Traditional Thinking...

The following is used by permission from a friend of mine. God has been dealing with her about writing a book along these lines. Here is the first chapter of LeeAnn Buhr's book.

Chapter 1 - Recognizing False or Skewed Mindsets

The mind is a dangerous and amazing place. Many in our culture know this. With the power of the mind, great technological advances and great harm has come to the human race. With the mind, men devise good and evil, bringing whatever things to pass that they desire. And, with the mind, Satan is able to destroy even the most faithful of Christians.

How is he able to do this? Through the mindsets that we allow ourselves to build. But, to understand a mindset, we must understand what the mind really is. The Oxford University Press defines the mind as “the faculty or consciousness of thought; a person’s intellect or memory; and a person’s attention or will.” How many times have we said that we have “something in mind” for Christmas gifts or birthday gifts? How often to we complain about having someone “on our mind” during a time of need? All these things go back to the definition of mind. If we realize that the mind is where much of our intellectual activity takes place, we are better able to understand different mindsets.

In his book, The Three Battlegrounds, Francis Frangipane defines a mindset as “a house made of thoughts.” This is so true since a mindset is a thought process through which we see the world. This is why it can be said that optimists “see the world through rose-colored glasses.” It is their way of looking at the world. When I look out the front window of my house, I see an alley. My neighbor to the left sees a fence and a house, and the people that live to the right see an apartment building. Why? Because we’re looking out of different houses. We all live on the same street, but our perspective changes due to our relative positioning and the angle of our windows. The same is true in our minds. This is why three people can see the exact same incident and tell it three completely different ways. We all perceive the world through the windows of our houses, or the mindsets that we develop.

A mindset is developed from birth. The home we grew up in, the parents we had, and the events in our lives shaped our mindsets from the day we came home from the hospital. Statistics have proven this time and again. A child who grows up in an alcoholic home is more likely to become an alcoholic than one who wasn’t around that influence when they were younger.. A person who was abused as a child tends to become either an abuser themselves or to develop abusive relationships in adulthood. This principle does not just apply to those who are coming from the world. In the Christian home, a child’s mindset is shaped by his or her parents’ responses to God. A child who sees his parents stop and draw a line in the sand will typically stop at that line. Parents, be careful of where you stop in God.. What one generation takes in moderation, the next will take in excess. This includes your willingness or unwillingness to follow the leading of God’s voice.

Mindsets are also shaped by our media influences. This has become more prevalent as television and videos have become more accessible. What we watch, read, or listen to will shape how we think. Just take a look around the movie store the next time you go. How many horror movies or borderline pornographic movies are available to this generation? This is key in understanding our mindsets, and it does not apply just to what you watch on TV. It also applies to what you listen to on your MP3 player. I am a firm believer in the power of music. I love music, play music, and wish I could sing to music. This is a key element of my life, and I know the power it has because I have seen it in my life. And in the lives of others. Young people, you may like a certain type of music or beat, but if it does not glorify God, it will negatively influence the way you think. There are many types of music out there, and not all of them are edifying and encouraging to the soul. You might like a certain style, but it must always draw you closer to God in the process. Personally, there are styles of music that I refuse to listen to, even if there are Christian lyrics attached to them, simply because they do not edify me. They bring me to a place where my focus is not on the things of God. Another area of media influence is in what we read. The hours we spend reading are crucial to our mental health. Romans 8:7 tells us that “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Thinking carnally is not hard to do.. Just let a provocatively dressed woman saunter past a man, and he’ll think carnally. Place a romance book in a lady’s hands, and she’ll think carnally. This is something that we must be aware of when we are choosing our reading material. As Christians, we cannot block the enemy from one area of our lives and let him in somewhere else. We must guard our minds and thoughts very carefully.

The third area of influence over our mindsets is peer pressure. Teenagers are not the only people who experience peer pressure. It happens in all levels of society and at all age ranges. The desires just change. Instead of wanting the nicest clothes and hairstyles, I now want a better house or appliances. Why? Because so-and-so just bought a new house, and it has all those neat little things that I don’t have. And she says it is so nice and is influencing me to buy a new appliance. It happens more often than we care to admit. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it right! Just because everyone else is buying it doesn’t mean we need it. There is a slogan in America today that every school kid knows: “Just say no!” This applies to more than just drugs and alcohol. As Christians, we have to learn to “just say no” to peer pressure when it influences us away from God and His Word! We have to learn to say no to those things that will tear us down and leave us beside the road, unable to function in life.

