Peace of Mind - May - June 30, 2020

I lay open like a borderless nation.
The hungry and the thirsty;
The greedy and the needy;
All the wild beasts of the earth- They tried to seize me.

My soil struggled under their trampling feet:
Struggled to yield life.
I was a seeded territory-overrun.
It seemed my destiny was to become a wasteland-a place for squatters.

But, God.
But, God.
But, God.

God stepped in and cleared a way.
He set my fields on fire;
I thought I might faint.
But He was with me, not against me.

His fire set chase to the hungry and the thirsty.
It devoured the greedy and the needy.
The wild beasts became ash.   
And there-in the heaping pile of ashes-He laid claim to me.

I was His blood drenched field,
So He set Himself up as my rampart.
And He, who was my rampart, became my gardener too.
The ash, He made fertilizer for the seeds that the fire did not destroy.

He is a border around me,
Choosing my seasons of hiding;
Choosing my seasons of revelation, 
​ According to His wisdom.

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Let God Defend Your Borders
God is our defender.  He fights for us-those who have been drenched in His blood-because we are His precious possession. (Isaiah 43:4 and 1 Peter 2: 9 - 10). He fights for us because He counts us worthy of defense. One does not defend (or establish a boundary around) what one does not value - and God loves and values us profoundly. Pause and think on the cross, where He leveled His greatest defense-absorbing all our punishment and then, in His resurrected form, inviting us to life. (Romans 5:6-9 and 1 John 4:10). Not just any life, but a life more abundantly. (John 10: 10). 

This abundant life is not one fashioned in Hollywood or made subject to the fleeting wisdom of people. No! The abundant life is the one God fashions.  When He made us, He made us with pure intention. He made us in His image, to be His effective image bearers on the earth. To, in all our living, demonstrate His loving character to the benefit of all creation. (Genesis 1: 26 - 28, Galatians 5: 22 - 23 and 1 Corinthians 13).  His purposes have not changed. Once again, pause and look at the cross. God stepped out of eternity, clothed His entire deity in the skin of His creation, lived, suffered and died a sinner’s death, all so He could bring us into the reality of this initial and perfect intention.
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He has paid the price for our freedom and IT IS FINISHED. (John 19:30). Yet remains, the business of entering into the reality of this freedom. And beloved, we are not unopposed as we march forward to take hold of the purposes for which He has taken hold of us. (Philippians 3:12). But, He has given us weapons (not fashioned by blacksmiths) to ward off those who oppose our freedom: spiritual weapons. (2 Corinthians 10: 4 - 6 and Ephesians 6: 10 - 18). Chief amongst them is His Word. He wants us to use His Word to defend the borders of our precious lives-so that we may have a LIVED experience of our liberty as His daughters.

Four Ways the Word of God Helps Us to Establish Boundaries 

1. It provides the rationale for our boundaries, in a world filled with narratives which seek to undermine or falsely position our worth as women. It accomplishes this by reinforcing our value as His image bearers, bought at great price, precious and dearly loved. It helps to cement, in our hearts, the truth that we are worthy of being defended. It sets before us the great and public love of God for us.
2. It provides clarity of our divine purposes on earth. Knowing our divine purposes on the earth equips us to make choices that honor those purposes. We are then empowered to align our yeses and noes with what will prosper us in the purposes God has ordained for our lives.
3. It sharpens our discernment about what is helpful to our purposes, and that which stands in opposition to them. It is one thing to know why we are, but we must also know what is helpful in realizing our purposes on earth. Meditation on the Word of God renews our minds so that we are increasingly able to test and approve what God’s will is for our lives. (Romans 12: 1 - 2).
4. It allows us the peace that comes with knowing that God will defend our choices. God will not allow His Word to fall to the ground. He is faithful to apply His strength to realize and sustain all that His Word proclaims. We can have some good sleep when we know our yeses and noes have been anchored in the Word He is faithful to perform. (Numbers 23:19).​
   

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Boundaries for Your Mind ​
"Worries and tensions are like birds, we can not stop them flying near us. But we can certainly stop them from making a nest in our mind." - Rishika Jain

I read the quote above in a weekly email providing mental health guidance and thought: is that all we can do? Are we resigned to having birds pop in and out of our minds without significant recourse? Can we only hope to spend our lives shooing them away?  Then, the revelation: Birds hate glass! What if I built a fortress of glass around my mind! 

Now, when one thinks of a fortress, one does not typically think of glass. Glass is fragile-to say the least. But, the soundness of a fortress is very much dependent on the nature of the enemy it seeks to keep at bay. If the birds (worries) are our enemies then, based on their nature, we can confidently expect to be safeguarded by our fortress of “glass”. 

There are things about which to be concerned in this world. But, we are explicitly commanded not to worry. It is not God’s will for us to worry. (Philippians 4:6). Then, how do we cope? How do we manage these concerns, without stepping out of alignment with God’s intention for our lives? What will be our “glass”? Our “glass” is made up three sustained practices, articulated in Philippians 4: 6 - 7:

#1 Ceaseless Prayer - Pray about everything. Don’t complicate this call to prayer. You are having a conversation with your loving and good Father. Come to Him with all your guck and ask Him to take it away. Speak truthfully about what you are experiencing and thinking. God responds to the true you. Show up and take off all the layers in your prayers. 

