Don't Think About It Too Much


Overthinking is the thief of contentment and peace. I am so guilty of overthinking. My "what if's" haunt me and leave me wondering how things could have turned out differently. Thousands of questions flood my mind and are left unanswered. But overthinking is consuming and it only leads to worry and doubt.

We have to be very mindful of what thoughts we allow to reign in our minds. Our thoughts have the power to dictate our reality. The more you think that something won't work out, or that someone doesn't like you, or that the things you've been praying for will never be resolved, the more you convince yourself that there's some validity to your notions. Once you believe your thoughts over His word, you give your thoughts the power to actualize.

Constant overthinking leads to being anxious, being unsatisfied with the past, and being antsy about the future. For some reason we often believe that our thoughts will somehow change the outcome. If only we could return to that one moment in the past and change our response, or if only we could rewrite what happened. Or perhaps we could determine our future based on what we fantasize or we could hinder ourselves from going after something we really want because we think we aren't adequate enough. Overthinking is also the master of self-contempt. I can recall myself thinking: Why am I so weird and awkward all the times? Why didn't I say anything? Why did I say that? And however we perceive ourselves is most likely how we believe others perceive us.

I ran across this scripture and I love it. It says, "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5. The solution to overthinking is simply learning to think like Christ. It's deliberately aligning every thought with His word instead of our limited perspective. This will be a challenge for even me since I tend to read into things way too much. But I know that if I allow my thoughts to take precedent over His word, I will only and always end up unsatisfied and unfulfilled. My prayer is that we will adopt the mindset of Christ and think how He thinks. That we will no longer be consumed with "what ifs" but instead with unshakable peace.


1 comment

  1. An interesting read. To much thinking is stressful! Love love, Andrew. Bye.

    ReplyDelete