Finding a Sound Mind: 5 Steps to Refocus on God's Promises

Curious Living family, welcome to Stepping Forward. My name is Sheridan Correa and thank you for tuning in today. Hey fam, what we do here on Stepping Forward is we talk about practical ways to really step forward in our faith, in our healing process, in our transformation process. So that's what we do here. And before we get started, I want to show you something. I know we talked in our last BL small group in the getting comfortable with the uncomfortable. We talked about, or Christy really talked about, and Lauren, Christy and Lauren talked about our prayer wall that we have up in the Victorious Living ministry headquarters. So I want you to check out this video. Hey, I'm Ashley and I'm on the team here at Victorious Living. And I just wanted to let y'all know about our prayer wall. Here it is. This is in our main office here. And so when you write us letters, here's some letters right here. We see those. We have our volunteer team members that come in and they write you back, but also that's not the only thing they do. They take a prayer card and they write your prayer request on this. We hang them on the wall. We have a team of people that come into our office or either takes them home and prays for your requests. We have churches that have come alongside to pray for you in this battle, whether it's spiritual, mental or emotional. And so I just want to tell you, don't, don't think that just when you write your letters that that's it. Besides us responding to you, we are here praying weekly throughout the year. And so this is just a snapshot of 2024 and the prayer requests that we've gotten in. So keep them coming. Welcome back.

Isn't that amazing to, to be able to visualize, not only visualize, but tangibly see y'all's prayers from the letters go up on our wall and to know and see people coming in through those doors, grabbing a stack of prayer cards and praying over that strangers that you've never ever met people who are praying over you and for you that you'll probably never encounter. It's amazing. And it's God's great design of the church and hearts that move with compassion and empathy and and really offering and lifting up your lives and your prayers to the care and control and the answering the provision and the protection of God. And I just find that so, so encouraging. I hope that you do too. And let me give you some numbers. So last year in 2024, we had over 3,400 letters, 3,400 letters coming in to us, to our ministry that y'all are writing in to us. And over a, or over a six of those 529, if I remember right, to be exact, have 529 of the letters have a specific prayer request or a prayer that we want, that y'all want us to be praying about with you. And 529 prayers, like that's, that is absolutely incredible. In 2025, we want to, we want to exceed that. We want and hope that every single letter contains a prayer request because y'all, every, every letter is a life and every life is a heart. And we recognize this and, and we want to just walk alongside you in the things that you are praying for. Prayer matters. Prayer magnifies miracles. Prayer moves mountains and it moves God's heart to answer in a way that, that he sees fit. But prayer changes things y'all. Key takeaway, prayer changes things. And so thank you for writing into us.

Thank you for sharing your heart and your prayer requests with us so that we could be doing that with you. So keep doing that. If you are writing into us or fixing to write into us, include a prayer request so we can get it on the wall and we can have people praying over it. We can have so many people praying over it throughout the year because we love y'all. Okay. Hope that was a very encouraging. thing for you. So we have been talking about on Stepping Forward recently, we have been talking about finding a sound mind. Finding a sound mind, I think, is something that we all want. And especially when we're coming from a challenging past and a traumatic past, one that is stressful, you may even find yourself in a stressful and traumatic circumstance and situation even now. Let's be real. Incarceration is traumatizing a lot of times. It's stressful. It's hard. It's hard being in there. So we all want peace. Peace is a commodity that we are all looking for. We all want our minds to quiet down. We all want to train ourself or become disciplined in the way that we manage how we experience or react or respond to life. That is something that I think that we all desire. If you don't know that you desire, I'm telling you, that's what you want. That's what you want. And that is God's design for our life. God designed and created us to have the ability and to have the power to train and discipline our minds so that we can experience his peace, his presence, his power regularly throughout our life and surely throughout our day and surely throughout our circumstances. Because guys, life, an inevitable part of life, inevitably, we're going to be stressed out. Inevitably, our circumstances are going to suck. And it's going to be really hard sometimes. Inevitably, we're going to find ourselves feeling fear and doubt and confusion. And God has given us a way out. He has not left us and abandoned us to be like, oh, wow, this is really fun. Let's watch them down there and what they're doing and watch them all scrambling and look at all of them go and they're all like off to the races. Everyone's on fire. And this is really fun. This is entertaining. This is an entertaining reality show. That is not our God. That is not our God. Our God cares deeply about our inner experience. Our God cares deeply about our mental landscape

