
Wellbeing: Mental
Part three of our ‘Wellbeing’ series
Jesus came to give us life to the full. But what does that look like, and how do we learn to live in it? Each week, we’re producing notes, discussion points and application questions for the Sunday talks from our ‘Wellbeing’ series — helping you go deeper into everything we’re looking at together and resourcing our Small Groups during the week. Use the embedded player to listen to the talk, or click here to download it.
Key Message
We live in the reality of our thoughts. Therefore, what we think matters. If we think upon and believe untruths, taking them to be true, it will create a false reality for us, which can leave us feeling trapped. If we think upon truth and rest in it, we shall enjoy living in reality, being fully alive.
Base Scriptures
- 2 Corinthians 10:4–5
- Philippians 4:4–8
- Romans 12:2
Notes
Our minds are powerful and it is vital we are aware of the various influences that are setting our thought trajectories: media / social media / music / TV / Books / assumptions etc.
Certain ways of thinking may obscure our knowledge of God, producing stress, anxiety, fear, unbelief. We need to be wise to these, taking captive that which would obscure Christ and having our minds renewed in the truth of who Jesus is and all He has done for us. Replacing established patterns of thinking can take time, discipline and help from others. Here are a few common ways of thinking that are harmful (most of which are identified by David Murray in his book ‘The Happy Christian’):
- Black and white thinking: Allowing your thinking to be trapped into extremes.
- Generalising: Taking a single experience to mean a universal truth.
- Filtering: Picking out only the negative elements of a particular experience completely disregarding the good.
- Transforming: Turning a positive experience into a negative one.
- Mind reading: Assuming that you know what others are thinking, and allowing that to negatively shape your thinking.
- Future-telling: Thinking that the worst will happen anyway, so there’s no point in trying.
- Comparing: Measuring your value and security by how you compare to the person next to you.
- Perfecting: Self-imposed pressure to achieve impossible standards. Fear of mistakes. Fear of reputation.
- Personalising: Thinking that when something great happens it must be down to me, when something bad happens it must be my fault.
- Ruminating: Always living with your head in the past.
- Translating: Thinking that the grass is always greener.
- Catastrophizing: Reading into every situation the worse possible scenario.
So how do we counter these? The Philippians 4 model is protective for our minds — Rejoicing in Jesus, knowing he is near (not dependent on feeling), thanksgiving always, telling Him everything, resting in His sufficiency for us….. then grounding mind in that which is good.
Application Questions
Reflect
- What aspects of Sunday’s talk most struck you?
About Me
- What are the influencers of your thinking (both positive and negative)?
- Have any patterns of thinking have become established for you (both positive and negative)? (e.g. optimism vs defeatism). What fruit do these patterns produce? How do they effect your view of reality?
- How might you ‘take thoughts captive’?
About God
- How does the knowledge of God get exalted over destructive patterns of thinking?
- How do we enjoy Jesus as the source of truth, peace and joy for our minds?
About Us
- How can we help each other ‘take thoughts captive and bring them into obedience with Christ?’
About the World
- How can the truth of Jesus shape the thinking of the world through us?


