Daily Devotionals for Women - Today's Encouraging Word from Scripture

BRAINWASHING AND RE-PROGRAMMING
Christine Wyrtzen

Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." -John 7:37-38

Brainwashing. Programming. Two more terms that Christians usually associate with spiritual darkness. Yet, the washing of our hearts and the re-programming our thought life are two biblical concepts. Itis possible to think in whole new ways, ways that are opposite to how I currently think. It is possible to carve out new mental pathways where there were none before. It is possible to re-program the way I look at things. I can believe something deeply for forty years but experience a mental shakeup when scripture redefines my perception of things. Through His Word, God fashions a whole new mindset!

Ever come up against someone’s mindset in an argument? Perhaps you have argued regularly with someone and after hours of heated debate, deception didn’t budge. You couldn’t imagine why you, or they, couldn’t see the truth. The problem was not an individual thought of deception but a whole conglomeration of thoughts; a mindset that was formed over a lifetime. Only God could, and can, change that. And, He is eager to. When Paul encouraged believers to understand the divine power they possessed that could destroy arguments and lofty opinions that are against God, the word for 'arguments' in Greek is the same word for 'mindset.' God can, and will, destroy and re-create a new mindset for anyone who is willing to undergo the discomfort, but great rewards, of spiritual surgery. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. -2 Corinthians 10:4-5

In scripture, God tells me the way things work. He tells me who He is, who I am, the way the world works, and the way the kingdom operates. Any paradigm outside of a kingdom paradigm is dysfunction and death.

In the messiness of life, meditation is imperative. When I feel abandoned by God, meditation has me focus on His faithfulness. When I fear He hasn't heard my prayers, meditation zeroes in on His promises to answer prayer. When my feelings trip me up, meditation reorders my thoughts and channels my emotions to match up with Truth. A brainwashing and re-programming commences as His Spirit re-writes my beliefs.

For many of my sisters, I anticipate a new tomorrow. Amen