Are you trapped in a certain way of thinking? It is essential to know there is a way out. Being trapped through thoughts is like the hamster in a wheel. It goes around and around, but it is all futile action.

Proverbs 1:17 says, “Surely, in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.” Psalm 124:7 says, “Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.” 

Snared versus free. At salvation we were set free from satan’s slave block of sin. Our position in Christ is inner freedom. Yet, our state has to do with our thoughts. 2 Timothy 2:26 says, “And that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

Years ago school buses had governors. I rode in one from Las Vegas to Carson City. It could not go more than 45 mph. It was a long hot ride. When we hide God’s word in our heart, it will act as a governor with our thoughts.

Two of our flesh’s favorite past times are to engage in negative dialogues, or trying to figure things out ahead of time. Have you ever played past conversations over in your mind? Have you ever assumed something would go a certain way and it didn’t? 

I have a mentee who wrote, ‘My paranoid thoughts are really loud now. Starting to think of all the things they told me that they probably didn’t mean, all the things they probably say about me to each other when I’m not there.’ Can you hear the fear? Can you feel her emotional fatigue?

Jesus qualified His gift of peace in John 16:27. It says, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

The operative word is ‘let’ which is a word of permission. Don’t ‘let’ your thoughts entertain anything that will dump debris onto your gift of inner peace. The other night I read these two verses and stopped to ponder them.

Luke 17:20 -21says, “…The kingdom of God does not come with observation….the kingdom of God is within you.” Is His kingdom ruling over your heart? Isaiah 9:6 lists His names. 

It says, “…and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace.” His kingdom of peace is within ~ our heart is His inner sanctuary.

Jesus gave His disciples His peace. Every born again believer receives the same gift. It is irrevocable. That means that no matter what circumstances we are in, His peace abides. What happens when we don’t feel peaceful? We broke the condition.

Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” We lose our sense of peace when we allow our thoughts to stray. His peace never leaves, we just cover it over with debris type thoughts.

Note the second part of the condition. It is trust. The foundation for perfect peace is trust. Proverbs 3:5 says that we are to trust the Lord with all of our hearts. However when we give it over to thoughts of fear, anxiety, worry, anger, bitterness, or unforgiveness, we cover over what is there.

On our own, we are like the human piece of hair ~ easily broken. When intertwined in the chain, it becomes invincible. Our life is hidden in our Rock of Strength ~ invincible until He calls us home.

Here is something that I want to encourage you to do. During your crucible-trial, type or write out verses that you can lean on. Read them three times a day. Let them be your faith-medicine. They will help keep you focused on your Source of Life.

I love Psalm 71:2-3. They are some of my anchor verses that help to stabilize my faith. It says, “Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape; incline Your ear to me, and save me. Be my strong refuge, to which I may resort continually; You have given the commandment to save me, for You are my rock and my fortress.”

I love David’s words in Psalm 18:1-2. It says, “I will love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

Psalm 28:7 says, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him.”

Psalm 27:1 says, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Nehemiah 8:10 says, “…the joy of the Lord is your strength.” It is good to remember where our strength comes from.

Psalm 121:1-2 says, “…From when comes my help? My help comes from the Lord…”

How many countless times have you turned to a psalm that David wrote, or Jeremiah’s faith declarations in Lamentations, or Job’s words? We are drawn to them again and again because they were crucible–words. 

We gain experiential knowledge of the Lord as we learn to lean hard on His grace. We have the living experience of Him being there for us, often in ways that we had never experienced Him before.

Trials purify, refine, fortify, and redefine our walk with the Lord. The chaff of self is burned off. Our crucible view gives us a new perspective. When Paul viewed his thorn in the flesh through the insights given, he gained a new appreciation for his weakness.

Here’s an illustration. Picture a piece of long human hair interwoven through the links of a heavy chain. Where is the weakness of the hair? It is hidden in the strength of the chain. Now see yourself through the lens of Colossians 3:3. It says, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Crucible’s definition: a situation of severe trial, or in which different elements interact, leading to the creation of something new. The furnace-crucible that the three Hebrew men were thrown into was a severe trial that tested their faith.

They made the faith declaration that God was able to deliver them. Daniel 3:18 says, “But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image…”

Our trials are not only for us alone. Ephesians 3:10 says that God uses His church to display His manifold wisdom. Our trials are never in vain. James 5:10 says that God has an intentional end. We may not understand why we are going through our crucible-trial.

This we do know. 2 Corinthians 1:4 says that God will comfort us so that we may be able to comfort others in their trials ~ with words that come right from within our crucible.

Remember Paul’s thorn in the flesh? 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. God did not take it away, He gave Paul such a revelation of what it was doing on his behalf. In verse 9 it says, “…My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness…”

Our thorny trials are intrinsically equipped with more than enough grace to carry us through.

His grace enables us to endure victoriously. It isn’t a matter of just getting by. It is an opportunity for us to see the Lord at work on our behalf in ways we have not known Him before.

Our trials give us experiential knowledge of His Presence moment by moment. It isn’t print on a page. He is with us in our trial, as much as He was with Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. Daniel 3:12-25. King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished. In verse 25 he said, “…and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”

I love the contrast in John 10:10. The thief’s priority is to kill, steal, and to destroy. Where does the ‘thief’ work from? Inner strongholds that he set up through rogue thoughts. They came as fiery darts. They slipped in because we allowed them to penetrate.

What does the verse say is Jesus’ priority? He said, “…I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” The Strong’s definition for abundantly is: superabundance, excessive,  overflowing surplus, over and above, more than enough, profuse, extraordinary, above the ordinary, and more than sufficient.

Rogue thoughts destroy from within. Righteous thoughts that conform us to God’s will and ways empower us from within. Ephesians 1:18 says of His resurrection power, “…the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.” Verse 20 said that it is the same power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead.