Lost In Thought: What To Do In The Moment

Lost in Thought

Amen. Well, we are in week three of a series that I’ve entitled Lost in Thought, and the series is all about how to win the war in your mind. And we have gotten a lot of feedback during this. A lot. A lot. And so we’ve just been so grateful, grateful to God that we’re able to talk about something that truly matters. And as we’ve talked about numerous times in the series, we believe that this is probably not the only, but probably the most important battle that you will fight in your life is the battle that happens right between your ears. And we hope that you’re starting to see that God has not left you defenseless when it comes to the battle of your mind.

Just by way of review, week one, so it’s two weeks ago. Here was our three thoughts. Was this the battle in your mind is the most important battle of your life? Number two, you are the thinker of your thoughts, which is just means that you get to choose what to think about. And number three, you can’t have a positive life with a negative mind. And then last week, this was week number two, we talked about strongholds and how strongholds what they are is their well-defended lies that have been built brick by brick. And the good news though is that God has given you divine power to demolish strongholds.

And we went through the four R’s if you remember them, four R’s on how to retrain your mind. Number one is to recognize, to see what a stronghold for what it really is, to reject, that’s to say, not in my house. Number three, replace, which is fill your mind with God’s truth, and number four was retrain, rebuild new neural pathways through repetition. And here’s the thing about the four R’s. I think they’re powerful, and I think they absolutely work, but I would admit this is that the four R’s are designed for the long game. It’s retraining your mind over time to build new neural pathways.

What Do You Do Right Now?

And so the question, though, is this well, what do you do right now? What do you do when you’re in the middle of it? What do you do when you’re in the middle of a battle, in the middle of a struggle, in the middle of a storm? Like, like what do you do? And so I would say that the four R’s teach you what to do. But what we’re gonna do today is we’re gonna talk about how to do it.

And so I’m gonna say probably 15 years ago, there was a man by the name of Rick Renner. He’s got an awesome ministry in Russia, I believe. And he was here and he was speaking, and he did a little aside. He knew us kind of like a new little pastor. We had a few different like new little pastors. And he said, he said, young pastors, I want you to listen to me. I don’t know if you even remember he said this. He said, young pastors, listen to me. What you he says, be careful what you preach, because what you preach will become your test.

And I remember thinking, like, old guy, what does this what does this guy even know? Yep. So like I’m like, okay, what I preach will be my test. But I have found over the years consistently just how true that has been in my own life. And oftentimes the things that I’m preaching about aren’t oftentimes tests years down the road. They’re tests right now. And I bet I bet you that you’re preaching about something and you’re also processing it. And you’re using your own message during the week, because what you preach becomes your test.

Two Stories from My Life

And I just want to let you know, this past week I’ve had numerous opportunities to implement the things that we’re talking about when it comes to the mind in this series. And so I’ve got two stories that I’m wanting to tell about my life from this past week, and I’m gonna start with the least the less serious of the two.

So this past Tuesday, my daughter, Grace, I talk about her all the time, she’s in second grade, and this past Tuesday she moved into her new school. She still goes to the same school, but they’ve been building a new building right next door. They’re gonna demolish the old one, and then they’re gonna move into a new one. And so for Grace, if you know Grace at all, you know that she’s she likes patterns, she needs patterns, she needs predictability. And so there were so many new things that came from her going to a new school. It’s like a new drop-off area, it’s a new classroom. Some there was even like teacher changes. There was all sorts of new things.

And so she was nervous about it, mom was nervous about it, I was nervous about it, and so we dropped her off, and we’re like, okay. And so I remember that like that whole morning though, I I just felt like I had just this tension in my chest. Y’all know what that feels where you just you’re carrying your anxiety in your chest, where I feel like I’m not breathing as deep. It’s just something I just like have have this like tightness. And so I’m going about my day, and I and what was the the crazy thing is this, I wasn’t thinking negative about it. I wasn’t thinking, oh my gosh, she’s gonna do so horrible. I know it’s gonna be disaster. Like I wasn’t thinking like that.

But the thing is, is I’ve thought like that lots and lots and lots and lots of times in the past. And so for me, I had a neural pathway in my brain that was my daughter being in a new experience for me, equaled anxiety. And so, so I just and so I I and so I was thinking about it, and we had just been through the four R’s two days earlier, and so the first thing that I did was I recognized it. I was like, man, I’m I’m got like this negative thought, emotional pattern going on. So that was the first R. And then I realized like that’s not what God wants from me. I’m not I’m not doing anything, I’m not helping anything, I’m not contributing with her in school at this moment. Like I’m just I’m just thinking about it. And so I said, that does not get to ruin my day. That was number two, reject it. I’m just rejecting the thought.

And then what I did is I’m like, okay, and so I recognize it, I reject it. Oh, yeah, replace it. And so here’s what I did is I went into a room by myself and I pulled out my phone and I opened YouTube and I searched for like I think peaceful God’s promises. I don’t know, some some weird thing I searched YouTube for, and I came across this 15-minute video of this lady, and she’s just saying the promises of God, she’s reading scripture, but she’s doing it in a real calming voice, and you know, there’s like pretty ambient music going on in the background, and so like I just went into this room, I put my headphones in, and I sat down, and for 15 minutes I just turned my attention to the promises of God. And like after that was over, it was like, okay, that was a 15-minute video. Like I felt super different. And and the second half of the day was completely different from the first half of the day. Why? Because I recognized, I rejected, and then I replaced.

So here’s the question. Next time my daughter is in a new situation, am I gonna feel anxiety? Probably, but hopefully a little bit less so. Why? Because I’m retraining. That’s the fourth R. I’m retraining with time. That it’s like my daughter is in, is in a bad situation, not a bad situation, a challenging situation for her. And so what I’m doing, though, is I’m replacing those thoughts, and when I’m doing that, I’m retraining my mind.

A Practical Tool

And this week, what I’m wanting to talk about, I think is a really practical tool that for me, I’m just gonna say for me, has been super helpful. You know, Paul says in Philippians chapter 4, which you just read, he says this do not be anxious about anything, which is a pretty tall ask, don’t you think? He’s not saying like you don’t have to be anxious for anything, he’s he’s just telling you, do not be anxious for anything. But he doesn’t leave you hanging. In fact, in the following verses, he tells you how. He says this present your requests to God, and then in verse eight, he does, and this is the critical piece, he says, think about the right things.

And so he says, Don’t be anxious. And so if the audience is thinking, okay, how he answers that question to how with verse eight. I’m gonna read it one more time. This is verse eight, Philippians 4 8.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, why don’t you say that word with me? True, whatever is noble, say that one. Noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.

Right? So he’s telling you what he’s Paul is saying here’s what you need to think about if you want to stay free. And so here’s the question is like, how do you actually do that in the moment? And that’s the question that I’m hoping to address this morning.

Years ago, I came across some resources by a man named Kevin Gerald. I don’t know if anyone even knows Kevin Gerald, but he’s got a great church champion center in Seattle, Washington. They’ve got some other locations there in Washington. But he got this verse from Philippians 4, chapter 8, and God, or chapter 4, verse 8, and God gave him an acronym that he that is it’s super simple, it’s super powerful, and the acronym is F-A-I-T-H. Faith. Faith. And it’s incredibly simple, but it’s super powerful. And this acronym, once he created it, God gave it to him, and it’s traveled all across the world.

And so his church champion center, they’ve gotten letters from inmates, you know, that are quoted, they’ve got it on their walls. They’ve they’ve got they’ve got letters from like soldiers who are in war, war zones that are doing this, and they people write it on cards, people put it on their mirrors, it’s saved on their phones. Why? Because it works. And so if you’re just gonna cut, if you’re gonna come to me next week and you’re gonna say, like, Pastor David, I tried the faith thing, doesn’t work. I know you’re lying. Because it totally works. I’ve I I’ve I’ve used it multiple times this week, and it totally works.

F-A-I-T-H

And so, what this is for is when 2 a.m. brain comes, you’re you’re in a place that’s not helpful. Okay, I recognize I’m thinking bad, I’m thinking wrong. I know, oh, I’m recognizing, I’m recognizing. What am I supposed to do? Well, that’s exactly what this is for. So here we go. We’re gonna go through it. Uh we’re not gonna take too long, but faith, F-A-I-T-H. Ready?

