Transforming Unhealthy Rumination into Learning Contentment: Moving Our Focus to Jesus

Celebrate my newest book: God’s Affirmations for You: A Book of Encouragement—A 12-Week Devotional Practice. Here’s an edited excerpt from Week One:

 

According to an article by the Mayo Clinic, “Only 10 percent or so of the variation in people’s reports of happiness can be explained by differences in their circumstances. It appears that the bulk of what determines happiness is due to...thoughts and behaviors that can be changed” (emphasis mine).1

 

…We are people who specialize in unhealthy rumination. Dwelling on things that are false, wrong, impure, discouraging, or upsetting results in heightened anxiety and lowered joy. Recent research tells us that instead reflecting on the positives can decrease depression, give us a mood boost, help us problem-solve, and focus us—even disrupting our stress.2

 

…What if we made a practice of learning contentment? There is a unique prescription in the Book of Philippians 4:4-9 is summarized well in The Message translation of the Bible [Note: this passage was written from prison by the Apostle Paul]:

Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!  Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

 

The author says this is because: “Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am” (v. 13).

 

When we focus on—set our minds and hearts on—healthfully ruminate on—what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy, we are increasingly able to receive and experience that GRACE of God deep within.

 

God’s Affirmations for You is a collection of reflections and daily verses meant to be meditated upon over 12 weeks. Internalizing these words can move us from rumination to calm, from stressed-out lives to contented ones.

 

 

Important resources:

 

 

Shirley Giles Davis, author of God's Affirmations For You: A Book of Encouragement—A 12-Week Devotional Practice, the God. Gifts. You. Your Unique Calling and Design workbook, Your Unique Design Class Guide, Your Unique Design Facilitator Guide, DIOS. DONES. TÚ.: Tu llamado y diseño único (Spanish Edition), and Gifts-Calling-Purpose blog, is a consultant, coach, facilitator who has worked with hundreds of faith-based organizations, nonprofit agencies, and executive leaders in a diversity of fields for four decades. She currently serves as Catalyst for Equipping at her church.

 

Photo © Shirley Giles Davis. 

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Shirley Giles DavisGod's Affirmations for You