You ever get a song lyric stuck in your head or a thought, a reoccurring disruption?

You know what I mean.  The type of thought or song or anything really that catches you unawares when it comes back around and you can never seem to quite get rid of it?  It’ll just pop up when you are trying to:

-Read your bible

-Pray

– Have a discussion on or with God

-Write a faith based blog (currently….*sigh*)

-Basically anything that has to do with God/Jesus/Church/Religion/Spirituality

You find yourself praying it away, or at least trying to, only to find that it pops back up later.  Like you never really got rid of it in the first place…

This has a threefold effect.  It (1) disrupts your peace, (2) messes with your relationship with God (at least tries too), and (3) causes you to delve deeper into the word/drives you away from the word (if you don’t dig deep).

This topic of reoccurring thoughts reminds me of two different things that I have heard/learned recently and I will gladly explain/share them to and with you.

The first thing I heard was from a Psalmist, speaking on how Peace.  She said when it falls on you it is like an atomic bomb.

Think about that for a minute.  The peace of God is A BOMB…a big atmosphere changing bomb….

That nothing can stand in its way.  The atmosphere itself changes. Change must happen and it happens in the blink of an eye.

Remember when Jesus spoke to the storm?

He didn’t yell at it. He calmly rebuked the wind and told the sea “Peace, be still” and it was. It was calm. It was powerful. He calmly said (without raising His voice) PEACE!!!! Be Still…the bomb was dropped.

When the reoccurring thoughts start it disrupts the stillness that the PEACE has provided.  It causes ripples in the pond, and we all know what ripples do.  They spread and get wider and wider. Until they have consumed the whole pond and there is no more stillness or peace to be found within your heart.

This will mess with your relationship with God.  Since these thoughts are disruptive it makes it hard to maintain our relationship and grow in it.  We are told to watch (and need to watch) what goes in our “gates” (our access points) because our flesh is weak and easily tempted.

Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!” (Matthew 26:41)

 The reason is because this gets into our hearts, minds, and souls and these things become issues and cause us to draw away from the love of God and into temptation.

It is not all doom and gloom however.

This is where the second thing I recently heard and learned comes in.  This comes from a Preacher who broke down the following:

According to the Preacher this doesn’t mean that we (the deer) is thirsty. It means:

• A deer when chased heads towards the nearest source of water. The reason for this is because the deer KNOWS that if it can just reach the stream the ENEMY will lose its trail. The enemy cannot track him through the water.  So the deer is panting for the water.

Just like the deer pants for water MY (OUR) SOULs are PANTING after God. We know that (our soul does) if we can just REACH Him that the enemy will lose our trail. *Insert Praise Break*

This is relevant because if we can just get in the presence of God these distracting/reoccurring thoughts can be taken care of and the PEACE bomb reactivated.

It is not all doom and gloom and the thoughts can be corralled and taken care of.  The word tells us –

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8-9)

One sure fire way to battle thoughts that seek to derail you is prayer of course, but to replace them with thoughts of God.  Of PRAISE! Of things that are honorable, right, and lovely.  Find something that counteracts the bad.

PRAISE!

When it seems like unwanted songs pop up – replace it with a hymn or gospel song. An unwanted thought that seems to bring you down? Replace it with something as simple as “Thank You for movement in my body” or “Thank You for another day.”

I am not saying that we will never get things stuck in our head, but I am saying that God is able to make it so that PEACE abounds and the ripples that those thoughts can cause don’t spread and mess with everyday life. We just need to trust and fight back with our Word and Praise.