Number one is this F. Focus on the positive. Write that down. Focus on the positive. Here’s the thing you’re gonna think about something. Your mind ain’t just gonna stay empty all day unless you’re dead. If your mind’s empty, it means you’re dead. And so you’re gonna think about some even when you sleep, you think. Right? So your brain is always gonna be thinking, and so you might as well choose what you think about. And Paul in Philippians chapter 4 8, he’s giving us this filter on the things because we get to choose, he’s giving us a filter on what we’re supposed to think about. So whatever is true. So not what ifs, not worst case scenarios. What is true? I’m gonna think about what’s true, whatever is noble, whatever is right. It’s so powerful. Whatever, not what’s wrong, right? What’s right in this situation right now? There’s plenty wrong, but there’s also things always that’s right.

I’ve told you this a hundred times, I’ll tell you a hundred more. What’s wrong is always available. So is what’s right. Right? So focus on what’s right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable. So, what Paul is telling us to do is to run our thoughts through this filter. Here’s what I’m thinking. Is it true? Well, it might be true. No, no. Is it true? Is it noble? Is it right? Is it pure? Is it lovely? Is it admirable? And if not, you reject it. You think about something else. Right? Because you have you have the choice.

But but you have to set your minds. Look at what Paul says, Colossians chapter 3, verse 2. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Set your mind. See, that’s an active thing. It’s a choice. You’ve got to do something. You have to set your mind on what’s right instead of setting your mind on what’s wrong. And that’s, let me just say this. That’s not the same as toxic positivity. That’s not pretending everything’s fine when it’s not. It’s choosing where to put your mental energy.

And so if you so if you catch yourself spiraling, what you can do is you can ask yourself, well, what’s one good thing I can focus on right now? What’s one good thing? I remember uh Don and Berna, are they even in here? Oh, right there, by my parents. Uh Don and Berna, I remember this, and I’m gonna butcher it because I don’t remember the details. But Don, when you were sick, was uh 10 years ago. He was, I and I don’t even remember exactly what it was. It was with his heart, and it was scary. Um, and we weren’t sure if we were gonna get to see Don again. Uh and so we were just trying to keep up. It’s an amazing family, amazing, faith-filled family, if you don’t know some of my heroes, but uh, we were texting with Berna, who’s Don’s wife, and we were saying, How’s it going, Berna? You know, and they’re at the hospital and they’re getting all these super scary reports and having to do these procedures. And and Berna wrote back, and I’ll just never forget it. She said, Oh, God is just so good. She says, she says, there’s some serious challenges here, and we need and we appreciate all of your prayers, but but but but God has been so faithful to us. We’ve got the best doctors, we’ve got the best nurses, and the the fact that how our family’s coming together and the church family is coming together to support. And she says, Me and Don are here, and we’re just praising God about for how good he is. Right? So it’s like so what was she doing? She was fo she was turning her, she was setting her mind on the positive, right? Setting her mind on what was right instead of what was wrong. Whatever is true, whatever is good, whatever is right. Focus on those things.

And it’s not the same as denying reality. It’s not pretending that problems don’t exist when they do, it’s choosing what to focus on. And so I’m trying to make it practical here for you. So instead of saying something like, everything’s falling apart, say this. This is hard, and God is with me in that. This is tough, and God is helping me. Right? I’m not super sure right now, but God is with me. And I think that word and is super powerful. Because it lets you acknowledge reality while still focusing on the truth. So you’re gonna think about something. Choose what you think about.

F focus on the positive. A is this affirm yourself. Affirm yourself. Joel chapter 3, verse 10 says this let the weak say I am strong. It doesn’t say let the weak think they’re strong, which you need to do, but let the weak say I am strong. This this is not positive affirmations. This isn’t like standing in the mirror saying, like, I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it. People like me. There’s a different positive affirmations are speaking good things over yourself and hoping they become true. Right? You’re making stuff up. That’s that’s that’s different. You’re you’re making stuff up. What we’re talking about is repeating what God has already said about you. So you’re not making it up, you’re saying what God says about you.

