persisting in Heavenly Thoughts in the midst of an Intrusive Thought-scape

friend of said:

2 Corinthians 4:18

How to focus on Heavenly thoughts in the midst of Intrusive thoughts

If you’ve ever endured earthly stresses in this life your focus has probably been taken off the promises of scripture for a time. The process of reorienting our hearts back to these promises can be a task we momentarily fail at in our human weakness.


Colossians 3:1-4 I want to focus my mind on heavenly things. The things above. but how do I deal with excessive intrusive thoughts that will not leave me alone for good? They can go away for a time, but then always return. Aside from the obvious resolution of consistent prayer. It’s like, I can be doing something one moment and then get bombarded with intrusive, disturbing thoughts and memories and it is mentally draining to get my mind off them and onto heavenly things again. It’s like my mind switches off and Philippians 4:4-9 becomes incomprehensible and I am a different person abandoned by the peace I usually feel in my walk.


Further, what does it truly mean to think of heavenly things? To have one’s mind and heart fixated on things above? Does it mean to be absorbed in planning, carrying out and being quickened in response to, that which we perceive to be the will of God for our lives? Does it mean to daydream about spending time in a heaven that we cannot even fathom here? 1 Corinthians 2:9 Are we to use our imagination to the best of our abilities to try? I think so, as such things are lovely. But when intrusive thoughts come, they tend to sap all the imaginativeness out of you.


For those of us struggling with our internal mindscape, what advice would you give us? (aside from consulting medicine to fix a dopamine imbalance with drugs or something) What benefits are yielded for God when some of his children consistent experience struggles with intrusive thoughts which take time and prayer away from worshipping Him?


Mark 7:15 , Matthew 15:11 state plainly that it is not what is outside a person that defiles them, but what comes from them. Are these thoughts originating from within me, or are they externalities? Luke 6:45 , Matthew 12:35.

As a growing Christian, I am becoming progressively more sensitive to conviction, and when I freshen up what the Lord said in these passages it can feel almost tortuous in a sense. WHY do I have obsessive thoughts that I can’t get rid of throughout the day? Why can’t these intrusive thoughts be GOOD thoughts of things I’ve been learning or feelings of Love God has graced to me on my Christian walk over these past months? Those memories should be the default as they are lovely and what God wants us to think on.

Is there something wrong with the state of my soul that my mind/heart continue to go back to banal, earthly thoughts and worthless memories and I sometimes can't snap out of them?

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friend of said:

2 Corinthians 4:18

How to focus on Heavenly thoughts in the midst of Intrusive thoughts

If you’ve ever endured earthly stresses in this life your focus has probably been taken off the promises of scripture for a time. The process of reorienting our hearts back to these promises can be a task we momentarily fail at in our human weakness.


Colossians 3:1-4 I want to focus my mind on heavenly things. The things above. but how do I deal with excessive intrusive thoughts that will not leave me alone for good? They can go away for a time, but then always return. Aside from the obvious resolution of consistent prayer. It’s like, I can be doing something one moment and then get bombarded with intrusive, disturbing thoughts and memories and it is mentally draining to get my mind off them and onto heavenly things again. It’s like my mind switches off and Philippians 4:4-9 becomes incomprehensible and I am a different person abandoned by the peace I usually feel in my walk.


Further, what does it truly mean to think of heavenly things? To have one’s mind and heart fixated on things above? Does it mean to be absorbed in planning, carrying out and being quickened in response to, that which we perceive to be the will of God for our lives? Does it mean to daydream about spending time in a heaven that we cannot even fathom here? 1 Corinthians 2:9 Are we to use our imagination to the best of our abilities to try? I think so, as such things are lovely. But when intrusive thoughts come, they tend to sap all the imaginativeness out of you.


For those of us struggling with our internal mindscape, what advice would you give us? (aside from consulting medicine to fix a dopamine imbalance with drugs or something) What benefits are yielded for God when some of his children consistent experience struggles with intrusive thoughts which take time and prayer away from worshipping Him?


Mark 7:15 , Matthew 15:11 state plainly that it is not what is outside a person that defiles them, but what comes from them. Are these thoughts originating from within me, or are they externalities? Luke 6:45 , Matthew 12:35.

As a growing Christian, I am becoming progressively more sensitive to conviction, and when I freshen up what the Lord said in these passages it can feel almost tortuous in a sense. WHY do I have obsessive thoughts that I can’t get rid of throughout the day? Why can’t these intrusive thoughts be GOOD thoughts of things I’ve been learning or feelings of Love God has graced to me on my Christian walk over these past months? Those memories should be the default as they are lovely and what God wants us to think on.

Is there something wrong with the state of my soul that my mind/heart continue to go back to banal, earthly thoughts and worthless memories and I sometimes can't snap out of them?

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Hidden In Him said:

WoW! One of the more constructive and spiritually useful threads I've seen created in quite some time.

Yes, it requires a type of training of the mind. You see, the thinking behind Philippians 4:8 was that Pul wanted them to exercise a type of mental discipline over themselves because of all the negative experiences they were going through that threatened to drive the Spirit of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Brotherly Friendship, etc from their hearts. Many other passages you cited likewise admonished them to practicing a similar mental discipline and for the same reasons.

Our trouble is that such thoughts are a form of temptation to meditate on; a sin, at least in the sense that they take us away from meditating on pure things, as you were saying. But as you also mentioned they also carry a price tag. Eventually we grow sick of being angry, depressed, disturbed, and/or drained, and we decide that the temptation isn't worth it anymore. So we adopt increasing discipline until it becomes habit.

I'm not saying it as if I've fully arrived yet, lol. I still struggle with pervasive thoughts of anger. But anger and the kind of thoughts that it breeds are among the easiest to detect as not being of God. So at the present time for me it means trying to think things through so that I don't get tripped up again the next time.

And as far as memories go, it usually doesn't take me long to put them out of my head as simply being things of the past.

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Neogaia777 said:

I pray that you remember some good memories or things about the past, as those are supposed to be yours, without it bringing up the bad, or any of the bad...

God Bless!

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