Get Out of Your Head Study Guide by Jennie Allen

Author:Jennie Allen [Allen, Jennie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperChristian Resources
Published: 2020-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

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SESSION 4

WEAPONS WE USE

PART 2

About a year ago, I noticed I was not very joyful. I was heavy all the time and there were a lot of reasons for it. I changed around a dozen things in my life, but one of the simplest changes I made was to remove all negative social media from my phone.

Our inputs matter. We are largely a product of our inputs. A few of my regular, subtle inputs were full of grumbling and arguments. It was turning me into a cynical complainer rather than a humble servant. I was concerned more about news stories than souls. I was distracted by loud, brash commentators on passing issues rather than sensitive to quiet, faithful world changers in the trenches of the real-life church.

The shift for me was small, but it transformed my mind to walk away from the things of this world and toward the quieter narrative God was unfolding around me. My inputs shifted and so did my thoughts. I found myself praying more because I was thinking more about Jesus and His people. Hope wasn’t hard to drum up when I was constantly serving and with people who were sacrificially building the church. People like Pastor Andrew from Rwanda, who is in the States learning his Bible at seminary. He is away from his wife and children for years, all because he knows the pastors in his country need better theological training.

Last night Zac and I hopped in the car and ran Pastor Andrew a warmer coat and some chili because it is cold in Dallas, in mid-October! And being around him with his huge smile and heart, even though he is alone in a little dorm room in a cold, new city, my mind was renewed that God is at work across this planet.

Why did this feel so good? Because we weren’t made to always be consuming—entertainment, arguments, distractions, material goods . . . pick your poison. But what if in those moments, we reached out to people—real live people in our lives—instead of diving deeper into the spirals in our own heads? We were, in fact, made for this. Made for connection. Made for service. Made for gratefulness. This world so in love with grumbling and complaining cannot hold a candle to the joy these things bring. So this week, we’re going to explore these gifts God gave us. And we’ll find out that they’re actually weapons too.

I hope you’re getting comfortable with Philippians 2 and are starting to realize how surprising things like humility, silence, and delight act as powerful weapons. We’re going to park it here for another week, because it brings out three more ways to fight. And they’re all about busting out of our comfort zones. Our enemy seeks to suck away our power with things like isolation, dissatisfaction, and complacency. We get nice and comfy, our worlds spinning around ourselves. When we wake up and reach out, we find that God has a much bigger work in mind than we could dream of—and we get to be part of it.

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