So God says I’m fearfully and wonderfully made it. You’re just agreeing with him. Right? God says you’re more than a conqueror. You’re just agreeing with him. God says, no weapon formed against you will prosper. So you’re just agreeing with him. Speak what God says about you, not what you feel about you. Speak what God says about you, not what you feel about you. I remember uh a few months ago I was counseling with a guy in my office, and uh we were talking, and he’s going through some challenges, and he was talking, and there was just little things that I was picking up that when he was talking about himself, I just felt like something’s something’s wrong here. Um he was talking, he was talking, he was just so casual about kind of like putting himself down when he was talking, and so I said, I said, I said, hold up, man. I said, Can I ask you a question? He said, I said, he said, sure. And I said, I said, what do you think about yourself like in general? And he said, Oh, I I’m a giant piece of trash. He didn’t say trash, but you know what I mean.

And and I said, I said, and and so do you just kind of talk like that all the time? You know, where are you just talking down? He says, Yeah, pretty much. And I said, That’s your problem. I said, Because you will always live up to how you see yourself, right? And you will always see yourself in alignment with how you talk about yourself. And so I said, the problem is that you have these beliefs about yourself, and every time you talk, you’re talking to other people, you’re talking to yourself, you’re just reinforcing those. Think about it like this. Who talks to you the most during the day? Yourself. You talk to you more than anyone else talks to you. You have an inner dialogue happening all day. The question is this what are you saying? What are you saying when you talk about yourself, even if it’s your mind?

And lots of us, we say things about ourselves that we would never say to other people. Right? Like, oh, you’re just so stupid. You you wouldn’t talk to your kids like that. You wouldn’t talk to your friend like that. You always mess this up. You’ll never change. Nobody likes you. You wouldn’t talk to your kids that way, you wouldn’t talk to your friends that way, but you talk to yourself that way all the time. That’s not what we see in scripture, though. Look at this, Psalm chapter 139, verse 14. The psalmist says this, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. He’s saying, God, the things that you make are incredible. And he’s talking about himself. He’s saying, like, God, when you made me, wow. Bravo. What’s he doing? He he’s reminding himself about what God says about him. And that’s what we need to do. That’s not arrogance, it’s agreement with God.

And so when God says you’re fearfully and wonderfully made, and you say I’m a piece of garbage, one of you is wrong. And it’s not God. And so what you need to do is you need to start affirming yourself not by making stuff up, but by saying what God says about you. So that sounds like here’s some examples I wrote down. Well, I got room to grow, but God’s helping me. Right? Not I’m a failure. I’m learning and growing, not uh, I’ll never change. God’s not finished with me yet, not I’m hopeless. I am who God says I am, not I’m worthless. I am God’s handiwork, not I’m a piece of trash.

Romans chapter 8, verse 37 says this. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. More than conquerors. So you’re not you’re not hyping yourself up, you’re saying what God says about you. First Peter chapter 2, verse 9 says this, but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. God’s special, listen to this. God’s special possession. That’s you. You’re chosen royal, special, special possession. So you’re not making any of that up. That’s what God says about you. And so when you catch yourself in the negative cycle of self talk, stop and repeat what God says. Don’t repeat what you feel, not what your inner critic says. Repeat what God says about you. Let the weak say, I am strong. Let the weak say you’re gonna talk to yourself all day long. You might as well say something true.

Okay, number one, focus on the positive. A two. F focus on the positive. A, affirm yourself. I imagine God doing something good. Imagine God doing something good. You know, kids have a powerful imagination. But so do you. And did you know that your imagination can either do great good or great harm? Because it’s a powerful weapon. And your imagination can either be a faith builder or a fear builder. Not both. Not in one in one moment. It’s doing one of those two things. And the devil wants to teach you to use your imagination to build fear. Right? Where you’re imagining things that make you feel scared.

I let me just say, I do this all the time. I’m working on it. But I imagine things that scare me. I’m just I’m just thinking about it, and I think my body is maybe trying to do some sort of like protective thing, you know, it’s trying to like make me brace for something. But but it’s my imagination, and my imagination, I can also imagine the things of God. And instead of building fear in me, it builds faith. But the devil wants you to just use it for fear. Imagining worst case scenarios, playing out every possible disaster, rehearsing conversations that haven’t happened yet, catastrophizing. It’s a word that I love. Catastrophizing, what is that? It takes every bad situation and you think about how this might turn into a catastrophe. It’s like, oh my God, you know, before you know it, but what if this happened? What if this? And then you like create a catastrophe, and what you’re doing is you’re thinking about it, but you’re using your imagination to think something bad.