and what is going on up here. OK, so he has given us a way out in his word, right in his word that gives us instruction and direction on how to manage, navigate and grow even in our in and through our life experiences. So they don't take us out. So we're not like flattened by our experiences or harmed by them. OK, so today we are going to continue that conversation about finding a sound mind. And specifically, we are going to be looking in the book of Numbers. So in this in this story, in Numbers 13 and 14, Israelites have come out of Egypt. God has rescued them and they've been in the wilderness. Now, God promised them back in Genesis that he would bring them into a land, a very safe land, a one of abundance where they could thrive and they could grow and they could move forward in life as a people of God. So we're starting in 13. And the Lord said to Moses, hey, say send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. So at the Lord's command, Moses sent out 12 people. He sent out 12 men to go survey the area. And he had a bunch of questions and say, OK, this is what you're going to go do. You're going to go search. You're going to go survey. Here's the the elements or the things that that I want to know, the answers that I want to know and come back and, you know, we'll debrief and let me know. So they go do that. Twelve, twelve guys, they go do that. They come back and this land is so abundant and it is just it is going on. This land has got it going on and not like Vegas got it going on. Like the fruit of the land is huge and it is giant and it is just flowing with milk and honey and the grapes are like massive. And this is a really good land that the Lord is bringing them to, that the Lord has declared for them like, hey, this is going to be your land. Now, out of the 12 guys that come back, you have 11, 11 out of men, 11 out of 12 men who when Moses is asking for the report, they are saying, oh, yeah, it's totally it's it's awesome. There's land. There's a flowing with milk and honey. Look at these grapes we brought back. These grapes are like as huge as basketballs. Like, check out this. This place has got it going on. But check it out, Moses. There are some really strong, giant people who live there. And I felt like a, like a grasshopper and we ain't trying to go up in that land. That was their perspective. Okay. Now you have one guy, Caleb, sweet Caleb. I'm sure. I just, I love this man. I love little Caleb. I don't know if he's little, but I love Caleb because he stands up and advocates and, and speaks truth over the people and says, let's just go there in, in 30, 1330. Then Caleb silenced the people

before Moses and said, we should go up and take possession of the land where we can certainly do it. Now I find this very interesting and I love this story because you have a majority of these 12 men who are like, Oh my gosh, this looks so scary. There's like, how's this going to happen? We're not going to win. We're not going to, we're not going to be able to take this land. God, whatever God said to us, no, no, no, because I'm going to allow my sight and I'm going to allow my perception and what I see with my eyes to dictate the truth or what the perspective really is. And when they spoke that out, they, they aflamed all of the people who are there like we can't do this. We're not doing this. It's so scary. There's doubt, there's confusion. And all the people got, um, were touched by the same fear and the same doubt and confusion. But Caleb, wow. Courageous Caleb, we're going to call him, stood up and said, no, we can certainly do this. The Lord told us that we can do this. I know it looks scary, but let's go. And that is such a beautiful story of perspective. Okay. I hope you're tracking here. Now we are, when the Israelites stood on the edge of the promised land, they all saw the same land, but their perspectives were vastly different. You got 10 spies focused on the giants and fortified cities, spreading fear throughout everybody. And Caleb and Joshua saw the same land from the lens or through the lens of God's promises, declaring it. The Lord is pleased with us. He will send us into that land. Do not be afraid of these people or the land. And I, I, again, I just find that very, very interesting. And the difference is that the spies, the 10 spies magnified the obstacles. They decided to focus on what was in front of them, what they saw with their eyes. Caleb and Joshua magnified God. They made God sovereign and bigger than their obstacles and that, and their circumstance again, a lot like, um, a lot like these two, these two images right here, right? This is the 10 spies, the 10 spies who are like, oh no, that is way small over here. And like what we just saw with our own eyes, that is so much bigger. And I'm trying to step up into that. We are not doing that. That is a, that is a, for sure. Like we're all going to get taken out, but you have Caleb and Joshua, whose perspective was they put on the lens of God and his promises and, and, and resting in his characteristics. Okay. Not the circumstances of what this looks like, but trusting in God's characteristics, trusting in the attributes of God and what God already told them. And so they could follow through with obedience. That was their heart. And so the problems, the feelings

and the circumstances got way, way, way smaller and obsolete. So when we focus our problems, when we focus on our problems more than God's power, fear and doubt take over every single time. It's not just happening in this story. That is true of our human experience in our, in our life. But when we fix our minds on his promises and his character and his characteristics and attributes, our faith strengthens and we move forward with confidence, not only confidence, but obedience. Okay. A lot of times when God's been telling us to do something and we, you know, we perceive like, I'm not trying to do that. No, no, no. That looks like, no, that's going to get me like, uh, wrapped up. I ain't trying. No, but especially when God tells us to step forward, especially when God declares, Hey, you are free. Hey, you are healed. Hey, you are fill in the blank and, and giving us the permission to step forward into something that he has for us and family. God would never ask us to step forward into something that would cause harm. Like never following God's way, where he is asking us to go, where he is wanting us to spiritually mature into godliness and and holiness. It is never for our harm. God's ways do not bring harm. They bring help and they bring healing and they lead us into a place of wellness and well-being and soundness and security and safety. Okay. I want you to understand that and cling to that truth. Jeremiah 29, 11, it says it perfectly. Let's go there. So we know that what the word of God says, but I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you a hope and a future. Now our part, if we continue to do this, then you will call on me and come and pray to me. And I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart. And I will be found by you and it will bring you back from captivity and some other promises. But guys, we have a responsibility in that. Okay. Like it continues on. Jeremiah 29, 11 is a great scripture, but if we just stop there and be like, well, it says in the word of blah, blah, blah, blah, but we have to understand God's characteristics and we have to understand our responsibility that, uh, that goes along in that place. So we are seeking God. We are seeking his ways. We are calling upon his name. We are praying him, praying to him. We are doing what he says we should do because God knows best and God's ways will always, always, always bring you into a state of wellbeing and is for our good. It is for us to prosper on the inside and the outside. And so if there's a lot of chaos and a lot of whatever surrounding you and you, that you find

