Tools for the Heart (pt2)

Thoughts: There’s an ancient proverb that says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”  (Proverbs 23:7, KJV) It’s amazing how powerful our thoughts really are. They actually shape our reality. What we often say about ourselves creates the narrative of our lives.

Have you ever sat down and written out all the limiting beliefs you tend to say to yourself from time to time, those self-statements that keep you from trying things or moving forward in your life or keep you paralyzed from action? This is a profound spiritual tool for your heart.

Develop a chart called, “My Beliefs and My Stakes.” In the first column, describe carefully your limiting beliefs. List each one of them with as much detail as you want. What is the statement you tell yourself that keeps you from doing something important in your life? What is a negative belief you have about yourself? Write it down in the first column.

In the middle column write the corresponding empowering belief. Turn the limiting belief around and make it positive. Make sure you are describing the correspondingly accurate, matching, motivating belief, the true flip side of the coin. For example, if your limiting belief is, “No one wants to hear what I have to say,” your empowering belief might be, “What I have to say is valuable and important and worth listening to.”

You will be amazed at how strengthening it is to articulate your empowering belief. Stating it will actually make you feel strong. In fact, affirming, positive statements and thoughts that are true have been scientifically proven to strengthen our body muscles. So state these new empowering beliefs out loud regularly. Make these self-statements, the new thoughts and beliefs about yourself. Make them your new default!

But just new thoughts aren’t enough. In the third column, write down two or three actions you will take that drive the stake of your new empowering belief into the ground, proving to yourself that you’re serious about living out this new belief. Strong living is all about thinking clearly and acting strongly. When our thoughts and actions come into alignment, we are living in integrity and we develop a much higher level of trust in ourselves – and so do others as they react to us. So make sure you fill in this third column boldly, creatively, and intentionally.

There’s a saying in the New Testament that, “God did not give us a spirit of fear and timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7, NCV) The Greek word for “power” here is dunamis from which we get our word “dynamite.” The divine spirit is dynamite power in our lives. It is the opposite of fear, timidity and intimidation. It’s a power that revolves around boldness and courage. God doesn’t want us to disintegrate into our limitations. God wants our lives to explode with creative energy and synergy in connection with Him, the resurrection power that creates life out of death, radical transformation and newness.

And when this divine dunamis is coupled with divine love and redirected energy (“self-control,” the word used for the bit in the horse’s mouth that directs the horse’s flow and energy to where the rider desires; in this case it’s referring to redirecting human energy to correspond to the divine Energy), all things are possible. New life emerges. Confidence and courage spring into reality.