You know, like your kids are having a terrible day, and so you think, oh my God, and then you’re imagining them being a terrible adult. I’m the only one. Like you know what I mean? You have a bad day at work, and then you’re imagining yourself never advancing in your career. Right? Like you’re just you’re just you’re just thinking, but you know that you can use your imagination to picture good things too, right? But we just have to train ourselves to do it.

Look at this, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1. Now, faith is confidence in what we hope for and the assurance for what we do not see. Faith requires that you see something before it exists. And so it and it so faith requires imagination. And so instead, like imagine God doing something good. Don’t imagine things going wrong. And so you got to imagine before you can see, there’s tons of examples of this in scripture. I was thinking, uh, Abraham. So he had to imagine being a father of many nations before he had any kids. He had to imagine it. David had to imagine defeating Goliath before he did. Jesus, even on the cross, imagined the joy set before him while suffering and dying on the cross. We read about that.

Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So Jesus, even Jesus used his imagination to endure suffering. He imagined the joy that was coming. He was going through pain, and one of the ways that he endured the pain of the present moment was by using his imagination thinking about the joy that’s coming.

And so the question that I have for you is this what are you imagining? What are you thinking about? Are you imagining everything falling apart, or are you imagining God doing something good? So instead of imagining, like, oh, it’s not gonna work out, I’m gonna fail, uh, everything’s gonna fall apart, like, oh, you know, I have a rash, it must be cancer. Like, is this a lump? Sweetie, is this a do we feel a lump? Like, you’re using your imagination to imagine something terrible happening. Instead, use your imagination to start imagining God opening a door that you can’t see. Right? You got a strained relationship. Imagine that relationship being restored. Don’t picture, oh my gosh, we’re never gonna even, what are we gonna do with Thanksgiving? What are we gonna do with it? Like, instead of imagining that, imagine God doing something good. Imagine the relationship coming back together. Imagine your kids walking with God. Imagine it. Right? Well, I just think about reality. Use your imagination to that’s it. That’s one of the ways that you activate your faith is using your imagination to picture what God wants for you.

Imagine your finances turning around. Not like I don’t even know how I’m gonna pay my blah blah blah. Like, imagine your finances turning around. Imagine your health improving. I know I know you’re like getting old, and you’re like, you know, then that’s true. But imagine your health improving. You know, you can you can get healthier even when you’re old. You can. And that and it’s not it’s not, it’s that’s not name it, claim it, you know, blab it, grab it. It’s not that. It’s faith. It’s using your imagination the way God designed for you to use it. To see with the eyes of faith what God can do. Not what the enemy wants you to fear. But you can see both. This afternoon, you can see things going wrong. You can see things going poorly with your kids. You can see it. But but are you using your imagination to see what God can do? Stop using your imagination for fear and start using it for faith.

F focus on the positive. A, affirm yourself. I imagine God doing something good. T, trust God in everything. Trust God in everything. Trust is a decision that you make before you see the outcome. And that’s when it gets real. Because you if you you can focus on the positive, you can affirm yourself, you can like imagine good. But if you don’t trust God, it all falls apart when things get hard. Because you don’t know where things are going yet.

Look at this, Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. Notice that He says this in all your ways. Not just in the big things, not just like when it makes sense, but everything. And trust isn’t something you feel. Trust is something you decide. I feel I feel very trusting. No, you don’t. You don’t you don’t feel trusting. Trust is what you do. You decide to trust God before you see how it’s gonna work out. That’s what makes it trust.

Psalm chapter 56, verse 3 says this. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Someone needs to get that. When I’m afraid, I put my trust in you. David doesn’t, he’s not saying I’m never afraid. He says, when I’m afraid, so he recognizes it. He says, when I’m afraid, I put my trust in you. He’s still afraid, but he’s making a choice to put his trust in God. Trust is believing God is good even when life isn’t. It’s choosing to believe trust is believing God is working even when you can’t see it.

And so what does trust look like? Trust sounds like this. God, I don’t understand this, but I trust you. God, it doesn’t make sense, but I trust you. God, I’m scared, but I trust you. Trust is not the absence of questions. Trust is choosing God in the middle of questions. Right? You don’t have all the answers, and you don’t have to have all the answers. You just need to trust the one who does. Trust God in everything.

