Today, from guest teacher Kyle Eidelman. God,
in the morning, just give me direction. Help
me know the path I should take. Next verse, Psalm
59, 16. But I will sing of your strength in the
morning. In the morning, I will sing of your
love. For you are my fortress and my refuge in
times of trouble. How you start your day, the
thoughts you first think have a way of setting
the direction for the rest of your day. And then
ultimately, your days become your life. Life
is difficult. The Bible never pretends otherwise.
But in the middle of grief, confusion, and darkness,
there's a choice you can make about what you
call to mind. It's not positive thinking. It's
the ancient wisdom of lamentations. And it still
works today. Welcome to Living on the Edge. I'm
Dave Drewy. And today, Chip Ingram invites guest
teacher Kyle Eidelman to present the final message
in a study about keeping every thought captive.
Chip, set the stage. This whole series is about
something that happens inside your mind and my
mind, and that life change actually happens,
and the root of all life change is in our thinking.
And so we need to get the truth in our mind.
What I love about Kyle's teaching in this series
is I know Kyle. He's authentic. He's real. He's
sharing real -life stuff that you struggle with,
I struggle with, and then he helps us learn through
Scripture and science how to put into practice
Taking every thought captive so that the Spirit
of God can take the Word of God in the context
of community and see those areas that need to
change in your life and my life become a reality.
Thanks, Chip. Today's message from Kyle Eidelman
is titled, Win the Morning. And so what I want
to do is talk to you about taking your thoughts
captive at a certain time of the day, specifically
taking your thoughts captive first thing in the
morning. And what I discovered is that there's...
a reflection of this in scripture. Like the Bible
would teach and would prioritize, I believe,
how we spend our morning hours, our time with
God in the morning. And so it was just really
clear to me that, okay, like this is biblically
emphasized, this idea of connecting with God
in the mornings, of meeting. God in the morning
of taking my thoughts captive when I first wake
up. And then I started to wonder if maybe science
backed this up. In other words, if this is true
in scripture, maybe it's true biologically. Like
maybe this is how we're made neurologically.
That God has wired us in such a way that our
brains are especially moldable in the mornings.
And turns out they are. When you wake up, your
brain moves from delta waves to theta waves to
alpha waves. And in that time, important things
are happening that determine whether you respond
or you react to whatever happens to you throughout
the day. Dr. Andrew Huberman and his research
for Stanford University, he uses some language
I find really helpful. He calls the morning hours
your neuroplasticity window. That you've got
a couple hours in the morning that are your neuroplasticity
window because in those few hours, you're thinking.
disproportionately shapes your brain. This is
the way our brains work, that whatever you tune
into to begin your day is what you listen to
throughout the rest of your day. So play this
out with me. You wake up, you immediately grab
your phone. There's a news alert, another tragedy.
A political post makes you all angsty to start
your day. A couple of messages from work marked
urgent that you missed during the night. You've
not even gotten out of bed yet. And you're already
dealing with anxiety and anger and feeling overwhelmed.
But what really the cost of this is what happens
the rest of the day. Because it's not just in
that moment, but now you're setting yourself
up where. Small inconveniences, you're reactive
to them. They feel like a crisis. Traffic makes
you furious. Your coworker's innocent attack
or comment feels like an attack. And you're reactive.
