before us is so much bigger than what we currently perceive. So how do we climb out of our box-like grave rut and see the vastness of the possibilities set before us by our living God?

Here are 4 tips:

1.  Read again the stories of the Bible and the God of the Bible. Note the “ruts” people found themselves in and how new possibilities opened up before them when they focused their eyes on God instead of the sides of their ruts.

2.  Change your expectations and look for possibilities in places you previously ignored. The Zanders tell the story of four young men who sat by the bedside of their dying father.

“The old man, with his last breath, tells them there is a huge treasure buried in the family fields. The sons crowd around him crying, ‘Where, where?’ but it is too late. The day after the funeral and for many days to come, the young men go out with their picks and shovels and turn the soil, digging deeply into the ground from one end of each field to the other. They find nothing and, bitterly disappointed, abandon the search. The next season the farm has its best harvest ever.”

3. Replace your negative thinking and self talk with the promises of God found throughout the Bible. Pray those promises back to the God who gave them.

4. Commit your dreams and problems to the Lord. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:19-21).

What have you discovered about the God of the possible? I’d love to hear your comments. (Click on the blue comment link at the bottom of this post.)

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: Brain overhaul, Personal growth  Tags: , , , , , , ,
18
Aug
5 Secrets to Understanding the Opposite Sex
Susan Gaddis

I think Elayne Boosler had it right when she said, “When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country. It’s a whole different way of thinking.”

Half of the people that live on this planet are wired differently than the other half. For example, a wife wants her husband to compassionately listen to her latest frustration. The husband wants her to get to the point so he can give his wife the solution to her problem. Unfortunately, her sharing is the point, the solution isn’t, and her husband is sleeping on the couch—again!

A mother attempts a meaningful conversation with a son who interprets her effort as invading his space. A daughter feels her father doesn’t have time to listen to her innermost thoughts while the dad thinks he is doing pretty well to listen to her during halftime of the football game.

These differences also show up in other relationships where the sexes have to converse. A man can interpret a woman employer as bossy and domineering when she sees herself as confidently overseeing the details of the business. A male soccer coach wants to take his young team to view a professional soccer game, yet he has to convince a soccer mom that the trip will be safe and they will be home on time. She apparently has a funny feeling about the security of the trip. He thinks she’s nuts.

God made us different for a purpose, because it is only together that we reflect Him and His image. Remember, God made Adam and Eve in His image—male and female together. In order to fully represent the image of God through communication we need to seek to understand how the other sex communicates.

Ellen Tien conducted an interview with 25 couples and found some genuine differences in the way men and women behave and perceive events. See if you can relate to these differences:

1. Men consolidate while women diversify

2. Men want to get going while women want to get ready

3. Men care about what things do while women care about how things look

4. Men go for the big picture while women cherish the details

5. Men rely on information while women depend on intuition 

What communication differences between men and women can you add to this list? Have you found that honoring these differences allow a place for the Spirit Holy to manifest himself in your communications?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: Brain overhaul, Relationships  Tags: , , , , ,
30
Jul
How High Is Your God Awareness Level?
Susan Gaddis

In his book Everything Belongs, Richard Rohr says, “We cannot attain the presence of God because we’re already totally in the presence of God. What’s absent is awareness.”

Ouch! I’ve been pondering what it is that keeps me from the awareness of God, and I’ve come up with 3 things that make me oblivious to God at any given moment of my day.

Caught in the “shoulds”

We all tend to get frustrated when life is not what it should be, people are not behaving as they should be, and our agenda isn’t coming together as it should be. When our minds are occupied with what should be, we lose our ability to recognize God in a situation. Focusing on the possibilities, instead of the “shoulds,” influences how we view God and his abilities. Our God awareness level goes up.

Caught in assumptions

How often do we make quick decisions without gathering the facts to base our decisions on? So often we make up our minds without asking questions, or we neglect to seek information from different sources concerning a situation. We do this without even realizing it—assumptions about people, assumptions about work, and assumptions about the church we attend. Making assumptions limits and often distorts our view of God’s workings in a situation. Focusing on the facts removes assumptions. Our God awareness level goes up.

Caught in an emotional overload

Grief, anger, and despair feel so intense they overwhelm our awareness of God. We want relief, and we seek it through escaping the situation or going into denial mode. Yet, Jesus is in the midst of the storm—calming it or enduring it with us. When we choose to stay with our emotional moments in a healthy way, our God awareness level goes up.