yourself being a part of, then you kind of have to look inward and go, okay, where are my motivations? Where's my heart really, um, planted in what kind of soil? And am I listening to God? Am I doing life God's way? Um, because again, it's not going to bring us into a state of harm or damage, but one of help and, and hope and, um, and healing even. So we're going to go over five, five, five, five, five, five practical steps to refocus on God's promises. Again, fixing our eyes on God's promises are, is, is something that we should be practically doing as disciples. Part of your discipleship journey and your spiritual maturity is learning how to focus your mind and your spiritual eyes on God's promises and the characters, characteristics of God, and not on our problems, not on our feelings, not in our circumstances, and surely not on ourselves or sometimes other people, because we're untrustworthy. And it says in the word of God, that our hearts are the most deceptive, the most deceptive things ever of all things have created. Our hearts are deceiving us all the time. So we always want to be listening for God and his voice and be following that because we can't be trusted sometimes. Okay. Or our hearts can't. So the first step, the first step in our practical ways to refocus on God's promises, number one, you're going to identify your giants. So just like in this story in numbers, you know, they looked at everybody. Oh, they were huge. They were so big. There's no way we're, we're puny. I feel like a grasshopper next to those people. I'm trying to go in there and get smashed and, and, uh, and flattened. So we're going to expose or identify the giants in your life. What obstacles make you cause you to feel overwhelmed? Okay. What, what obstacles feel overwhelming to you right now? So name them honestly in prayer. And now when we do that, and I want you to like declare this, okay. Cause words have power, right? We know that from the word of God, there are power in there's power in words and what we say and what we speak and what we declare out is powerful. Whether it's, you know, I'm an idiot. I'm fat and stupid. I'm ugly. That's powerful because we are declaring that over ourselves or it's, um, I'm loved. I'm a beloved child of God. And, uh, I, I do, I have no reason to fear because God it's bigger than my circumstances and it, those, those types of things, the truth of what's really going on now. Um, so naming and confessing, declaring has power. So you want to do this out loud? Yes. You can write it down and kind of gather your thoughts, but I want you to be declaring this outwardly. And I think I said this in the last episode, it takes 40 to 50 seconds.

times, declaring something out loud to create a new neural pathway in our brain. So we want to be declaring truths and God's power and sovereignty and his characteristics over our situation, our circumstances every day, several times a day. If you look on this on, well, I'm going to turn this a little bit off. I have this whole wall behind me is full of sticky notes. And these are encouragements or scriptures or things, little things that I declare over myself all the time. And I'm writing these out and I'm putting them on the wall and I'm writing them in my journal. It's, it's, I do this daily on a daily basis as part of my spiritual discipline to help remind me and renew my mind of truth that I can continue to declare. So which obstacles feel overwhelming to you right now? And you're going to name those and you're going to name them honestly in prayer, turn it into a prayer to God. The second thing, replace fear with truth, find a specific promise in God's word that counters, that counteracts the fear that you may be feeling. Some examples are Isaiah 41.10 and Romans 8.31. I want you to look those up, but write those down, write those down in your journal or on some type of piece of paper where you are meditating on those daily, meditating on the truth of God's word, the truth of his character so that you can combat, okay, and counteract the fear or the doubt or the confusion that you may be feeling. Again, we have to be doing this daily. This is a daily discipline. It's part of being a disciple. Disciple is a root word of discipline. If you didn't ever catch that. And so we are doing things that, where we are students of the word, we are students of God's way. We are students, active students and participants in educating ourselves in becoming more Christ-like and growing spiritually. The third thing, we want to speak faith, not fear. We want to speak faith, not fear. Just as the 10 spies spread fear, our words influence our faith. Again, words have power. So choose to declare God's truth over your situation instead of dwelling on negativity. And listen, if you are hanging out, if, okay, if you are writing out invitations and sending them out to other people to attend your pity party, you're wrong. You're wrong. All right. Misery loves other miserable company. I can't remember what that phrase is. Misery loves company or something like that. But really check who you are surrounding yourself with. If it is people who are speaking into you in a way that uplifts you, encourages and equips you to renew your mind and refocus on the truth of God's power and the truth of God's words and the truth of the circumstances you might find yourself in and not the negativity, you need to change your surroundings.