It's because you primed your brain for chaos
at 6 .47 in the morning. Or maybe instead of
checking the news, you get on. Your phone, and
the first thing you do before you even get out
of bed, you look at Instagram, your friends posted
their stupid, perfect vacation pictures. And
fitness influencer you follow has been up for
like four hours already. And like before you've
even had your coffee, you're feeling inadequate
and insecure. And so what that does for the rest
of the day is it primes it. Like now you're measuring
yourself against others. Your accomplishments
feel small. Your appearance is lacking. And you
spend the day feeling less than because that's
what you primed your mind for. But you think
of the flip side of that. Like what if you take
your thoughts captive and you wake up and before
you even reach for the phone, you say, okay,
God. Before I get out of this bed, I'm gonna
think of three things today that I have to be
grateful for. And you say it out loud. And maybe
the first thing is I woke up. Maybe that's what
you go with. And you pick a couple of other things
and you say it out loud. And what happens? Well,
the rest of the day, you've primed yourself for
some gratitude. And you can notice things that
maybe you would have missed otherwise. And this
time when the traffic is heavy, you find something
to be grateful for. The podcast that you're listening
to or your work is stressful and you notice a
coworker who's there for you that maybe you would
have missed otherwise. And you respond instead
of react because you primed your brain to see
some blessings. This is what it looks like to
take your thoughts captive. As you recognize
in the morning, what you see, what you look for
is what you're gonna see the rest of the day.
The station you tune into is what you're gonna
listen to the rest of the day. I want you to
take a look at a parable that I call the parable
of the smudge. Kristen had always dreamed of
visiting the picturesque coastal town of Seaview.
She'd seen countless photos online of its stunning
cliffs, pristine beaches, and vibrant sunsets.
Finally, after years of saving, she booked a
week -long stay at a highly -rated Airbnb perched
on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. As soon
as she arrived, Kristen rushed to the large picture
window that dominated the living room wall. this
was the view everyone raved about in the reviews
but as she approached her excitement quickly
turned to disappointment there right in the center
of their window was a small but noticeable sponge
She spent the next hour trying to clean it off,
but it seemed to be in between the window panes,
impossible to reach. For the rest of her stay,
Kristen found herself fixated on that smudge.
When she looked out the window, instead of seeing
the vast expanse of the sparkling ocean, the
rugged beauty of the cliffs, or the glorious
colors of the sunset, all she could focus on
was that small, blurry spot. Her photos all seemed
to showcase the smudge rather than the view,
and the more she saw it, the more she saw it.
She finally shut the curtains so she wouldn't
have to see the smudge anymore. She spent most
of her vacation indoors, feeling cheated and
frustrated. She barely noticed the sound of the
waves or the fresh sea breeze when she briefly
ventured out. On the last day of her stay, Kristen
left a scathing review. I don't understand why
everyone raves about the view of this place.
All I could see was a dirty window. As Kristen
got in her car to leave, the young couple was
just arriving to check into the Airbnb. The woman
gasped with excitement as she got out of the
car. Pointing at the view in awe, she said, look
at that sunset. It's even more beautiful than
in the pictures. Kristen glanced into her rearview
mirror as she was driving away, hoping to catch
a glimpse of a spectacular golden sun sinking
in. to a violet and pink sky, but she couldn't
help but notice right there on her rear view
mirror was a smudge. The more you see it, the
more you see it. Some of you are just smudge
people. Like you do this really well. It doesn't
matter how beautiful the view is out that window.
You're going to find the smudge and you're going
to notice it. And so the Bible would teach us
that we have more control over this than maybe
we realize, that if we will take our thoughts
captive, if we'll look for the beautiful, we'll
see the beautiful. If we look for the good, we'll
see the good. If we look for the praiseworthy,
we'll see the praiseworthy. And so how you start
off each day will largely determine what you
see during the day. I want us to spend a few
minutes just looking at an example of this from
the Old Testament. The prophet by the name of
Jeremiah is having the worst morning of his life.
Kind of the worst morning in his nation's history.
Jerusalem had been destroyed. People were starving.
And he walks the street of the once beautiful
city and his heart breaks. He sees his people,
but really he sees God's people, the Israelites,
rummaging through trash, looking for food. And
it's not the way it should be. Like these are
God's people. Why wouldn't God take care of them?
Why wouldn't God protect them? And he smells
the stench of death and he just, he breaks down
and the tears come and he starts weeping. And
as he cries, he hikes up to this cave that overlooks
Jerusalem and he wants to pray, but he doesn't
know how. And we have written for us the book
of Lamentations as he processes his thoughts.
