3 Easy Steps to Face Each Day with Peace and Joy
- Lori Hatcher Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer
- Updated Dec 31, 2024
What are you thinking? Right now?
Don’t say nothing, because humans are always thinking. Even when we’re asleep, we’re thinking. Consider the last crazy dream you had. See? I told you.
What are you thinking as you struggle with a hurt or disappointment you just can’t shake?
What are you thinking as you face a serious health or relational challenge?
What are you thinking as you navigate this wonderful/horrible/exciting/terrifying thing called life?
What we think matters. It can determine whether we live in fear, confusion, and defeat, or live fearlessly, confidently, and victoriously.
Thoughts aren’t automatic
Most of us assume thinking is an automatic action, like driving. Thoughts just pop into our heads, and we have no control over them, right?
Wrong.
We have the power to control, direct, and reframe our thoughts.
And if we don’t allow God to control them, they will control us. Like the steering wheel on a car, our thoughts can take us places we never intended to go and do more harm than we ever imagined. They can discourage, depress, and defeat us.
Our thoughts have the power to lead us down dark alleys where Satan lives. Remember: not everything we think is true. Nor should we act upon everything we think.
In contrast, our thoughts also have the power to lead us to the freedom and fruitfulness God has for us.
A Simple Strategy
If you’re struggling with your thoughts today, here’s a simple strategy no not only gain victory over them, but to use them for a powerful force for good in our lives and in the lives of others.
I hope, by the end of this article, you’ll be better able to identify what you’re thinking, hold it up to the truth of God’s Word, and, when necessary, learn how to think differently.
Romans 12:2 calls this being “transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Listen to what Paul said, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Isn’t this what we want – God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will?
Ephesians 4:23 describes this process as being “made new in the attitude of your minds.”
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Don’t we want to be like God in true righteousness and holiness? To have His heart and His mind for the world?
To think like Jesus thinks?
It’s possible with the help of the Holy Spirit.
3-Steps to Peace and Joy: STOP, DROP, and ROLL
With God’s help, we can STOP our negative thinking, DROP the thoughts that aren’t biblical and exchange them for those that are, and ROLL our concerns onto God’s broad shoulders.
One emotion we all experience is the emotion of fear.
Fear steals the sleep from our nights and the joy from our days. Fear itself isn’t a sin. It’s a natural response to a real or perceived threat. In its proper context, fear can motivate us to take appropriate action, like seeing a doctor, or taking steps to protect ourselves. Out of biblical context, it can paralyze us.
So what do we do with fear? STOP, DROP, and ROLL:
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/fizkes
STOP to Identify the Fearful Thought
Sometimes we’re afraid, and we don’t even know why. As soon as we become aware that we’re fearful, we’d do well to identify exactly what we’re afraid of. Once we do, we can take steps to address it biblically. Are there appropriate actions I should take, like locking my door, seeing a doctor, or consulting a retirement professional?
Once we’ve done these things, if the fear remains, we must:
DROP the Fear and Replace it with Truth
Evaluate it in light of God’s Word. Ask: What does God’s Word say about this?
If I’m worried about losing my job or paying my bills, I can apply Matthew 6:25, Jesus’s promise: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
If we’re worried about the future, we drop the worry and choose instead to rest in the truth of God’s Word: Because God is in control, nothing can touch my life that He hasn’t ordained for my good and His glory (Romans 8:28).
If God allows a trial to enter my life, He will walk through it with me. “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). He’ll use it for my good and to advance His kingdom.
Remember when Paul, writing from a jail cell, said, “Now I want you to know, brothers, that my circumstances have actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And most of the brothers, confident in the Lord by my chains, now dare more greatly to speak the word without fear.”
ROLL the Object of Our Fear onto God’s Strong Shoulders Through Prayer
Tell God exactly what you’re afraid of and entrust it to Him.
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).
My friend Jessy is a perfect example of someone who banished fear by using STOP, DROP, and ROLL.
Jessy was awaiting a semi-annual cancer check. She’d beaten cancer once, but her semi-annual scans always made her feel frightened.
She and I were texting about her upcoming medical tests. Please pray for me. I’m so scared.
As the day approached, her texts became more frequent and increasingly fearful. I prayed for her, and with her, and shared promises from the Bible. Nothing seemed to help.
On the night before her procedure, however, she sent one last text. I’m not afraid anymore. I decided it all comes down to this question: Do I trust God? If the answer is yes, then whatever this test reveals, it will be His will for me. In sickness or in health, I can trust Him.
Jessy is a real-life, beautiful demonstration of how to use STOP, DROP, and ROLL to face our fears. We can apply these same principles to other thought battles like discouragement, bitterness, or temptation.
We are not victims of our thoughts. We don’t have to allow them to control our lives. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can STOP and identify unbiblical thoughts. We can DROP the lies and exchange them for truth from God’s Word. And we can ROLL our needs and concerns onto God’s broad shoulders and let Him carry them for us.
We can think, as Philippians 4:8-9 says, on the things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy.
But we can’t do this if we don’t know the truth of God’s Word.
This is why we must not only read God’s Word, but study it. Memorize it. Fill our minds with it so we have an arsenal of truth to counteract the lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
We must cultivate relationships with other believers who will speak truth into our hearts and minds.
And we must become actively involved in a local, Bible-believing church that teaches and preaches the Word of God.
So I ask you again, “What are you thinking?”
If you’re not thinking on those things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy, then you have some work to do.
Thankfully, as we STOP the wrong thinking, DROP our false thoughts for true ones, and ROLL our cares onto God’s strong shoulders in prayer, we can fight the battle in our minds. We can experience joy, peace, and fruitfulness every day.
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/SeventyFour
