Janine Mason (00:01.708)
Hey and welcome to the podcast where we talk about the messy intersection of faith, family, and business. Hey, I have a question for you. Have you ever felt like, man, I just spend so much energy dealing with the internal dialogue that goes on in my head? It drains me of energy, it drains me of life that I feel like I just don't have enough energy to take on the rest of my world. If so, you're not alone.
I have a really simple tool for you. By the end of this podcast, I'm going to give you this tool and it's going to help you deal with the head trash that all of us deal with. The sense of inadequacy, the sense of, man, I'm not sure if I'm enough. The sense of, is God really with me? Well, how did this happen? a couple of weeks ago we had a group of believers meeting in our home and I used this simple tool. And I've used it before and I've seen the amazing results as people get a hold of it and what it can do for their thinking.
But this time what happened was every single person in the room came up with the same thing. As the the goal was to spend time and to engage with a simple scripture, I gave out little cards with scriptures on it. And I watched as each person said, if I do this, if I engage with the scripture in this way, what difference will it make? And every single person in the room said, I will have more energy. I will stop beating up on myself, I will believe in myself and the head trash that I've been dealing with.
It will just go away. And I went, that's really strange. I've seen that effect before, but I hadn't seen the energy that it takes. I hadn't seen that as starkly highlighted as I had on that night. I know because I've dealt with this myself, when I was a young person, I had zero self confidence. I mean zero. I didn't like anything about myself. In fact, I had one thing. If people ask me to or two things.
If people ask me to list, what do you like about yourself? I said, Well, I like that I'm pretty smart and I like, I think I have pretty eyes. And that was the end of my list. So you can imagine what my self-confidence was like, and you can probably imagine what my self-talk was like. As I followed the Lord, I started to and and really let him begin to heal me and speak to me about who I was. Some of that dropped off, but a lot of it was still plague me.
Janine Mason (02:22.07)
And it would plague me to the extent that if I went to an event, I'm more of an introvert. And if I went to an event where I knew people, I was fine. But if I went to an event where I knew nobody, like the anxiety that it would bring me, and I would stress over what I was going to wear, and I would stress over who I would talk to and if I would be able to cope. And then I would if I could get myself to the event and be there, when I went home, I would beat up on myself. And I
As time has gone on, I've learned to, you know, tips and tools and things of how to overcome it. But the bottom line is that I still struggle with having to expend a lot of energy to overcome the negative self-talk. I can remember times even where I've spoken at an event where I was an invited guest and you would not know, you would look on the outside and think that I was self-confident, that I had it all together.
And then I would go home after the event and I would have an onslaught of negative thoughts coming to to me to the extent that I would feel like and say to myself, man, I just did so badly. I never want to show myself, my face in public again. You would not know it on the inside, but on the on the outside you wouldn't know, but on the inside, I'd have to expend so much energy to overcome.
all the the thoughts that were assaulting me. So what's what's changed? What was what's the difference? What's the tool? I a few years ago I was just spending time with the Lord and I felt like he asked me, he said, hey Janine, what if the Bible is true? Whoa, what do you mean, Lord, the Bible is true? I've believed for decades that the Bible is true. Why are you asking me this?
obviously the Lord believes it, his Bible's true, I believe it, but there must be something more to this. So I started to ask myself some questions. If the b Bible is really true, if I really believe that the Bible is true, does my life line up with the fact that the Bible is true? And I'd like to say it does, but the truth is that there are areas where my life doesn't show my belief. Well, what do you mean?
Janine Mason (04:39.458)
I haven't yet seen the greater works. The Bible says that we will do greater works than Jesus. Well, Jesus raised people from the dead. He healed all that came to him. Blind eyes opened, deaf ears opened, leprosy was cured. the woman with the issue of blood came and just touched his cloak and she said, I haven't seen somebody come and tug on my shirt yet and see them get healed. I haven't seen the dead raised yet.
