[Devotional] IN HIS PRESENCE: Tame your imagination

Read: Romans 8:28-39

Meditation verse:

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to  those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Sometime last year I visited the hospital for some tests to investigate the pains  I was experiencing. I did the test and went back for the result a couple of days later. On arrival, I was informed that the person who carried out the test had  requested that I see him before collecting my result. Now, this was not the usual  practice as he was not the doctor I was seeing. I was supposed to just collect my  result and go back to my doctor.  

Instantly, my mind went into panic mode and my imagination went wild. “Why  did he want to see me?” “Maybe he had seen something really bad, and he  wanted to break the news to me himself”. As it turned out, the reason he  wanted to see me was that the result was good, it did not show what an earlier  test had revealed. He only wanted to repeat the test just to be sure. He did and  I was given a clean bill of health to the glory of God.  

Our imaginations make things seem worse because the brain prefers to focus on  what could go wrong. Why did I not think instead that the reason he wanted to  see me was because my report was so good, and he wanted to tell me himself.  Why did I not even think that probably there was an error with the test, so he  wanted to repeat it. All of these were likely possibilities, but my imagination  preferred to hold on to the worst option.  

In the current digital age, you must be intentional about taming your  imagination. Many of us dive into google search engine at the slightest  symptom. Guess what, google will throw up a million and one dreadful ailments  that match your symptoms and then we begin to imagine the worst. The brain  is a pattern matching organ. If you spend your time focusing on what is dreadful,  bad, frightening, or disastrous, the brain will begin to search for these types of  occurrences and bring them into your reality. In every situation, therefore, stay  positive because even if the enemy meant it for evil, God would bring good out  of it. He moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.

IN HIS PRESENCE is written by Pst (Mrs) Oke Chinye, Founder of The Rock Teaching Ministry (TRTM).

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