F. Focus on the positive. A. Affirm yourself. I imagine God doing something good. T, trust God in everything. H, this is the last one. I’m sure you probably could tell. Hope for the best. Hope for the best. So hope is is not wishful thinking. Hope is confident expectation. That’s what they say. Where I’m I’m confidently expecting. The world says, hope for the best, expect the worst. Have you all heard that? And it almost sounds smart. You know, it’s like, oh, protect yourself. Don’t get your hopes up, you know, prepare for disappointment. But hope for the best, but expect the worst. It’s like you can’t hope for the best and expect the worst. That’s impossible. It’s the same thing. Hope is a positive expectation. So if you’re expecting the worst, it’s the opposite of hope. Hope is a confident expectation.

Look at Romans chapter 8, verse 28. And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose. It’s a promise. Not maybe it’s gonna work out. Not it’s like sometimes it works out, right? In all things, God works them together for good. So God says you can hope for the best because I’m working things together for your good. You can hope. You have a confident expectation that God is working out the details.

Hope is not naive optimism. Hope is not denying reality, hope is not pretending everything’s fine. Hope is believing that God can turn this around. Hope is believing that your best days are ahead of you. Hope is believing that God’s promises are true. You know, this past uh, I don’t know, I guess it was a few months ago. I was uh in Uptown and I was shopping at Lululemon. If anybody knows Lulululeman, it’s uh it’s a clothing store for people like me who like stretchy clothes. Um but I was there and they they got like all this artwork around, you know, and so I’m shopping, and this like little this artwork was kind of interesting, and it kind of caught my eye. Um and I it struck me, and so I took a picture of it, and this is this is the picture of Lululemon. Can you see that it’s saying the same thing over and over and over with those weird things? It’s saying this hope is not a strategy. Hope is not a strategy.

Listen to me. Of course, hope is a strategy. Like, like I don’t like to be mean, but I don’t know who wrote that. Like someone who has been through nothing in life. Because sometimes hope is all you have. Right? And what’s what’s the alternative? Expecting the worst? That’s your strategy? Right? I’m just gonna expect that I’m gonna be terrible. That’s that’s the plan. Right? Hope is absolutely a strategy, and I guess expecting the worst, you know, that that’s a strategy. It is a strategy. It’s it’s a strategy of the devil. Trying to get you to expect the worst. Every light at the end of the tunnel is just another trade. Right, that’s what the devil wants you to do. What he wants you to do is to expect that bad things are happening. Every time you get a phone call, it’s because something bad is happening. Every time anyone mess, you know, oh, it’s a new opportunity. I’m sure I’m gonna mess it up. What you’re doing is you’re expecting the worst instead of expecting the best.

But hope is different. Hope is a confident expectation that God is working things together. Hebrews chapter 6, verse 19 says this. We have this hope as an anchor. Hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. Hope is an anchor where everything else is shaking. Hope is one of the things that keeps you steady. And so what does hope sound like? Hope sounds like this. My best days are still ahead of me. God’s not done in this situation. Right? This this isn’t how this story ends. And so you hope for the best, not because you’re naive, but because you know who God is. Your hope is not in yourself, but your hope is a confident expectation that God is working.

F, focus on the positive. A, affirm yourself. I imagine God doing something good. T, trust God in everything. H, hope for the best. So I want to um. I want to tell you how this played out for me this past week. I told you I got two stories for you. The first one was the less serious of the two, and that was Tuesday. Um Tuesday was not as serious. Wednesday was a different story. And so um, Wednesday morning I got a text from my dad. And he said, he said, hey, your mom, your mom’s stomach hurts and is feeling dizzy, so we’re taking her to urgent care. And so I was like, all right, that’s cool. It’s probably free. I’m thinking, no big deal, whatever, whatever. So maybe an hour passes, and he said, then he texts again, and he says, they’re taking her to the emergency room to get some tests done. And so I’m still thinking, like, okay, well, they got better equipment there, so it’s all right, you know, you’re just getting some tests, you know, just a stomachache, whatever, it’s no problem, you know, feeling dizzy.

