Choosing to fix my mind on Jesus

From: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/habits-of-mind-terrell-heick

It's Thursday, which is my day off. I have a day off each week to keep me sane as a five-day week means I'm driving 500 miles a week and I've been exhausted and irritable. I'm hoping to get a job closer to home, I have an interview next week! But in the meantime I'm very thankful for my day off!

I listened to this song a few times today, mainly because it was the only phatfish song on my iPod, and I'd selected phatfish songs, and I hadn't noticed it was stuck on repeat... clearly I'm paying a lot of attention to what I'm doing today...not!

Jesus Christ Holy One
The lifter of our heads
Through You I come conquering Son
To my Father in Heaven

And Iʼm confident that I belong to You
As the Spirit testifies
I shall not fear, fear has no hold
So I cry ʻAbba Fatherʼ

What mercy You have poured on me
With thankful lips Iʼll sing
I choose to fix my mind
On all the blessings You have given me
For Youʼve revealed to me Your grace
The wonder of the cross
Youʼve breathed new life to me
And in Your victory I now stand today

Nathan Fellingham
Copyright © 2002 Kingswayʼs Thankyou Music/MCPS 

I picked out that line 'I choose to fix my mind on all the blessings you have given me' because I'm aware that I need to do that today. I need to do that everyday. I heard at a recent conference of George Mueller's aim each morning, the first thing he did, was to 'have my soul happy in the Lord'. What an aim! And this song is helpful, I think, because it's full of reasons to have a very happy soul, in the Lord! Each line gives me a reason:

• Jesus is holy - he's the Christ! I can know all about him through the gospels!
• He lifts my head - This world is not all it! One day he's going to come back and be in charge and it will be beautiful.
• He's conquered death and sin, and he's our only way!
• He's enabled me to say God is my Father! He's my brother!

and there's:

• Belonging to God
• The witness of the Holy Spirit (our guarantee)
• Nothing to fear - no hold on me
• I can cry out 'Daddy!' to the God of heaven. He's not left me alone.
• I have been shown such mercy (poured out / wasted on me / overflowing in generosity / lavish) that I don't deserve. 
• I can sing! My soul is no longer burdened with fear and dread because I'm not good enough.
• God's revealed his grace to me! He's made a display of it! I can't miss it in the work on the cross!
• You not only gave me life when I was conceived and breathed my first baby cry, you've breathed NEW LIFE on me to achieve this glorious transformation.
• In your victory I stand today, and everyday: wow, how can I stand in Jesus' victory?! It's astonishing Good News!!!! I simply DON'T deserve this... How can it be?

How does this relate to the Step home, I hear you wonder?! Well, if my aim is on graciously loving those around me, as I said in my last post, what better a fuel, a motivation, than fixing my mind on the blessings (outlined above!) that God has given me.

 It stops me:

• thinking about how much living graciously costs me (woah it's cost God a lot! )
• thinking I'm rubbish (I didn't get that right, they didn't see how hard I worked etc. etc.!)
• thinking I'm brilliant (God's brilliant, he shows me mercy! )
• worrying about things (God has taken care of these massive big deals in our lives, he can take care of the small stuff too)
• Feeling miserable and unappreciated (Woah, how little do I stop to appreciate the WONDERS of God and thank him sincerely!?)

It helps me:

• Stay sane (keep everything in perspective!)
• Encourage my hubby (he's human too!)
• Encourage the kids (It's a better witness to the nippers if you are happy in God yourself!!)
• Recognise the need to spend time in His word without just going through the motions (renewing my mind and understanding the depths of his grace)

 Praying that we read and believe the good news today, and that we too aim each day to 'have my soul happy in the Lord' even in the hardest of circumstances.

Thanks for reading, Grace and Peace x