Lament means to express grief or sorrow in a
passionate or intense way, to weep or to wail.
And then this is Lamentations. It's interesting
the way the book is laid out. It's laid out as
a bit of poetry. You have chapters, it's five
chapters in Lamentations. Chapters one and two
and chapters four and five are all, have a similar
rhythm to them where he takes the alphabet, Hebrew
alphabet, and each verse starts with the corresponding
letter of the alphabet, 22 letters. And he just
goes through in chapter one, here's all the things
I have to lament about, alphabet, all the, Things
I have to lament about chapter two and then the
same thing in chapter four and five. It'd be
like us wanting to kind of make our complaints
known to God. And so we like, where do I even
start? I've got so many of them. How about A?
And A is for anxiety and B is for bullying and
C is for cancer and D is for divorce and E is
for eating disorders and F is for financial difficulties
and we just work our way down. And chapter two,
I can do another round of this and we just go
through it. And that's how Lamentations is written,
but sandwiched between chapters one and two and
four and five is chapter three. And chapter three
gives praise and thanks to God. And so the whole
book is written as a bit of an illustration of
what it looks like for us as believers to lament.
And the book is, of course, bookended with sorrow
and grief and frustration and confusion and disappointment,
but it's sandwiched around be joyful always,
Give thanks in all circumstances. Pray continually.
And so there's an important principle in lamenting.
So when we find ourselves overwhelmed by the
reality that life is difficult, one of the important
principles for us as followers of Jesus is to
start but don't stay. You're listening to Living
on the Edge, and today's teaching from guest
teacher Kyle Eidelman continues in just a minute.
His message is available anytime at livingontheedge
.org. Listen again, share it with a friend, or
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life every day. It's all waiting for you at livingontheedge
.org. Now let's get back to today's message.
This is where you start being very honest with
God about your fears and your frustrations, about
anger and bitterness, about the hurt that you're
carrying. Like you don't pretend that everything's
fine when everything isn't fine. You start there,
but you don't stay there. David models this beautifully
throughout the Psalms where he is uncomfortably
honest with God about how he feels around some
of the circumstances he's dealing with. He starts
there, but he doesn't stay there. A term for
this would be, in neuroscience, would be cognitive
repraisal. It's a reframing where you recognize
the reality of your emotion or of what you're
going through, but with the intent of letting
it draw you closer to God. When you're in a season
of lament, it'll drive you further away or it
can drive you closer to God. You start there,
but you don't stay there. With God's help, you
ask him to show you a different way of looking
at things. You get a different perspective. And
so you begin with some honest questions, but
you're not just rehearsing your lament, you're
releasing it to God. You're not just focusing
on your problems, but you're focusing on his
promises. And so that's what Jeremiah does. He
sits in a cave, looks down at the ruins, and
in the middle of these really dark circumstances,
here's what he does. Listen, he makes a choice
about what he's gonna think about. That's what
we read in verse 21 of chapter three. He said,
yet this I call to mind, despite all these, A
to Z things that aren't going my way. This is
what I'm gonna call to mind and therefore I have
hope. Because I'm gonna be intentional with my
thinking, I'm gonna find some hope. And so when
you're lamenting, you have to be intentional
about what you're gonna call to mind. And that's
what Jeremiah does. And we see three things that
he calls to mind. First, God's compassions never
fail. Verse 22 through 23. Because of the Lord's
great love, we are not consumed. for his compassions
never fail. They are new every morning. That
every morning, God will show you his compassion
and his mercy. You have to look for it sometimes
and pray that he'll show it to you, give you
eyes to see it. The word new here is like new
of a different kinds. It's like, it's not like
saying, well, we had eggs for breakfast today.
We're having new eggs for breakfast tomorrow.
It's like we had eggs for breakfast. And tomorrow
we're having waffles. It's like, it's new of
a different kind. And the idea here is that each
day, God will show you some way in which he is
redeeming, restoring, rebuilding way that he's
working, but you need him to help you see it.
