‘How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?…’ Psalm 13:2 (NKJV)
Often the mind is like a darkroom where you develop all your negatives of fear and doubt. The ‘darkroom’ of the mind works in a similar way to a photographer’s darkroom: the images are kept hidden from the light, time is spent soaking them in the right environment, and then they are displayed to become clearer and fully formed. Instead of choosing to dwell on the negatives in life, choose to release your mind to dream and imagine once again. To do this, you may find that you need to wrestle for freedom in your thinking. Take every thought captive, especially in your free-thinking time, your day-dream life and those moments when you are drifting off to sleep. You can discipline your thought patterns, and uproot all the fears and worries that control your thinking. Ask Yehovah how to spend your thinking time; ask Him to reveal the thought processes that can trap you in fear, bitterness or insecurity. Often it takes an active decision to think correctly about difficult situations rather than becoming overwhelmed by them. Choose to put on some worship music instead of the TV; meditate on a scripture verse rather than on an unhelpful conversation. Daily choose to fix your thoughts on Yehovah. Take time to relax before you go to bed; don’t start thinking or talking about issues that are painful before trying to sleep! Everyone has seasons where they need to wrestle in their minds; so choose to engage in the battle, and win! If you keep returning your thoughts and your eyes to Yehovah, you are on the right road.