These are only 3 things that affect my God awareness, and, yes, there are many more to work on. But enough about me, what things do you do to keep your God awareness high? (Click on the blue comment link at the bottom of this post to leave  your words of wisdom for us.)

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: Brain overhaul, Daily, Personal growth  Tags: , , , , , ,
21
Jun
10 Things To Do When Life is Depressing
Susan Gaddis

photo by Dominic Morel

Do you ever have one of those days when life just seems depressing? Most of us do. If we wallow in the mud of our depressing mood, we end up covered in mental and emotional yuck. Here are 10 things to do to climb out of a mudhole of depression.

1. Read through some Psalms and remember that God’s love for you is not based on your mood. He loves you even when you can’t feel his presence.

2. Send an appreciation card to someone who has done something nice for you.

3. Set one goal to accomplish today. Make it attainable and not overwhelming. Then do it!

4. Go for a jog or a walk, and focus on the details of creation around you. Look at anything that grows, identify the smells coming your way, and listen for new sounds.

5. Make a list of 30 blessings in your life.

6. Take a lunch to the park and watch the children playing. Pray for them and their parents.

7. Write a list of how God has used you in the lives of other people.

8. Take coffee to the church secretary.

9. Play racket ball or swim. Exercise adjusts the chemicals in your brain, which helps your mood.

10. Get alone and pour your heart out to God. Ask for his strength and joy.

Still in the mudhole? Check out Help Guide for more suggestions on fighting depression.

What have you found helpful to do when faced with feelings of depression? (Oh, and don’t forget to walk the dog.)

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: Brain overhaul, Personal growth  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
09
Jun
Are You Living With Flat People?
Susan Gaddis

Three Musicians by Picasso

A story is told of Pablo Picasso riding on a train when a man approached him and asked him why, as a famous painter, he did not paint people “the way they really are.” Picasso asked the man what he meant by that expression.

The man opened his wallet and took out a snapshot of his wife, saying, “That’s my wife.”

Picasso responded, “Isn’t she rather small and flat?”

Most of us live and work with flat people and fail to realize that our limited perception misses the realms of possibility and wonder hidden within. Seeing people the way they really are is impossible, but we can see them as more than flat.

Usually we form a quick opinion of a person gleaned from a few interactions with him or her. That information is then filtered through what others have told us about the individual. As time goes on, we view this person through the stories we ingrain within—stories based on what we continue to hear and experience of his or her actions and life events.

Some of these stories are good, and some are not, but all stories are limited, since we cannot know a person’s thoughts, motives, hopes, dreams, or the details of the past that have shaped his personality.

Without realizing it, we trap ourselves into certain patterns and ways of thinking concerning the people around us. We see only what we are inclined to see derived from our interpretation of the stories we’ve collected about them in our mental file cabinet.

Finding the Holy in the daily often means looking at people through new glasses—seeing the wonder that God has placed within them, finding the unexpected sparkle behind their story, and assuming the best about them.

Are the people around you flat? Are there aspects to their stories you are missing? How can you change the way you interpret these people?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: At work, Brain overhaul, Relationships  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
24
May
Do You Suffer As a Mental Busybody?
Susan Gaddis

Most of us avoid gossip and slander, yet I wonder how many of us mentally trespass in other people’s affairs without ever speaking a word. Living as a mental busybody happens when our inner monologue takes us into areas that are none of our business. Suffering is the result.

“But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters” (1 Peter 4:15 NKJ). Interesting—a busybody is grouped with murderers, thieves and evildoers. Yep, I can see how that might cause some suffering.

I am responsible for me, not you. So tension, stress, and suffering arrive when I am being a busybody with my thoughts—mentally living outside of what is my own responsibility and business. When I think, “You should go to church, he is not listening to me, she is being irresponsible,” I am out of my arena of responsibility and into someone else’s business. When my thought life is consumed with how wrong I am being treated or what someone else should or shouldn’t be doing, then I am being a mental busybody.

All of my thoughts concerning other people may be true; however I have no control over other people. I cannot change people. I have a hard enough time changing me. This doesn’t mean that I condone or approve of other people’s choices. What it means is that what they do, or don’t do, is only under their own control. So why am I wasting brain cells thinking about something that I have no control over?

Byron Katie makes an interesting statement in her book, Loving What Is, “If you are living your life and I am mentally living your life, who is here living mine? We’re both over there. Being mentally in your business keeps me from being present in my own.”

