Do you feel lost from within? Are thoughts of despair clouding your sense of self and happiness? Prayer can positively influence your thoughts.
My school had a wonderful practice. They taught moral education with the Holy Bible as the text book. So in all my school years, I was fortunate to be able to study all the Bible stories, recite numerous Bible verses and learn several Christian songs too.
My home church was no different. It gave me several opportunities to understand my faith, through different platforms like Sunday School, Student movements, Prayer retreats and Biblical conferences.
The constant reinforcement from school, church and home, gave me a discipline to keep time for prayer, study the Bible and mingle with fellow Christians.
But as life moved on, priorities shifted. Without the constant push, I became lazy and saw myself slowly letting go of the old routine.
Prayers became short and shifted to the last act of the day. Studying the Bible was occasional and dependent on my mood. The Bible verses I had learnt by heart from all my childhood years, slowly faded away from memory. Fellowship was almost out of the picture. The only thing that I probably hung on to was singing- for it always lifted me up!
As the years passed by nothing disastrous happened and so the routine continued. I assured myself that God knew my needs and therefore, even if I just mumble a little prayer for the sake of praying, He wouldn’t really mind. After all we had a relationship since childhood!
Yet, I knew that something was missing.
My mind seemed like it was burdened with all the responsibilities. I was always restless and pre-occupied, trying to establish control in every aspect of my life.
I also became a complaint box, always trying to put the blame on somebody or some thing for my shortcomings. Frankly the prayer at the end of the day also seemed like something that I wanted to just get done with. There was no peace and absolutely no joy in whatever I was doing in my day to day.
Thankfully my family came to the rescue and encouraged me, on a daily basis, to submit in prayer. My husband motivated me to sing often.
How did this happen to me? I have often wondered. How was it so easy for someone who was regular with her Christian routine, to go absolutely wayward?
I will try to explain this here.
THOUGHTS AND BEHAVIOUR
My thoughts I have realized come from the five senses- sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch. What I choose to see, hear, smell, taste or touch both physically and spiritually, on a daily basis, are what my thoughts comprise of.
So if I feed myself with negative thoughts through these senses, I am basically allowing myself to think negative. Like drops from a catheter, these thoughts can continue producing associated negative thoughts on a regular basis (our brain is wired to create associations!!).
Negative thoughts bring forth negative emotions that can further influence the small and big choices I make in life.
In fact, convinced by my own web of negative thoughts, I might make the mistake of unknowingly poisoning somebody else too.
For example if I hear something unfortunate about an old classmate from a close friend, it is instinctive for me to indulge in the pleasure of my classmate’s failure and join my friend to judge our classmate together. In fact I might get so convinced with the narrative that I may pass on the details to another friend of mine!!
In doing so, however, I have allowed the negative thoughts to reside in me, which in the long term will most definitely affect my behaviour, with the old classmate.
What more it will also influence my behavior with my immediate family or the people I meet on a daily basis! Why? For the simple reason that negative thoughts and negative actions, always make us restless from within, thus creating stress and discord in our relationships.
So how can we control this?
With prayer.
Yes, prayer can positively influence our thoughts.
When we feed our five senses with church prayers or bible verses on a daily basis, we are repeatedly strengthened and encouraged, to focus our thoughts on what is true, and honourable and right, and pure, and lovely and admirable, excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8)
For example in the above situation, the very first time when my close friend shared an unfortunate story, I could guard my thoughts by reciting to myself the following 2 verses:
Ephesians 4:29
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
Proverbs 17:9
“Whoever would foster love covers over an offense, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.”
Or for instance if a friend tempted me to try something that is not right, I could pray for courage, with the help of these verses:
James 4:7
“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
Philippians 1:6
“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Hebrews 11:25
“….choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.”
Remembering all the bible verses, I admit, is not easy, yet we must try.
One way you can do this is:
- Buy/use a diary or journal for this purpose.
- Start off by choosing 3 situations in your life that you need help in, for that particular month. For example: In January I need help in
- Resisting a particular temptation
- Dealing with stress
- Finding a direction or purpose
- Your situations should be as specific as possible.
- Make use of all those websites on the internet, that will help you with Bible Verses for your situations. Explore this for a start. Else request a family member or your Sunday School teacher or anybody whom you can discreetly ask a favour from, to do this for you.
- Choose 3 verses from each situation, that resonate with you the most and pen it down in your journal.
- If possible print or write these verses on big sheets of paper and place them in your room. These will now serve your need for daily affirmations.
- Go through each of the chosen verses, within your prayer routine, every single morning and every night before you go to bed.
- Next month, start from the beginning. Choose 3 different situations.
This way you will most assuredly be able to remember a few Bible verses by the end of each month.
THE JESUS PRAYER
Another way of cutting a thought right at the root is by reciting the Jesus Prayer.
The Jesus Prayer is a one line prayer that can be easily remembered and ingrained in our hearts, for those difficult moments, when we are unable to recall a bible verse or church prayer, but still yearn to seek God’s will.
It says “Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.”
Merely in one sentence, we submit with humility (as a sinner) our situation, moment, temptation, life, to Jesus by acknowledging His power, calling upon Him to take over and shower His mercy, so we are strengthened to take the right step and are not harmed spiritually.
This is a prayer that can be offered quietly and continuously, in our mind during any activity; while travelling to work, cooking, at a meeting, during a conversation, etc
So while it is great to remember all the church prayers and bible verses to guard ourselves with spiritual armor (Ephesians 6:11), the Jesus prayer is a fantastic alternative for all those times when we need to act instantly.
Like when we lack the courage to say no, or are about to give into something wrong, or are confused about a choice, or are being pushed towards a temptation.
Whenever I have been successful in arresting an incoming bad thought, and then replacing it with a beautiful Bible verse or the Jesus prayer, I have felt victorious and relieved.
In doing so, I have also noticed that the minute I am able to successfully control that moment, I am flooded with good and positive thoughts about that particular moment, or person or situation.
Sometimes the words from these very verses have helped me to immediately acknowledge the weakness of my soul and to embrace the extremely powerful love and care that our God bestows.
They have helped me to accept that I can’t have it all and have reminded me continuously, of my need for His intervention!
What has been your experience with Bible verses or prayers?
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Hi! My name is Rubitah. I’m a Content Writer certified Life Coach, Counselor, Social Work professional and the Founder of Being Rubitah. Over the years through my professional and personal life, I have realized that prayers and love can do wonders to family life once you come to terms with yourself and surrender to God. Do you relate to me? Then you may like what I post here! Read more about me
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