{"id":2026,"date":"2015-04-10T14:14:07","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T18:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=2026"},"modified":"2015-04-10T14:14:07","modified_gmt":"2015-04-10T18:14:07","slug":"youre-so-vain-you-probably-think-this-blog-is-about-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/04\/youre-so-vain-you-probably-think-this-blog-is-about-you.html","title":{"rendered":"You&#8217;re So Vain, You Probably Think This Blog is About You"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><strong>Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21 \u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><strong>Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Faith is exercised continually through the gift of imagination which allows us to envision our future. Humans are the only animal with this gift, but we have a choice as to how we exercise it. We can choose to\u00a0see\u00a0that future either through the lens of faith in God or through the lens of fear which gives way to &#8220;vain imaginations&#8221; \u2013 useless, worrisome ruminating\u00a0over the future.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Concern over scenarios that haven&#8217;t even come to pass can give way to physical manifestations of anxiety. How can we avoid vain imaginations, worry, anxiety, and all the mental instability they bring?\u00a0A close look\u00a0at Romans 1:21 gives us two keys.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">1. Give God glory through living according to His Word.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">2. Express thanks and live each day in gratitude to God.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Then we will have a different outcome; our imaginations will line up with faith in His Word. That faith will give way to living right and experiencing peace and joy. Who doesn&#8217;t want that?!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><em>Dear Father,<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><em>I take captive my wild imagination today and command it to align with Your Truth \u2013 the rock that I stand on and the foundation of my thoughts and imaginations. I won&#8217;t allow my mind to wander in fear, envisioning a future that is not according to your Word. Instead, I will meditate on the confident hope I have in you. Forgive me for my wavering faith. Without faith I cannot please you, and my heart&#8217;s desire is to bring you pleasure.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><em>In Jesus Name, Amen!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21 \u00a0 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 Faith is exercised continually through the gift of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,25,3,1],"tags":[450,1036,148,1034,523,1035],"class_list":["post-2026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-bible-prayer","category-jesus","category-prayer","category-uncategorized","tag-faith","tag-glory-to-god","tag-gratitude","tag-imagination","tag-truth","tag-vain-imaginations"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>You&#039;re So Vain, You Probably Think This Blog is About You<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/04\/youre-so-vain-you-probably-think-this-blog-is-about-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You&#039;re So Vain, You Probably Think This Blog is About You\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21 \u00a0 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 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Romans 1:21 \u00a0 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 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