And so I had to face the fact that there are areas in my life where I say that I believe the Bible is true, but actually my life is not displaying that yet. And so I started on this journey of really engaging with the Word of God and saying, What would my life look like if I believed this specific scripture is true? It started to change the way I A engaged with the Bible and B.
what I actually believe. When I invested myself, my my decision-making power, as it were, to say, man, I believe that the Bible is true. How will this change my life in this area if I engage with this scripture over in that way? Well, we sat with these people last week and I watched as the lights come on, as this tool has worked with other people. So I want to give you a couple of real life examples from my own life.
And one of my favorite scriptures is 2 Peter 1, 3, and it says this. It says, He has already given, he has, it's past tense, he has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Huh. The Lord has already given me, Janine Mason, everything I need to to live a godly life, to live in every circumstance that I face, with his power, with his authority. It's already been given to me.
I can get myself into a place where my life is crazy. there are times when we are traveling, we are doing different events, I've got all the things going on and it feels I feel overwhelmed and I'm like, I don't know if I can do this. And my internal world says, my internal dialogue in the past has said, I don't know if I can do this. I just feel overwhelmed, man. This is too hard. I just where where's the, you know, where's the checkout button?
Janine Mason (07:01.216)
Stop the world, I want to get off. That's that's what can go on in my mind. And when I have to fight those thoughts over and over and over again, I just feel drained of energy. one of those seasons was we were moving from Pennsylvania to Tennessee. And I can remember vividly walking through our living room and just we were trying to get the house on the market. in in the space of a week, we did that. And then suddenly we're moving and we're moving within a month and
I have to pack up everything, we have to arrange transportation, we have to arrange all the things. I'm dealing with not only my own stuff, with the kids stuff, all the things that are happening. Andy's still working and I felt overwhelmed and I can I can remember vividly walking through the living room and feeling just like I'm running actually and I'm breathing hard and I'm like, my gosh, I just feel overwhelmed. And I can remember just pausing in that moment.
Literally stopping in my tracks and saying, hang on a minute. There's a different way to do that. And over and over again in that season, I use this scripture, this second Peter 1 scripture. And I would pause and I would stop myself and I'd say, But the Bible is true. He has already given me everything I need. Everything I need to walk through this season and to walk through it with grace, to walk through it with peace, to walk through it with joy.
And as I learn to just pause, recognize, in this moment my energy is being drained. in this moment I'm walking in anxiety. in this moment, my my world, my internal wheels are spinning and this self-talk is going crazy. If I'll stop and pause and I'll focus on the scripture and I'll say, This scripture is true and it means something, it changes the way I live, it changes the way I think, it changes everything. If what if this
What if this Bible is true? What if this particular scripture is true? That He has given me everything I need to live a godly life. What does it mean for me in this moment? It means that I have what it takes. I pause and I become aware. I have what it takes. And it changes the way I talk to myself. It changes the way that I think. And suddenly the energy that I was expending to fight the lies.
Janine Mason (09:24.694)
goes away and it becomes focused on doing what I need to do. More recently, here's another example. I at the start of the year was having these amazing times with the Lord and I was feeling his presence so easily. And then that just the easiness of stepping into his presence, it just changed. And so I found a scripture and and it's James 4.8. It says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
And so every day I was praying that, I was journaling that, and I was looking for his presence. And to be honest, I wasn't feeling it. And I was kind of getting frustrated. And so I'm journaling one day and I felt like the Lord said, Janine, what what are you doing? And I said, Lord, I'm drawing near because you your word says that if I draw near to you, you'll draw near to me and I'm waiting and I know it's only a matter of time before you will draw near to me. And he said, Well, how will you know?
I'm like, well, I'll feel your presence. Won't I feel your presence if you draw near? And he said, Well, you're looking for the feeling. And I said, Yeah, I'm looking for the feeling. And he said, Well, what about if you just believed that the scripture was true? yeah. If I believed that the scripture was true in this moment, I would know that I have already drawn near to you and that you have already drawn near to me. And he said, Well, I've drawn near to you.
