J1ST 044: Mental Holiness
Holiness is a lifelong journey and I have come to understand that, at least for me, much of this battle will be fought in the mind.
Most of my sins occur only in my mind.
My attitude, my anger, my daydreams, and my laziness are very often things that others. Even those close to me, never know about me.
And yet, we know that true holiness requires consecrating every part of ourselves, including the secrets of our mind, to God.
So for this reason I decided to dedicate this week’s podcast episode to the topic of Mental Holiness.
How do we allow God to touch even our secret thoughts? How do we make mental room and quiet for God?
And, how do I resist the quiet mental temptation that Satan is so good about sending my way?
To discuss this I broke down the struggle for mental holiness into 3 topics: Distractions, Fantasy, and Anger.
First of all, Distraction. Distraction is a HUGE issue for me.
It affects my dedicated prayer time and it also keeps me from “living in the presence of God,” as Brother Lawrence so beautifully puts it.
In the episode, I talk about my struggle with Instagram. And how I ultimately decided that I just can’t be on Instagram and deleted it from my phone.
Next, Fantasy.
I struggle with entertaining mental fantasies as a way to escape the situation I find myself in (kids screaming).
I think I do this because I LOVE stories and often I replay things I have seen on TV, especially when what I saw was particularly gripping or I’ve binge-watched something.
But this habit robs me of the moment I am in–and robs me of the ability to live with God and worship Him as I should.
And finally, Anger.
As I mention in the episode, a previous episode I recorded on Anger has been my most-listened-to episode ever.
And I think that speaks to what a big problem this is for women.
Although I don’t offer any REAL answers, I think it is important to reflect on the negative emotions we harbor in our minds, even if we don’t act on them.
The quest for mental holiness is long, and although I offer very few solutions, I hope this episode brought up some important concepts that will lead to fruitful contemplation.
Thanks for listening!
Your sister in Christ,
Well, this just nails it right on the head… you get to a certain point in your spiritual life where you aren’t really ‘doing’ things you need to confess as much as you’re thinking things you shouldn’t be, which is much harder for me to quantify in confession! This really is something I’m struggling with greatly. Thank you for the discussion!
Nancy! Maybe I’ve just been looking in all the wrong places, but this is the first time I’ve heard some of the issues of being very visual as a woman addressed. Thank you! I’m right there with you on Instagram (and Facebook too, but it’s easier to stay away from that because it’s just not as fun as Instagram), and have uninstalled and reinstalled it multiple times. I really appreciated all your thoughts on these topics, and hope to ponder them a bit as I seek to be a better Christian, wife, and mother.
So good to know that I’m not alone in these struggles. Glad it gave you some good food for thought!