To find out more about this book or
to contact the author, please visit:
www.vividpublishing.com.au/mentalflush
www.mentalflush.com
Copyright © W. L. Sorrell 2018
ISBN: 978-1-925590-84-5
Published by Vivid Publishing
P.O. Box 948, Fremantle Western Australia 6959
www.vividpublishing.com.au
eBook conversion and distribution by Fontaine Publishing Group, Australia
www.fontaine.com.au
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Holy Bible is God’s infallible word. Any other names, characters, businesses, places, events, or incidents are products of the author’s imagination used in a fictitious manner to reaffirm God’s enduring message of truth. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
The author asserts his moral rights.
Cover design by Vivid Publishing
This book is dedicated to you, the reader.
May you find rest for your soul.
Contents
Who are you?
Who were you?
What’s missing?
What’s wrong?
Who can you turn to?
The water’s edge
Wolves in sheep’s clothing?
Finding strength?
Why pray?
God’s Army!
Who wears your shirt?
Your move!
Indecision?
Growth!
Why did the man cross the road?
Green feathers?
Lighten up!
The lady with two hearts.
God’s bridge!
What’s changed?
About the Author
Who are you?
How do you know what you know?
Be still, and know that I am God Psalm 46:10
Good advice because it’s God’s advice, but is just reading these words enough? Or would it be truer to say you really need to become still and experience God yourself to know He’s there?
Firstly, why not be still and take a few minutes to know a little bit more about you?
Here’s a question for you, a puzzle yet defined. A golden opportunity to flush your troubled mind.
Be you torn or bothered, anxious or depressed? Be it grief or heartache, which burns within your chest?
Be it twinge or torment, discomfort, or distress? Be it tears or empty sighs, which steal your happiness?
Remember back when you were young, a new born child no less? Remember how your mother smiled, the touch of her caress?
Remember when you took the step, your very first alone? Remember when you took the fall, the pain before unknown?
Born before your memory, we’ve never been apart. I’ve watched you cry, I’ve seen you hurt, observed your broken heart.
Like chalk upon the chalkboard, in numbers and in word. All you’ve learnt, I’ve written. All you’ve seen, I’ve heard.
I’ve known your disappointments, despondence, and despair. I’ve seen dismay within you. At all times I’ve been there.
Now just in case you’re not aware and yes, it’s sad but true. But all these things you dread the most are things ‘I’ do to you.
I’m the one who steals your breath, the one who steals your joy. The culprit of your discontent, the thief that ‘you’ employ!
Now don’t be shocked or act surprised. It’s very plain to see. I do your bidding, either way it’s all the same to me.
I’ll pour you wine or poison, make you mope or dance. Create success or cause defeat, if given half a chance.
I’ll give a long and fruitful life or dig an early grave. It’s up to you, just let me know, for you the path do pave.
But why do you ignore me, as if I don’t exist? Perhaps afraid, perhaps ashamed, perhaps a truth you’ve missed?
I know your love for money. I know your misplaced need. It fills your pockets, fills your dreams, and fills your heart with greed.
But can it buy you happiness? Can it buy your health? Be it cash or be it me, who gives you your true wealth?
So, who am I, I hear you ask? Who is this rogue besought? Tis I, the one inside your mind. Tis I, your own free thought.
I’ve told you now who I am, I’ve told you what I do. I’ve told you all about myself. So tell me, who are you?
Where is it you came from? Why is it you’re here? Who is it that made you? What is it you fear?
Open up your stagnant mind and let me breathe new air. Allow your soul to seek the truth and I will take you there!
For I’m your greatest ally, the one who hears your voice. But what I do is up to you. It’s time to make a choice!
So, who are you? Where did you come from? You didn’t make yourself, so who did?
Given the state of affairs on the world stage at the moment, it would be very easy to throw your arms up in the air and say, “who cares!” But you should care and if you follow the bible’s advice to pause and be still, the order which underpins our humanity is openly obvious.
Do you recognise the common threads which interplay between us all? Do you see the rhythm and the rhyme of life? You only need look at yourself in the mirror to see it!
Your eyes, your ears, your mouth, your hands, and your feet; millions of us have them. The air which fills your lungs, we all breathe it. The joy of birth, the grief of death, we all feel it. So many common attributes and collective talents, so many invisible bonds between us; only a fool would argue that we don’t share a joint design.
So, who’s the designer? Who designed you? If you want to go through life avoiding the question altogether, that’s your decision, that’s your free will. But if you do have the courage to ask the question of yourself, there are only two possible options.
The second option is that you and the world you live in are both the results of chaos and coincidence. It suggests that life came forth out of nowhere, without a reason, without a purpose, without any input from anything or anyone. In short, it tells you that you’re merely some cosmic concoction of no real value; an insignificant collection of particles thrown together at random in some meaningless, supposed evolutionary soup.
The first option is that you and the earth which sustains you were both carefully created specifically by someone who loves you beyond words. To Him, you are priceless.
What does your gut tell you? Are you here by accident or by design? Are you the by-product of some cosmic collision or are you a child of God? What rings true in your heart? Not your head, your heart! Logic and self-indulgence rule your head. Don’t be led by your head. Be led by your heart, be led by your spirit.
Look at your hands and find your fingers. Do they look to you like the result of some explosion? Or do they look to you more like the handiwork of our loving Creator?
The obvious decision here is for you to accept without doubt that you are a child of God. Your parents are children of God. Your grandparents are children of God. Trace your ancestry back far enough and you’ll learn that we all share the same heritage.
We are all God’s children! Now, I can tell you this truth but how can you know it to be true? I can tell you that our Father only wants what is best for you. I can tell you that He loves you beyond words, but how can you know that for sure?
Love. Now there’s something you know to be true! You know love because you’ve tasted it. You can’t bottle love, but you know it’s real. You also know firsthand the taste of fear! What else do you know for certain through experience?
The bible tells us that God created man in His own image. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” Genesis 1:26
God gave man a body - a skeletal frame, clad with flesh; a body fully equipped to sense and experience his God given life.
You know this body, you’re living in one now yourself!
God gave man a soul - his mind, his will, and a collection of emotions, all intricately weaved together enabling him to experience the consequences of his free choices.
You know this soul, you’ve got one of your own.
But who is man? Who is it that God gave a body and soul to?
Man is spirit.
God created us as spirit - the inexpressible treasure of His infused character.
You are a spirit, living in a temporary body, fully equipped with decision making abilities and emotions to experience your choices. Do you know the spirit who is you?
Now before you go writing all this ‘spirit stuff’ off as weird, think about the last time you visited a museum and saw a human skeleton. Where’s the life which once animated that skeleton? Who gives the life which now animates yours?
God’s Spirit is True Life.
And that certain emptiness in the pit of your stomach, that gnawing sense of discontent, of constantly being hungry for something you can’t define, is the void left behind where God’s Spirit once dwelt.
So how do you get it back? Why did we lose it in the first place? These are all questions with ‘understandable’ answers. Life is no mystery! But first, you must stop, be still and decide to decide. Take a stand and make a choice. Exercise the free will God gave you to acknowledge and accept the reality of who you are;
1. You are a child of God
2. God loves you
3. God created you as spirit + soul + body
Entrench these three rock solid facts into your heart. Resolve to accept them without doubt and you will once again be able to proceed in your knowing of God’s plan for your life.
Acceptance and resolve are decisions of the soul. Take a stand, make a decision, and have faith in who it is you really are!