Being Stuck Inside Your Head: Part 2–The Biblical Solution

God planted the knowledge in you that you are born for a supernatural purpose! If you truly believe in God’s promise to give your life fullness beyond your greatest expectations, then it is my prayer that this devotional will inspire you to jump into that journey. We, as God’s children, do NOT have to remain stuck inside our own head. 

Yesterday, we discussed some of the secular solutions, and today we’re going to examine a few of the Biblical answers. In my study, it was fascinating to discover that both have strikingly similar solutions to prevent getting stuck inside our head. What is this common thread?

We must deactivate the “me center” of our brain!

But the HUGE difference between the secular solution and the Biblical solution is:  

WHO or WHAT takes the place of  “me” at the center of our brain!

THIS makes ALL the difference! 

Yesterday, we discovered that some of the secular answers are cruel. They simply take us back to the “me center” and this spirals into a dangerous downward cycle. Think about it—without God—what’s left except—to keep “me” at the center? To feed the problem with more of the problem builds a bigger problem which requires us to find respite in various forms of escape like entertainment, drugs, stimulants, or ANYTHING to help us minimize our anxiety. 

So what answer does God’s Word offer us to quiet the anxiety caused from being stuck inside our own head? 

Well, first, when we are born again, and our soul and spirit are made alive to a relationship with God, we have something much greater than the “me center” to draw from to find relief. We have supernatural love, joy, wisdom, strength, and peace. God confidently promises us that IN THIS LIFE we CAN experience HIS “fullness of joy.”

“You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Psalms 16:11

We do not have to be stuck inside our own head! 

God speaks confidently about giving us joy because God is confident in Himself. His Word doesn’t simply tell us to deactivate the “me center” and then give us nothing more than our own ideas to replace it with. He doesn’t suggest we figure this out on our own by creating our own truth. He certainly doesn’t suggest deactivating the “me center”  by encouraging more self-centered behavior or by checking out. His solution is simple. Our loving Father, omnipotent Creator, the Sustainer of our every heartbeat, the wise Captain of our heart—gives us a focus center that is unparalleled in the universe. He gives us Himself. 

“HE” takes the place of “ME.”

Making Jesus our center is the ultimate solution to getting outside our head. He paid the ultimate price to give us an abundant life. He died to give us the opportunity to live in His fullness of joy not to live in the prison of our own mind with no escape. When we are born again, we are irreversibly connected to Him. Instead of being stuck inside the torture chamber of the “me center” of our small human mind, He gives us the ability to live in the remarkable mind of Christ. 

But WE must decide if we want to deactivate the “me center” by HIS methods. Who will be the central focus of our life—Him or us?

It’s always one or the other. The difference makes our life either truly remarkable or conversely, absolutely miserable. But, this is not a one-time decision. To grow a mind that deactivates the “me center” means millions of spiritually healthy micro decisions are made daily. The battlefield comes down to one decision: God’s way or our way. One takes us into God’s presence; and the other keeps us trapped inside the misery of our own head. 

After we become God’s child by receiving the gift of salvation, WE HAVE A CHOICE. 

We NOW have the opportunity to experience the deep satisfaction of God’s presence. Jesus gave us the prescription for gaining a strong sense of His presence:

“If you keep My commandments, you will ABIDE in My LOVE, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”

“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

John 15:10-12

Living in obedience to God (instead of SELF) draws us into HIS love. God’s love is selfLESSness. Obedience to Him because we love Him and are grateful for His selflessness towards us—places us in the stream of selfLESSness—or real love. In other words, when we get stuck inside our head—we’re drowning in a whirlpool of self. Jesus is telling us that to experience HIS JOY we need to take ourselves out of the equation. 

God’s love=selflessness. 

To love Jesus and to love others “as Jesus loves us” removes our residence from the ghetto of the “me center.”  Our mind has a glorious new home in the peace of Christ.

Jesus gave ALL He had so we could become ALL we are meant to be for HIS glory. 

Sure, our flesh, which is one of our enemies, is always longing to go back to that ghetto. But our born again soul and spirit long for the peace of Christ. When we are continually feeding our mind with spiritual sustenance from God’s Word, our soul and spirit have the strength to conquer our flesh. 

SO when we deactivate the “me center” and make God our center, what does our mind look like? 

Well, rather than being centered around how people or events have affected us like—why a neighbor was a jerk to us, how to handle our unpaid bills, how unfair it is to us that someone we love died, why we don’t have more friends—if we’re God centered and thus, selfLESS, we’ll be concerned about how OTHERS are affected by misfortune—even our own. For example, we’ll be concerned about whether that neighbor who was a jerk to us—knows Jesus and is going to Heaven when he dies because—Christ has given us great confidence in our future and no one can diminish it. Or, instead of being consumed by worry about our own bills, we are confident in God’s care for us and more concerned about the financial crises of someone else like, perhaps a missionary family who just lost everything in a fire. Even when we’ve suffered the tragic loss of a loved one, when God is our center and our source of comfort, we have the strength to be concerned about how the loss is affecting others or how our grief can be used to make an eternal difference in someone else’s life.

You see how making God our center diverts us from the “me center?”

Amazing, right? Even though our initial reaction to pain is legitimate anger, grief or heartbreak—like grieving the loss of a loved one or a friendship—our enemy wants to take what is legit and use it for an illicit purpose. He is especially adept at doing this with our thoughts. But when we’re determined to have Jesus, instead of “me” at the center of our life, then—everything is no longer about us. 

Every interaction and event no longer creates a self-referential thought!

What a relief. What’s interesting is that we actually build Jesus as our center in much the same way secular experts recommend by using meditation, giving, and mindfulness. For example, meditating in God’s Word teaches us HOW to reach a heightened level of spiritual awareness of God’s presence. God’s presence divests us of self. The Bible says:

“…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Romans 12:1-2

Also, “mindfulness,” is super helpful because it allows us to examine our thoughts in light of God’s Word in order to determine what is true and false. God’s Word is the light of truth inside of our mind and it helps us understand who we are. It also teaches us to appreciate our great purpose in glorifying God. Then—miraculously, our self-absorbing thoughts lose their power over us. We are freed from the chains of egocentrism, which is extreme selfishness that prevents us from seeing things from any perspective except our own.

In addition to meditation and mindfulness, we can learn to take our focus off of self by helping others. Interestingly, when we take God’s approach to loving others, the great conundrum of giving being simply a form of selfishness—is eliminated. How? Because we are helping others—not for the selfish motivation of helping ourselves—but because of our love for God. We don’t give because of selfish motivation. We give out of abundance from the generous love we have received from Christ. Jesus said:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

John 13:34-35

God’s solution for deactivating the “me center” of our brain and learning to get outside our head is brilliant! 

It is a permanent solution. God created our highly functional mind to be satisfied by the limitations of self. Every aspect of our survival depends upon the health of our beautifully created, intricate mind! Almighty God, as the central passion of our thoughts and motivations is the only sure cure to live without being stuck inside our head. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He has great plans for us. But to live in His plans, we have daily decisions to make.

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be CARNALLY minded is DEATH, but to be SPIRITUALLY minded is life and PEACE.”

Romans 8:5-6

If you are struggling to get outside of your head like I have, then I pray this devotional has given you hope and motivation to change. It’s a process—one thought at a time. Old habits are hard to break, but Jesus is a chain breaker. He created us to experience the glorious presence of His Spirit which is described as “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” Galatians 5:22-23

The fruit of God’s Spirit and the experience of His presence becomes our life when we are constantly working to deactivate our “me center” and become more Christ centered. Jesus is calling. Do you want Him more than you want to be stuck inside your head?