stop listening

I leave work at 4:30 everyday. Yesterday at 4:22 I answered my phone. There was a young lady on the other end who had some very choice words for me, her case worker. She yelled and called me names for a few minutes. Then the cussing began. She was angry with me. I warned her that I do not like cussing. She kept on and I listened. Then it occurred to me…I do not have to listen to this. So, I hung up.

On the way home, her horrible words still played in my head. They kept repeating. Then I began to question myself. Maybe she was right. Maybe I am a horrible, irresponsible case worker. Maybe… As the tears started to fall, God reminded me “you don’t have to listen to that.” Don’t you wish you could just hang up your thoughts like you hang up a phone? He reminded me again. Then I said a verse that I cling to pretty much daily. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, “3For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Fighting off her words in my mind become possible when I made them obedient to Christ. He says we are His children. He says we are perfect in His image.

Today whatever you are hearing in your mind (or on the phone!) stop listening. With the power of Christ in you, you do not have to hear it. If it is not from Christ it is not worth having…