And so you say, God, it makes no sense to me.
I don't understand what's happened or why it's
happening. I don't sit where you sit. So tomorrow
morning, when I wake up, would you help me see
that you're compassionate and merciful? Would
you let me see that your mercies are gonna be
new tomorrow? That there's gonna be a new way
that light shines into the darkness that I can't
see from where I sit today, but tomorrow I'll
be able to see it. That each day his mercies
are new, each day his compassions are new. And
so as you go. Through the lament, you just remind
yourself that each morning his mercies are new,
his compassion is new. The word compassion here
carries with it this idea of tenderness. Verse
32, if he works severely, he also works tenderly.
It's not always the way we think about God, but
Jeremiah understood in that moment the tenderness
of God. His mercies are new each morning. Secondly,
Jeremiah tells himself, here's something I'm
gonna call to my mind, that great is his faithfulness.
I'm gonna speak that out loud. I'm going to take
the thoughts I have captive and I'm gonna replace
it with this thought that God is faithful. Lamentations
3 verse 23, great is his faithfulness. Even when
you can't see it or feel it, even when you don't
understand how the situation is unfolding, the
sovereignty of God is at work. He is always faithful.
He won't let you down. Third thing he says is,
I'm gonna call to my mind, the Lord is my portion.
The Lord is enough for me. Verse 24, I say to
myself, the Lord is my portion. Therefore, I
will wait for him. I'm not gonna put my confidence
in anything else. I'm gonna put my confidence
in him. And so when life is difficult, what do
you say to yourself? Jeremiah says, here are
the three things I say to myself. Here are the
three thoughts that I am constantly thinking.
God's compassions never fail. Great is his faithfulness.
He's sufficient for me. So can I just challenge
you starting tomorrow to have a little bit of
a morning routine? Now look, don't be getting
this thought in your mind that it has to be an
hour long. Maybe you do that, good for you, but
the duration is not nearly as important as the
consistency. So what if you just for 10 minutes
in the morning say, okay, I'm gonna be intentional
to think through some of these things. Consistency
is more important than the duration. And I would
just tell you a couple of things. So if I could
challenge you with number one, do not check your
phone. Don't check your phone in the morning.
The research is just really clear on this, that
when you get on your phone, as soon as you wake
up, you skip the theta and alpha and you jump
straight to the beta phase, which means you're
awake and alert, but you're now already in a
reactive response. In other words, it's triggering
a stress response in you. And so unless you wanna
start your day off, primed for distraction and
stress, don't do it. Maybe you do. Maybe that's
what you want. You want people to look at you
and say, you know what I like about him? Always
distracted. It's my favorite thing. He's never
quite paying attention and he's always a little
stressed out. If that's what you're going for,
do it. Then just get on your phone as soon as
you wake up. It's a good way to do that. But
otherwise, just don't do it. Stay off your phone
for that neuroplasticity window. And then just
develop a morning routine. Look, use Jeremiah
as an example of this. It can be different, but
But what's he do? He starts with lament. He starts
there, but he doesn't stay there, but he does
start with it. David does this in the Psalms
again, where he says, hey, here's some heavy
things. Here's some challenges I've got to deal
with today. Here's some people who are against
me. Here's some circumstances I wish I could
change. But then he turns the corner and reframes
those things, which is take number two, taking
your thoughts captive, where you say, this is
all true, God, but here's what I'm going to call
to mind. Yet this I call to mind. And then you
declare those three truths over your life. God's
compassions never fail. They're new every morning.
Great is his faithfulness. I can count on God
today. The Lord is my portion. He's enough for
me. And then you pray and you read some scripture.
You spend a few minutes in prayer, spend a few
minutes in God's word before engaging in the
demands of your day because life is difficult.
