Good morning, Making Space for God community and Happy 4th of July! I hope you have the chance to celebrate the independence we have in the United States today and reflect on the freedom we are granted. In that light, I want to talk a little bit about freedom for our minds. We all get caught up in lies, offenses and what I like to call “stinkin’ thinkin'” sometimes, don’t we? The good news is that God has a better way.
This is something I talk about in my book, Making Space for God: Repositioning our Lives for Kingdom Living. Below is an excerpt about “stinkin’ thinkin'” and some practical steps to freedom from it. I encourage you to take hold of these steps today to claim freedom from any lies or offenses you’re believing. This is just one way that we can make space for God in our lives. For more, I’d love for you to check out my book and share with others. You can also join me this fall as we make space for God through our Teaching and Worship Experience – live and through streaming.
Happy Independence Day!
an excerpt from Making Space for God: Repositioning our Lives for Kingdom Living:
The mind is an incredibly powerful thing. God made it so. He created it to be a gatekeeper for His activities on earth. Paul reminds us that our minds must be renewed. Renewing your mind means learning to recognize the lies, taking them captive, and agreeing with God’s Word. This renewal is something we must do all the time, every day.
The battlegrounds of the flesh, the influence of the world and the enemy work away on us and beat us down. We have to be prepared to offer God our thought life at Golgotha, surrendering the lies, renewing our minds, so that we can bring kingdom reality to earth:
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to approve what God’s will is; his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Often our thoughts conflict with the mind of Christ. That is natural, the way of the world. But though we are in the world we do not need to be of it, and our thoughts must be submitted to Christ so that we can know His will and be the agents who bring His kingdom to earth. We are His Plan A, and there is no Plan B.
This explains why there is such intense warfare in our thought life. The enemy knows very well that we are God’s plan, and he wants us to be defeated in our thoughts so that our minds, filled with lies and stinkin’ thinkin’, will block the truth of God’s Word. If the enemy is effective in his mission, our agreement with his lies will prevent us from working as agents advancing God’s kingdom.
There are several practical steps to freedom when your thought life is destructive; steps that have enabled me to get free from my own stinkin’ thinkin’: 
1. Look for your emotional trigger points (stress, anxiety, fear, sadness).
2. Repent; renewing your mind begins with repentance.
3. Take your thoughts captive (wrestle them to the ground).
4. Renew your thoughts by focusing on the truth (Philippians 4).
5. Be grateful; gratitude creates space for God and gratitude keeps your mind tuned to the right channel. We can be on FM with our stinkin’ thinkin’ and God is on AM with His truth. Tune in to His Word and agree with it. It will set you free.