And I said, that's right. See, if I believe that the Bible is true, I behave differently. And I realized in that moment I just big paused and I went again. it's true. He has already drawn near for me. Yes, there will be times and seasons when I feel his presence in a different way, but he has already drawn near to me. And it changed everything about the way.
I was seeing that day, it changed everything about the way I thought. And suddenly the energy that I was expending to try and draw near to him so that he will draw near to me, the energy I was expending to try and overcome the thoughts of he's not close to me, suddenly just all that energy was no longer required because I just realized the Bible is true. He he is faithful to his word, he's not a man that he should lie, but he is faithful.
Janine Mason (11:43.245)
And when I engage with the scripture that way, when I just make simply make the decision to trust the word of God and to say this changes everything about the way I think, it changes everything about the way I feel, it changes everything about the way that I go through my day to day life, then I will engage with it differently. I will I will suddenly have energy gained back. I'll tell you one more story.
And then I'll give you the tool in a really simple format. we were about to go away for a few days of sabbatical, just thinking and planning for the next six months with the Holy Spirit, intentionally pulling aside and taking time. And I was reading again how the Lord says, you know, my it's not the one that talks about my thoughts are higher than your thoughts, but it says, even the foolish thoughts of God.
Are better than my best thoughts. Even the weakest strength of the Lord is stronger than my best strength. And I was meditating on that, and I was saying, Lord, if this is true, we're about to go away, and we are going to use, try and get the best of our strength, the best of our wisdom there. And I said, But if this scripture is true, then my best idea.
tails into insignificance beside your worst idea. And the Lord doesn't even have worst ideas. What's the point? Is that He has wisdom, He has ideas and insight for me that if I will pause and engage with it, the the James talks about ask. If you don't have wisdom, ask and he will give it to you. And so I was like, we're about to go away. This is a really big deal. I'm choosing to engage with
The Bible is true. This particular scripture that says your worst idea is better than my best idea. And so I I was like, what would that mean for me as I go away? What would that mean for me as I do this strategic retreat? And I'm looking and I went, that means that instead of taking all my good ideas with me, I'll be ditching my good ideas and I'll be asking the Lord for his good ideas and I'll be positioning myself to here.
Janine Mason (13:59.981)
And I'll be trusting that he will meet me in that place. So off we went on our little sabbatical. It rained the whole time we were there. But as we sat on this porch with the rain pouring on the roof, and we just simply sat and listened. And I began to just ask the Lord to speak and to journal as I and to write down the things that I was hearing. His best ideas turned up because
I made a decision to say that the Bible is true. And I will engage with it like that way. And I will change the way I approach this strategic retreat by saying, God, I'm coming to this retreat knowing that my best ideas just they don't have anything on your worst ideas. And I'm asking for your, not just your worst ideas, but God for your best ideas for the future that's ahead of us. You know the things that we need to do. And he showed up.
and he spoke to us. So what does this mean for you? It's a very simple tool and you may be tempted just to go, well that's way too simple. I know that it has changed my life and I know that it is changing the lives of the people around me that I've talked to. In fact I just got off a call before I came here up here to do this podcast with a client of mine.
And she's in a really tough spot. And I said, Well, what's the scripture that you've been holding on to? And she talked about a scripture that says it's from somewhere in the Psalms and it says, I cried out to the Lord and he heard me and he lifted me out of the mire. And she said, I feel like I'm just entrenched in this mire and I can't get out. I don't even have the energy to do that. And I said, Well, the scripture then, what would it change for you?