A few years, a few few years. Felt like a few years. A few hours pass. And um, dad texts me and he says, Hey, can I call you? And that’s when you’re like, uh oh. Hey, can I call you? It’s like almost never. I don’t know in our family. We always joke that we need to start calling each other when there’s something good happening. I answer the phone, who died. He says, Hey, can I call you? And I’m like, Yeah, so he calls me. Um, I’m I’m in the garage. I’m taking out the trash. It’s our trash day. And so he says, Hey, and I say, Hey. And he says, he says, so you don’t know any of this, right? And I say, no. And he says, okay, well, for the last couple days, your mom has been struggling with her balance and has been feeling dizzy, um, and and not super well. And so um we took her, and what they experienced is that it seemed like she was kind of starting to slur her speech some, and um not making a whole lot of sense sometimes. And so they’re just trying to rule out, you know, like if it’s a stroke, of course. That’s what we all think, right? A stroke. Um, or if it could be something else. So, you know, they’re doing an MRI, they’re just doing a hundred tests on her, you know, everyone’s running around, and they’re, you know, we’re just taking it a minute at a time. And I say, okay.

So I hang up in the phone, I hang up the phone, and I’m in my garage. The girls aren’t there. And all I know how to do is I just say, I just say, help us, Lord. Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord. I’m there with the trash. And I’ve got just like this tiny little this little step in the garage. And so I go and I sit and I and I’m thinking about this message. So I already know the F-A-I-T-A. I know all that. Um, because I’m already working on it. And so I sit on my uh the little step and I pull out my phone. I open the notes app. And I uh wrote, I wanted to read you what I wrote on that step on uh Wednesday.

I wrote this focus on the positive. What’s true right now? She’s getting help. She’s not alone. God is with her, right? So I’m not denying the situation. Right? But I’m not pretending it’s fine, but I’m choosing what to focus on. There was good things in that moment. A, affirm yourself. I wrote this. We can handle this. God has walked us through hard things before. We’re not gonna fall apart. I can be a strong support for my family. I wasn’t saying, like, oh God, I can’t handle this. This is like the last thing I need. This is such a disaster. I’m supposed to play volleyball, you know. Like I’m not yeah, I’m not doing that, you know, but but I’m but I’m affirming me and us in that situation. I’m saying we can handle this. We’ve walked through hard things before, right? We’re not gonna fall apart. We can we can be a strong support for each other.

I imagine God doing something good, and I wrote this God. I can see with my eyes of faith, my mom walking out of the hospital. I can see with my eyes of faith, mom laughing at Thanksgiving. I can see with my eyes of faith God showing up. I can see with the eyes of faith, mom giving a testimony at Thanksgiving service. That’s what I wrote. Right, so instead of imagining, like, okay, well, what would that be if it’s a stroke, you know? Well, maybe I had the last meaningful conversation with my mom. What’s the last thing I said? I’m not doing that. Right? I’m imagining God doing something good in the situation.

T, trust God in everything. This is what I wrote. God, we don’t know what this is, but we trust you with mom. We trust you with this outcome. I was trusting God with the situation. Like I love doctors. I appreciate doctors, but I trust God. And then lastly, H, hope for the best. I said, God is working this out. This is not how her story ends.

And so I’m grateful to tell you that it was not a stroke. My mom’s sitting right there. She’s just five. I’ll I’ll uh I’ll share your business, mom. So apparently, what happens, and some of y’all know this because we’re a close family. Um, but it was like a really bad UTI. And apparently, and some of the young people are like, What? Those are letters. You just wait. Something to look forward to. It stands for urinary tract infection, and apparently with older women, oh, not that you’re old, mom, you know. Um with full-grown women, not that you’re big. With women, apparently, with women, um, they can get UTI so bad that it like makes them go crazy a little bit. Right? And like they they start having like all these neurological problems, you know, and so it was like, thank God, you know, everything’s fine. They put her on an antibiotic, we’re praising God, we’re celebrating as a family, and everything’s fantastic.

But I didn’t know that on Wednesday afternoon. Right. So I’m standing in my garage with my phone in one hand and trash in the other hand, and my heart pounded like I didn’t know she’d be okay. I didn’t know if it was a stroke or not, like I didn’t know how it would turn out. And so I had to use this weapon, and I used the faith acronym. I’m hoping you’ll do the same. But I use that faith acronym in that moment to turn my attention. That’s what Philippians chapter 4, verse 8 is for. Because man, when you’re on your wedding day, it’s like focus on the good. No problem. Easy, right? But but but when you’re going through it and you’re not sure which way this is gonna go, and you’re feeling like everything’s lost and everything’s broken and the whole world is falling apart, right? You can go to Philippians chapter 4-8, and it’s like, okay, well, what’s true? What’s true right now? Right? What’s lovely right now? And he says, think about those things. That’s what the faith acronym is for.