#2 Specific Requests-  Make specific requests. Don’t beat around the bush with your Father. He knows all things, but invites you to display your faith in who He is, through saying exactly what you need. Ask according to His will for you in Christ Jesus and you have a yes and amen! (2 Corinthians 1:20). Know what He has promised you and tailor your prayers to specific situations in your life.

#3 Thanksgiving - Offer up praise! Speak or sing well of Him. Your spirit needs to hear it and God deserves it. It builds your confidence in God (and this can never be too high!).

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When the “birds” are not just worries, but a variety of ungodly thoughts, the fortress is built with the solid and impenetrable Word of God etched on our minds (hearts). When our Savior was tempted in the wilderness, He did not use idle words. No! He was so filled with the Word of God that, under pressure, His consistent response was, “It is written.” (Matthew 4: 1 - 11).  He did not entertain the thoughts of hell. They did not cause Him to question the faithfulness of His Father. No. His mind was perfectly fashioned in alignment with the Word of God, and so He did not stumble, even when weak. 

Read: Matthew 4: 1 - 11. 
Reflect: Where are you vulnerable? Ask God to reveal your weak spots (don't argue with Him), even if you can't see it, trust Him and then build your fortress with targeted Scripture.


Resource Share: 

• Battlefield of the Mind
• Praying Simple Prayers
• Pocket Prayers: 40 Simple Prayers that Bring Peace and Rest

Boundaries for Your Body
We not only must build ourselves up on the truth of God’s Word, but we must also cut out those things which glorify and exalt what God has determined to be bad, a heavy weight, a stumbling block to or distraction from His divine purposes for our lives on the earth. We are tripart beings: made up of spirit, mind and body. All three are shaped and influenced by the other. So, when we work to safeguard one aspect of our beings, we actually multiply the benefit for our entire being. Monitoring what stimuli we expose our 5 senses to is a great way to ensure that Godly boundaries are maintained.

Eye Gate: What are you watching? What do you gaze at? What is your preferred entertainment? What you gaze upon will draw you in (this is the underlying principle of advertising). What you gaze upon will fashion your desires. Don’t be passive observers. This is not a call to legalism. It is a call to accountability and wisdom. You are here on His purpose: let what you watch add to you. If it is not pushing or developing you in alignment with your purpose-it is a hindrance. There is no middle ground.

Ear Gate: What do you listen to? Whose counsel do you heed? We can’t have everything around us submit to the call on our lives. But, we can determine what we give weight to. If the input that dominates the airwaves in your corner of the world is not an echo of heaven, i.e. does not align with the declaration of God in His Word, then you must reject it. Do not entertain it. Do not make room for it. There is no middle ground.

Nose Gate: Smells are an invitation to an experience or a warning to flee. They can conjure up memories of a love long lost or fire we should have never touched. They can invite us to transgress boundaries that our bodies inherently know are good for preventing indulgences of the flesh, i.e. unfruitful imaginations, illicit sex and or over eating. They can be an invitation to bow at an idol’s feet. Once again, this is not a call to legalism. This is a call to be alert. Just as how the Lord desires a whole being sacrifice (our spirit, mind and body), the enemy of our souls seeks to destroy our whole lives (spirit, mind and body). (Romans 12: 1 - 2). He has no discretion. Be wise. Be alert. (1 Peter 5:8).

Mouth Gate: We eat the fruit of our words. (Proverbs 18: 21). Therefore, be deliberate in your speech. What do you speak over yourself? What do you speak over others? You are listening-in both instances. Is it edifying? Is it true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy? (Philippians 4:8). If not, do not let it not come out of your mouth. But, speak as if God Himself is speaking through you. (1 Peter 4:11).

Skin Gate: Avoid what arouses passions that will encourage you to walk contrary to the will of God for your life. Flee from it. God alone knows what stimuli tempts your heart from a pure affection for Him. Ask Him to reveal these things to you and then rely on His Spirit to come into the exercise of self-control. But better than the exercise of self-control, is fleeing from the presence of those things which tempt you to sin. (1 Corinthians 6:18 and 2 Timothy 2:22).

Scripture based visualization can be a helpful technique in establishing God honoring boundaries. When we can see (in our mind’s eye) ourselves living righteously and proactively honoring the precious life we have through Godly boundaries, we are actually priming our hearts to desire it. It becomes a thing that is attainable to us and we are able to build a bridge of Godly wisdom and specific Word bound prayer to its realization.

Try the following activity:

1. Take a picture of yourself.
2. Identify Scriptures that speak specifically to your challenges in honoring Godly boundaries with respect to your body and the stimuli you entertain. For example, if you struggle with lust you may choose to bookmark Job 31:1: “I have made a covenant with my eye not to look lustfully at a young woman.” (NIV). You could substitute “woman” with whatever or whomever challenges your loyalty to God, etc.
3. Write these Scriptures around your image,  so that they create a border around your body.
4. Use the finished work to support you in praying specifically for the guarding of your gates. Place it in your wallet or where you can have access to it consistently. Try substituting other compulsive behaviors, such as reaching for your phone, with reaching for the image and then speak them aloud and pray.    ​

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Additional Resources

Watch and Run with It: Chrystal Evans Hurst, You Have a Sword...Use It!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfK5FwNdZ7w

For guidance on relational boundaries, we recommend:
Relational Intelligence: The People Skills You Need for the Life of Purpose You Want by Dharius Daniels  

​Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life by Henry Cloud and John Townsend.