if you said that this scripture is true, how would it change what you think? And she said, Well, it would mean that I would know that he's picking me up out of out of the mire. And I said, Well, how would you feel? She said, I'd feel so much more hopeful. I'd go, I'd have joy, I'd have peace, I'd feel lighter. I said, Well, how would you walk into work this morning then if you had that? She said, I walk in with hope. I'd walk in not being afraid of the
Janine Mason (16:15.244)
sense of inadequacy, I wouldn't be feeling all those things and beating up on myself. She said, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be worried about the ambiguity ambiguity that's happening at work or the uncertainty that's happening in my place of work. She said, I would walk in differently. I said, wouldn't you want to do that? She said, actually it would make all the difference. So how do you do it? First just pause and acknowledge, man, I've got stuff
Flying around my head. I've got this energy, emotional energy drain going on. I have got the wrestling that happens day after day after day. And I I become aware of that. Every time I'm I'm in anxiety, when I'm in, my gosh, I don't know what to do. I feel overwhelmed. I can't do this. When you hear those things going round in your brain, when you feel like I just don't have energy, any energy left to fight that, now you become aware.
And you acknowledge it before the Lord. Lord, I am listening to this head trash and it is draining my energy. And I know there's a better way. And you bring it before the Lord. Then you find a scripture, ask the Holy Spirit to help you to bring back to mind a scripture that speaks specifically to that. When I felt overwhelmed, it was 2 Peter 1.3, He has given me everything pertaining to life and godliness. When I was feeling kind of disconnected from the Lord, it was James 4.8.
Hey, draw near to the Lord and He will draw near to you. Whatever it is, find the scripture, ask the scripture, and then ask yourself, what if I believed this was true? What if this is true? What difference will this make to me? How will it, how would I feel if this, if I could 100% give myself to the fact that the Bible is true, that He backs up His Word? How would I feel? How would I think differently? What would I do differently in my day today, in my today?
What difference would it make if I a hundred percent gave myself to believe that this scripture, not the whole of the scripture, not the whole Bible, but one scripture, one thing that he says to you, how would it change your life today? And I guarantee that if you would do that, if you would engage with that and say, Man, I believe that the Bible's true, that this scripture is true, that it has something to say to me about how I would can live today, how I can think today.
Janine Mason (18:42.348)
What I can believe, what I can feel. If you will do that, he will meet you in that. And then once you've done that, make some notes because we forget so easily. That happened to me this morning. I have a scripture that I have gone back to time after time, and I was feeling a little down this morning, and I said, Lord, show me a scripture. Speak to me through your word. And he led me to Psalm 84. I can't remember which verse. And there's a scripture in there and it says
He withholds no good thing. He withho withholds no good thing. So this morning, as I'm like, God, it feels like you're withholding good thing. God, I know that your scripture is true, that you are withholding no good thing. Where it looks like you're withholding, you're giving me something even better. And so I started to write down again. Here's what you're giving me. Here's what your goodness, how your goodness is showing up for me today. And I went from feeling like, blah, I am emotionally.
drained today to knowing, he is with me, he is for me, he is giving me good things today. Hey, I want to encourage you to stop right now and ask, where are you being drained of life? Where is it that you are going into this mental head trash battle that goes on day after day, time after time, where it's draining you of the life, it's draining you of joy, it's draining you of power and it's draining you of strength.
And acknowledge that before him. And then find the scripture. Ask him to highlight the scripture and ask yourself those questions. What if this is really true? Really true for you today, in this moment, with everything that you're facing today? How would I feel if I knew the hundred percent that this is true? How would I think? What would I do differently if I knew that this is true?
And then give yourself to believing it being true. Write it down and go on with your day, feeling and operating from a different place. If you need more of these kind of tools, we have a perfect place for you to get some of them. Practical tools that help you to engage with the Bible, with the Spirit of God, with all that He is that help you with your everyday challenges. You can find events that are coming up, particularly, I want to highlight.
Janine Mason (21:06.21)
that there's a Dallas conference coming up at the end of August. You can find all the things that you need to find that out about that on heavenandbusiness.com. look at the events page. But I know that there are places that you can go to get more of these kind of tools that are going to really help you. Hey bless you. Have a great day.