You need to change the people that you hanging out with. All right. There's a saying that says you hang out with five people, five negative people. You're going to be the sixth because that's just how it is. So you want to find the people who are really speaking. They're walking, they're walking, they're talking, they're talking, they're walking, they're talking. I don't know. You want to find those people and surround yourself with those people so that you can become strengthened and supported in your internal experience and your faith walk and become resilient in stepping forward and bouncing forward in a difficult circumstance that you might be in. Number four, you want to surround yourself with Caleb's and Joshua's. Hey, we just did that. Who in your life encourages you to trust God? Spend time with faithful believers who remind you of his goodness. There is nothing better than truly living out the church and helping each other with our blind spots, helping speak truth in love and encouragement to each other. I need it all the time. My husband, my girlfriends, my mentors, they are always, I always need to go to them and say, hey, I'm kind of messed up. I'm scrambled. I'm fearful. I've got these negative complaints and grumblings in my heart and I need to be recalibrated. And there's nothing wrong with that. It is not a sign of weakness. That's actually a sign of True strength where you're like, hey, I need help and having other believers speak into you uplift you and And lift you in prayer also and be praying with you and for you Number five you want to take the next step? So like Caleb and Joshua don't let fear keep you from disobedience Don't be those ten spies who decided not to do anything and I'm pretty sure if I remember the story, right? the Lord took him out God took him out because they were causing all kind of strife and And problems and the Lord warned him and I think even gave him a chance to To repent and a turn and they decided not to so let's not be the ten spies. We want to be courageous Caleb and Just Joshua will call him. So what is one step of faith that you can take today? Today in that difficult situation that you find yourself or circumstance, what's one step of faith that you can take today? trusting God to lead you and maybe that is courageously having a Conversation with somebody that you know, you need to maybe it is writing a letter to somebody that That God has really put on your heart maybe it is

Going and and pulling a brother or a sister alongside and saying hey You know, I've been I've been watching you or I've been listening to you and just wondering how how you're doing Where's your mind camped out at? How's your heart feeling about you know? Fill in the blank and remind them of truth remind them of How awesome and how big God is and how he can handle any situation and pray over somebody Maybe it's you struggle with being an introvert. You feel alone. You ain't sure you don't trust people you skeptical and you're like I'm not trying to approach nobody. Maybe it is you feeling courageous and praying for God's strength to For him to clothe you in that and you can step forward in Approaching somebody that you don't know and and and and create a connection where You can have a friend like who knows I'm not sure what God has put on your heart and I'm sure the Holy Spirit may be speaking to you right now as I'm as I'm giving out some certain examples, but You want to take one step of faith faith journey is not a passive one. It is active It is a participant sport We are not spectators, okay, we are participants and we want to We want to honor God with that and we want to say yes to him. So let me pray over y'all Lord help help us to see Well God first, I just want to stop and just praise you for your sovereignty. I praise you for your Just your almighty power Father I praise you for your grace and your mercy That is endless and is a free and abundant resource God I praise you for Giving us a new life and a new name a new identity and a new purpose Father I praise you for your ways. They are so much higher and and mightier than anything that we could come up with God and I I just praise you I thank you for your Holy Spirit that you grant to us so that we can do life with I thank you for your word I thank you that you do not lie to us and you don't bring us into any place where it will cause harm and damage

To us Lord, and I just thank you for your heart for us. I thank you that you see us down here I thank you that you hear our prayers and our cries and our laments and Lord teach us and just show us How to step forward God give us your strength We need your strength in your comfort to finish the good race that you have called us to in this life So father, I just ask for your Revision and help us to see our circumstances through your promises Give us faith like Caleb and like Joshua to trust in your power Rather than fear the Giants that are before us Strengthen our hearts to walk forward in obedience and With a renewed and fresh perspective and the right perspective knowing that you are with us Always Joshua 1 9 in Jesus is mighty name. Amen BAM. Hope you enjoyed this. Love you so much and check out these slides afterward right to us I want to encourage you to write to us. Love you so much and check out these slides Love you so much until next time. Bye Thank you for watching our broadcast. Are you an brother or sister who needs encouragement, write to us at Victorious Living Correspondents, P.O. Box 2751 Greenville, North Carolina, 27836, or email us at hope at vlmag.org. To view Victorious Living magazine in its entirety, please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098, or email us through our website at vlmag.org. We are happy to provide our Victorious Living magazine free of charge, in bulk, with or without staples.