I Corinthians 3:16 says, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” Later, in Chapter Six, Verse Nineteen, Paul again asks, “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Who is living in your house? Who has taken up residence in that thought house of your mind? The Bible is emphatic.. We are the temple of the Holy Ghost. As Christians, filled with the Holy Ghost and living a holy life before God, we are not to have mindsets that are opposite of God’s Word. II Corinthians 6:16 states, “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I WILL DWELL IN THEM, AND WALK IN THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.” God walks in us, moves through us, and should be the focal point of our lives. Ephesians 2:22 tells us that we are built to be “an habitation of God through the Spirit.” God designed us to be the dwelling place of His Spirit.

So, again I ask, who is living in your house? By answering this question, we will be able to recognize the mindsets in us that are false or simply skewed. Many times, we develop mindsets that are simply out of context with what the Bible says. These mindsets are recognized and corrected through the renewing of our minds in the Word of God. As you read this book, remember one thing: God’s Word is the foundation for our lives. No amount of inspirational reading, however enlightening, can renew and change our minds. No amount of psychological therapy can transform the thought processes that we’ve developed. These are all good things, but we cannot truly change our mindsets if we do not have the Word of God active and applied in our lives. Isaiah 55:8-9 reads, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” In this passage, God is not trying to be haughty or proud. He is simply stating a point. He is completely opposite of everything we are. We are weak. He is Strength itself. We are broken. He is the Healer. We think we’ve gained the world when we save and earn a lot of money. He says He’s our Provider. We struggle to gain control of our lives for our own purposes. He says to seek His kingdom first, and everything else will be added to us. To recognize false or skewed mindsets, we must study both our mindset and God’s views on that mindset. In essence, we will be studying opposites.

Finally, what we think about will develop our mindsets. Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” This verse put into practice will revolutionize our lives.

Recently, I went through a time when I had to learn the power of this verse. In early 2008, God saved my husband from what should have been a fatal motorcycle accident. By the evening of that day, word had spread around our small city about the man that should have died that morning but instead walked out of the emergency room two hours after flying fifty feet through the air. As a result, however, he missed work. After we managed to get caught up, his driver’s license, which he needed to work, came up for renewal. There were issues with the CDL portion of his endorsements, and that caused an upset at work and resulted in more lost hours. As a wife and mother, I dealt with the calls from bill collectors wanting the medical bills paid, the short paychecks, and the stress of trying to feed our family. One Sunday morning, all of this caught up to me. I went to church with a heavy heart, and no amount of worshiping could change it. During that service, I decided that I wasn’t going to live like that anymore. With the help of the saints, I traded my carnal, fearful mind for the powerful mind of Christ. I rested more that day than I had in the months before. But, each day brings new battles. In the wee hours of the next morning, I woke from a horrible dream. Fear tried to creep in, and it was as if the darkness itself was oppressing. For a moment, I could barely breathe. Then, a ray of light came into my mind. I began to mentally sing, “When I think about the Lord. . . .” My mind went blank. So, I started again. And again. Finally, after several tries, I managed to get through the chorus, “When I think about the Lord, how He saved me, how He raised me, how He filled me with the Holy Ghost, how He healed me to the uttermost. When I think about the Lord, how He picked me up and turned me around, how He placed my feet on solid ground, it makes me want to shout! Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus! Lord, You’re worthy of all the glory and all the honor and all the praise!” As I just thought about this song, the fear that had tried to take over faded. Why? I had lifted my focus to One higher than my fear. But the fight wasn’t over yet. I rose some time later to pray, and a minor headache developed into the worst headache I’ve ever had. I felt as if I would be sick if I even moved. As I lay in bed, trying to ignore the pain, I began to remember how God had healed me of migraine headaches. I began to think, “I am healed of migraine headaches. I don’t have migraines. God healed me of migraines. Thank You, Lord, because I’m healed of migraine headaches.” Within minutes, the pain vanished. Not every headache is going to be healed in this manner, but what I discovered that morning was revolutionary to my life. I learned that, when God does something for me, I have to take hold of it. I can’t just know. I have to act and think differently. This practice of thinking on things higher than my fears or failures has brought about a freedom in my life.

Dear reader, as you progress through this book, you will find that we will examine and address some very deep, very real issues. You will find that, at some point, God will speak to you. Not because I am a spiritual guru, but because this book was given by inspiration of God. There are things in this book that have changed my life as God revealed my own shortcomings to me. Approach the following pages with prayer, repentance, an open mind, and an attitude that says, “God created me to be free!” By doing so, you will find deliverance from the mindsets of religion.