I would love to say that it's gonna get easier.
but there will be more to lament. Pain and suffering
will continue to show up uninvited. Economic
uncertainties will come. Family dynamics are
fragile. Everything's maybe okay today, but tomorrow
it might be different. Lamenting will be a part
of your story and my story too, but we are chapter
three people. We are chapter three people that
in the midst of it, We praise the Lord. In the
midst of it, we remind ourselves of God's faithfulness
and his compassion and sufficiency. When Charlie
Kirk's wife, Erica, stood and she made her first
public comments after her husband was murdered,
she whispered, if you heard her comment, she
whispered a short prayer that the microphone
picked up right before she began. This young
widow and mother of two whispered, Jesus, fill
this room. Before she spoke. And so in her moment
of greatest darkness, when she could have said
anything, when she could have cursed the darkness,
no one would blame her. She said, Jesus, fill
this room. She could have invited bitterness
into the room. She could have allowed fear to
fill the room. She could have whispered revenge,
fill this room. But this young mom and her deepest
grief invited the presence of Jesus. As you begin
your day. Can I just challenge you to whisper
those same words? Jesus, fill this room. Life
is difficult. Darkness is real. Grief is heavy.
Jesus, fill this room. Let's pray. Jesus, would
you fill this room with your peace and would
you fill this room with your power? Jesus, please
fill this room. Would you fill it with forgiveness?
Would you fill it with your tenderness? Would
you fill it with second chances? Jesus, would
you fill this room? We love you. It's in Jesus'
name. Amen. You're listening to Living on the
Edge with guest teacher Kyle Eidelman, wrapping
up his series Every Thought Captive. Chip Ingram
joins us in just a moment with some final thoughts.
Kyle left us with a picture that's hard to forget.
Kristen at that coastal Airbnb, a stunning view
just beyond the glass, and a smudge she couldn't
stop staring at. The more she saw it, the more
she saw it. And Kyle's challenge was simple and
direct. You have more control over what you fix
your eyes on than you may realize. Win the morning.
Start there, but don't stay there. And when life
is at its darkest, call to mind what Jeremiah
called to mind. God's compassions never fail.
Great is his faithfulness. The Lord is enough.
That's the kind of teaching Living on the Edge
exists to bring you every day all across America
and around the world. And it happens because
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.org or call us at 888 -333 -6003. Well, now
here's Chip with a final word. Kyle took us to
a little interesting place when we think about
renewing our mind. He took us to Lamentations.
And I love how he showed us that it's okay to
start with honest lament. We just can't stay
there. So let me say before I go on, everyone
doesn't need to keep a journal, but I think if
you're a verbal processor, for some of us, writing
things down helps. And I'm not going to show
you my journal, but if I did, you would probably
be shocked by the number of mornings it's, Dear
God, I feel really flat today. I don't feel like
praying. Or, Dear God, I'm really ticked off
about X, Y, and Z, and I don't know why I feel
this way, and I really need your help. I start
with lament because what I know is I got to get
honest or I'll just fake it. But here's the key.
You can't stay there. Lamentations 321, Jeremiah
says, Yet this I call to mind, and therefore
I have hope. That word yet changes everything.
He makes a choice about what he'll think about.
Three truths he declares. Number one, God's compassion
never fails. It's new every morning. Number two,
great is his faithfulness. And number three,
the Lord is my portion. I mean, he's your portion.
He's enough. Here's the challenge. Develop a
simple morning routine. Start with honest lament
if you need to, but don't stay there. Then declare
God's truth out loud and then spend a few minutes
in prayer and God's word. Most importantly, this
will be hard for some of you, Don't check your
phone first thing. Get it out of your bedroom.
Open the word before you open the world and all
of its influences on you. Even 10 minutes a day
of winning the morning will cause a chain reaction
in your thoughts and then your emotions and then
your behavior and then your victory and then
your life. I can't encourage you enough. Start
every morning. By making room for God, you'll
never regret it. Life and hope and peace. That's
what we all want. But where do you actually find
them when everything you've built comes undone?
Well, there's an answer. And it's more than religion.
Find out next time here on Living on the Edge.
Today's program is produced and sponsored by
Living on the Edge.