And here’s what I’m I’m just trying to tell you. You can’t wait to use this until everything resolves itself. Cause that because then you don’t need it. It’s still good to do, right? But but you have to you have to use this before you have all the answers. You have to you can’t wait till you feel better. You use it in the middle of the storm when you don’t know what’s gonna happen, when your mind is starting to spiral. Like, like that’s when you have to take your thoughts captive. Right? Because when I’m at cliffs and having a great time, like I don’t have to take my thoughts captive. I’m just thinking, let’s do the rattler again. My head hurts. That you know, what I’m just that rattler’s terrible, but like I’m not happy, but but when I’m in it, right? When I get that phone call, you know, you get that phone call and your stomach jumps up here. You know that? Like that’s when I have to take my thoughts captive. Right? And that that’s when that’s when I have to um be a disciplined person.

Like discipline, there’s a lot of people that want to be super Christian until it all falls apart. Right, but then but then all the stuff they’ve been learning over 40 years, you know, it’s like we see people all the time, they’ve been in this church for 45 years, you know, and like the smallest thing happens, and they’re like falling apart. And we’re like, why aren’t you using this stuff? And they’re thinking, well, I use that when things are good. It’s like you gotta use this when it’s hard. And so my challenge for you is this try it. That’s it, just try it. Just try it. Faith. I think the reason, you know, this is a little, I’ll be honest, this is a little cheesy for my taste. You know, the F and the A and the I, you know, it’s not really my style. But I I I went with it because I’ve been using it, right? And it was just something about the acronym that I could remember.

F, focus on the positive. A, affirm yourself. I imagine God doing something good. Uh T, trust God always. H, hope for the best. Like, like it just it locked in my heart. And so when I was when things were bad, I was able to pull it up. And it’s the thing about uh it’s the thing about weapons. That’s why I want you to use it. That weapons are only good if you use them. You could you can have the greatest, you know, Randy, you could have the dopest, you know, fully automatic, I don’t even know guns, you know, the sweetest gun in the world, and it’s like it’s not going to do any good if someone’s breaking into your house and it stays in the closet.

And so we can we can equip you with all the different, we can try our best and we can you know be working hard to make these sermons funny and all that, but like if you won’t use it, it’s not gonna help you. And so this week, what I want you to do is practice faith when anxiety hits, when fear creeps in, when negative thoughts creep in, when you’re feeling stressed, when you’re feeling scared, do it. F, focus on the positive. What can I what’s what’s good here? What’s good here? A, affirm yourself. I can do this, I can get through this, I’m strong, right? No weapon formed against me will prosper. I’m just agreeing with God, what he says about me. I imagine God doing something good. Oops, I’m I’m imagining myself thinking bad things. I’m imagining how this could turn out really poorly. I’m gonna imagine God doing something good. T, trust God in everything. Even when I don’t know the situation, how it’s gonna turn out. God, I trust you with this outcome. H, hope for the best. I’m expecting God to come through and do something.

And it might not feel natural at first, but that’s part of retraining your brain. That’s what we’re doing. You’re where you’re you’re making new pathways, right? And the more you use tools like this, the more natural it becomes. So hopefully, if you’ve been you’ve been retraining your brain for 20 years and catastrophe strikes, you instantly go to God, I trust you. God, I trust you. You know, it’s not like, oh yeah, what did Pastor say? Let me let me pull up my you just you just instantly to it because you’re building those pathways. Hard times come and bear you focus on the positive. You just know to do it because you’ve trained your brain.

Here’s my closing statement. God has given you a powerful weapon to win the war in your mind. Faith. F focus on the positive. Run your thoughts through God’s filter. Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, pure, lovely, and admirable. A. Affirm yourself. Speak what God says about you, not what you feel about you. I imagine God doing something good. Use your imagination to build faith, not fear. T. Trust God in everything. Choose to trust before you see the outcome. H. Hope for the best. Hold confident expectation that God is working all things for your good. Can someone say amen?