Immerse yourself in and sing songs of praise…everywhere…continually!
In the immediate aftermath of the end of our marriage I was beset by myriads of negative thoughts. I was hurting and angry, the perfect conditions and perfect opportunity for the enemy of our soul to have a dig and sow a root of bitterness. Thank God he alerted me to this fact almost immediately when he brought to my attention the fact that I was asking for forgiveness several times a day because of my thought life, He see’s and knows it all!
I found it very easy to enter that dark place and very hard to stay out of it! This was a new and unknown battle ground for me and the only weapon I had was prayer so I prayed “Lord help me, I can’t stop or keep these thoughts out!” it was exhausting. He reminded me of an old cassette by Derek Prince ‘The Power of Praise’. I listened to it a few times back to back and realised what a powerful weapon praise was, and made full use of it. I sang and praised in a loud voice in my car on journey’s, including in ‘Tongues’, at work I hummed softly and when silent there was still a cacophony of singing in my head and, occasionally, they popped out of my mouth and heads would raise! I’d just smile and apologise; my colleagues were used to me singing/humming snippets of gospel songs anyway.
I went on the offensive, praise being the weapon of choice; there was no room for negative thoughts, no soil in which to grow a root of bitterness. Not only that, I was led to actively pray and fast during this time so that instead of pulling down the cause of my hurt, I was lifting them up before the Lord, and instead of focussing on my feelings I focussed on the awesome God who was guiding me through the process of loss and mourning.