Tune into your self-talk and see what percentage of your day is wasted living someone else’s life instead of your own. Do you suffer as a mental busybody?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: Brain overhaul  Tags: , , , , , , , ,
12
May
Changing Your Perspective Can Change Your Approach to Life
Susan Gaddis

Having a hard day? Life isn’t always fair or easy, but changing your perspective can change how you approach life. Grab the Kleenex and learn from someone who knows–Patrick Henry Hughes.

If you received this post via an RSS feeder or by email and cannot see the video, please stop by the Holy in the Daily blog to view it. It will make your day, I promise!

Patrick teaches me to be thankful for what I have and to use what God has given me for His glory! Focusing on the negative will not move me forward.

What are you doing with the gifts and talents given to you by God? What did the Spirit Holy drop into your spirit as you watched this short clip?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

To learn more about Patrick Henry and his new book, I Am Potential, click here.

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Category: Brain overhaul, Personal growth, Video  Tags: , , , , , , ,
28
Apr
How To Put Your Problems Behind You
Susan Gaddis

Everyone has problems. Along the road of life you will run into obstacles that hinder your journey if you don’t learn how to move past them.

Too much focusing on your financial crises, irritations, relationship issues, or personal failures will only cause irritation and depression. Soon your world shrinks and all you can see is the negative in your life or in someone else.

One of my areas of oversight in our church concerns Biblical Counseling. Traditionally we seek to help people fix what is wrong with their life by identifying their problem, finding the root from which the problem grew, engaging in some inner healing with the Spirit Holy, and providing each individual with tools to think and act scripturally–all important practices, but basically problem centered.

Focusing on the problem is helpful, but it takes a lot of energy and emotional investment. I see a balance to this traditional method in what is called Positive Psychology.

This avenue of counseling asks the question: What happens if you use your energy to identify and grow what is right about you and your life instead of focusing on the negative? This approach is perfectly biblical.

Think about it. What do we instinctively do when we’re driving down the road and see an obstacle? Most of us note the obstacle, be it an old box or road kill, and we slow down. But we don’t focus on the obstacle like a target, or it would consume our vision and we would hit it dead center. Instead, as soon as we’ve noted the obstacle, our eyes move beyond it and our reflexes dictate a course around it.

Runners follow the same principle in order to run a good race. They know not to focus on obstacles in their path. Such distractions cause them to lose their rhythm and eventually the race.

Our personal problems are the same as any other obstacle blocking our forward motion. When a problem consumes our focus, it also becomes an unintentional target. In order to move safely around the problem we must note it and focus beyond the problem to the good part of the road—where we are going, what we are becoming, and the good things that God has placed in us and in our lives.

Please note that we are not ignoring or denying the problem—we are choosing to focus most of our attention beyond the problem. Simply put, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8 NIV).

What would your life be like if you used your energy to identify and grow what is right about you? What would happen if you looked for the good in a person instead of focusing on their irritations? How would your relationships be different? How much more of the Holy would you find in your daily if you changed your focus?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: Brain overhaul, Daily, Personal growth, Relationships  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
05
Apr
Why Flawed People Have It Right
Susan Gaddis

My flaws and bloopers would score high on a weekly sitcom. Like others, my personality lacks many positive traits, yet my defects are what attract the grace of God to my life.

God is not condemning you for your bloopers—he is using your flaws to jump-start his workings of grace in your life. Grace is God’s avenue for transferring all his perfection, power, authority, favor, and forgiveness to you.

This grace was brought to planet earth through Jesus Christ and contains the power to transform and teach you all you need to know to live a godly life (see John 1:17 and Titus 2:11-12).

God’s grace is not earned through any action on your part. It is a gift freely given to flawed folks like you and me. In fact, you can’t even feel the transformation as it happens—but the results are amazing! The parts of you that you are blind to, or unable to fix, change as you live out your days simply because God has infused you with his grace.

“Grace does not demand perfection or provide a measurement for it. It brings perfection—the perfection of the Blood of The Lamb. It invites us to relax in His forgiveness and to assimilate His nature rather than to attempt to perform for others.

Grace releases us from a performance oriented portrayal of perfection, giving us instead, His acceptance as we are. It is a heart thing! The results may be seen by those around us, but in grace we do not see the change as an accomplishment because we are too focused on Him to see ourselves.” –Pastor Dave Fritsch in Dimensions of Grace

The outtakes on your life may advertise your humanity, but they also attract God’s grace. Can you relax in your flaws and know that grace has already made you perfect?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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