Proverbs 3:5 -8

5 Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.

6 In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.

7 Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil.

8 It shall be health to your nerves and sinews, and marrow and moistening to your bones.

Hello My Ladies who live their lives in of the mind of Christ,

Each lesson, I am learning so much. It is really making a difference in my life. Learning the strategies of the enemy to control my thoughts is allowing me to come out of the battle as more than a conquer. These lessons may seem simple because they are easy to read but I am finding them challenging to implement. Good thing, the Lord is my helper :bigsmile:

This week is all about the confused mind. There is so much in this chapter that has ministered to my heart. It is hard to chose which one to share. As I have shared before, I am a person of reason. I love to problem solve and am very list oriented. So, the whole portion about reasoning is very vital to me to learn and implement.

Joyce writes "Reasoning opens the door for deception and brings much confusion. I once asked the Lord why so many people are confused and He said to me, "Tell them to stop trying to figure everything out, and they will stop being confused." I have found it to be absolutely true. Reasoning and confusion go together." I so agree with this statement because I have lived it. But that is changing as God is training me in the way I should go. As I am growing in Him, I am finding more and more that I am walking in His clarity and discernment. I recognize when I am responding wrong and I ask Him to help me correct and He always does.

When I take my mind and try to answer my own questions, that only God is meant to answer, who is glorified? Not God. Paul writes in Romans 8:6 " Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter]. But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever]." Oh, how many times I suffered death because I reasoned with the mind of Jenni. Thank the Lord, He is teaching me to allow the mind of the Spirit to reign in my life. I will learn to operate with the mind of the Holy Spirit, which produces life and soul peace for me.

What I am seeing as I am learning about this, is human reasoning, that is, reasoning in my own emotions and opinions, leads to confusion and usually disobedience. Look at what scripture says about confusion James 3:16 " For wherever there is jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition), there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sorts of evil and vile practices." Confusion is unrest, which is exactly what I feel when I try to reason something out. My emotions get all involved and sure enough I am begin to feel anxious and worried and fretful. Then there is disharmony, because I cannot walk in faith if I am going back and forth about what I trying to reason. This kind of reasoning puts my focus on what I think and feel instead of on what God's word says. I begin to think "What about me?" When ever I try to justify myself, it is a sure sign to me that I have stopped depending on God for my justification and I have begun reasoning. Then there is rebellion when I chose my way over Gods because it makes sense to me. Then comes in the evil and vile practices. A good example of this, is when I chose to take my right based on my emotions, instead of allowing God to give to me His good. Which usually requires me to lay down my life. Something, that is always very hard for me to do. However, God has made provision for me in this area. I love how He does this. He tells me what is wrong, shows me what is right and then gives me all that I need to do it. I just have to do it! He even helps me with wanting to do it. I know because I often have to do things I don't want to or feel the need to.

I want to give an example of this. When we shut down our restaurant and were seeking the Lord for His direction. Our minds were constantly reasoning how to fix our situation. We were busy, busy, busy with all kinds of choices and possible paths. These paths lead to unrest and much confusion about what we were supposed to do. Just like Joyce wrote "Unanswered questions crucify the flesh life." Boy, was I being tortured. It wasn't till I recognized that I was doing this and repented that I began to hear clearly. I had to humble my heart by repenting and submitting what I thought and what I felt. Sometimes, submitting my emotions to Him, moment by moment. I asked the Lord to show me how to think about this situation. I knew that if I could think the right things, then my emotions would follow. I asked him to show me how to process what I was feeling and to give me His perspective on it. Wow! Did He do just that. As I focused on Him, I clearly began to see what was needed and I was at peace. So much so, that God began to operate in ministry through me in amazing ways. Now, think about this I am loosing everything in my life that has defined me and here, instead of being empty, there was joy and peace, overflowing. Only God could have taken this "evil' and worked it for good. God helped me to do my part, which was humble myself and learn His way as He worked in and through me. I had to be humble enough to ask for this. It didn't just happened. I had to acknowledge I needed His way. As we continued releasing all that we needed to move to North Dakota, we had joyful hearts and clear direction and thus, excellent fruits. Some of the fruit of confusion is complaining, regret, bitterness, hopelessness and strife. My husband and I could have had so much of this but we committed to operating in humility, that we would seek God first and allow His way to dominate our lives. We were united in this focus and the stress of all we faced, that was meant to separate us, God used to weld us together even tighter. We learned so much through this process. Especially, allowing our minds to be transformed so our reasoning was renewed to His word. So much of lives were uncertain but we were certain about our God. This became our anchor. Being certain about God, banishes confusion. Scripture states in 1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints." My dearest sisters, when we allow God to be the Lord of our reasoning, confusion has no place. Peace reigns!

Confusion is a weapon the enemy tries to use to keep your focused on not knowing or understanding. If Satan can keep you focused on what you do not understand or know, than that is what you reproduce in your life....uncertainty. Which produces unhappiness and insecurity. We are not supposed to know everything. That is why we need God. God knows and understands everything. He is a sure foundation. Not uncertain or unstable. Daily, I am faced with things I don't understand, but instead of focusing on what I don't know, I focus on what I do. I know that God is good. I know that He has plans for good for me, for those I love and for you. He has plans to give you a hope for the future. A plan for your peace for your welfare. He has made provision for every circumstance that is in your life. He is faithful and sure. He is steadfast and more than able. He is full of love for us and holds nothing back. We can trust God! He will help us to not lean to our own understanding. Let us acknowledge Him.......give our all to Him, including what we think, how we feel and what we know and don't know and ask Him for His perspective. He will make plain and straight our paths....no confusion for us!