My Mind Does Hold Only What I Think with God!

(The Ocean of My Mind, #1)

I had such an amazing experience with Review 4 that I find myself compelled to write about it, but I hardly know where to start!

Every day brought me a deeper insight into the central idea of the Review: My mind holds only what I think with God. This idea took on more meaning for me than ever before.

In my morning quiet time, I would focus on that beautiful image of the ocean of my mind in paragraph 4 of the Introduction:

And yet your mind holds only what you think with God. Your self-deceptions cannot take the place of truth, no more than can a child who throws a stick into the ocean change the coming and the going of the tides, the warming of the water by the sun, the silver of the moon on it by night.

I would take myself through a visualization I wrote years ago on “The Ocean of Your Mind” (which was inspired by Robert’s writings on the image). I would see myself on the shore of the boundless, changeless ocean that is my mind, which is a part of God’s, contained and held within the greater ocean of God’s mind. Then I would allow myself to sink down and inward, letting myself be drawn deep and then deeper into the ocean where all is calm and still. Whenever distracting thoughts appeared on the surface of my mind, I would tell myself firmly that these thoughts were just sticks thrown onto the surface of my mind ––sticks that I threw there to deceive me about myself and my mind. These sticks couldn’t disturb my mind and change the thoughts I think with God one bit. Repeating the idea to myself and reminding myself that my mind holds only what I think with God, automatically settled me down. In addition, it brought me a deep sense of peace and joy. I would often catch a smile moving across my face as I took in the idea.

Focusing on the idea that my mind holds only what I think with God brought me better meditations than I’d had in a long time. And there was another enormous benefit: Grounding this idea through my morning meditation made it easy to carry through the day and apply to situations, people, events in that day!

As I repeated the idea throughout the day, I would focus on different words in it:

My mind holds only what I think with God.
My mind holds only what I think with God.
My mind holds only what I think with God.

Jesus use of the word “hold” was not lost on me. To hold something implies keeping it close and secure, or containing it; therefore, my mind contains only what I think with God. My mind doesn’t let it go––it can’t let it go because it is what I think with God!

When I have unloving, fearful, judgmental, unkind thoughts, it sure seems as if they do affect my mind––but that’s not my real mind. They can affect the “mind” that believes it’s separate and apart from God, the mind that thinks it’s part of a body or aligned with a body. That mind does have these sorts of thoughts, but it isn’t real! So how can those thoughts have any real effect on me or on anyone else!

I am so grateful for this gift, the gift that the Holy Spirit has given us through our brother Jesus. Our minds hold only what we think with God, and that has to be­­––must be––only loving thoughts. All the other thoughts with which we choose to deceive ourselves are meaningless bubbles with no power to affect us in any way whatsoever.

Now, a week later, I’ve noticed how much I’ve been smiling since going through these review days, how much I’ve been filled with joy, barely able to contain myself. As we’ve moved into the next batch of lessons, I am still holding this idea in my mind in my morning and evening quiet times, trusting that this will set the day in the right direction. I have also been using it as a go-to response to temptation whenever the need arises. I think that this idea is changing my life!