THINK ON THESE THINGS
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8 New Living Translation).
I’ve been thinking about my thought life lately. I perform a mental self-check asking “What do I think about most? How does this help me? Is this beneficial to my daily life? What could I have said or done differently? Where on earth did that come from?” If we don’t examine and control our thoughts, they can make or break our day. Much of our battle is fought in our mind. I always thought that was a cliché phrase, but the more I think about what I think about, I realize it is truth. 1 Corinthians 10: 4-6 says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled(NKJV).” We must align every thought with God’s word.
Negative thinking and imaginings will bind us so tightly, we risk suffocation and paralysis. It is easier to dwell on the negative side of everything, to imagine every negative outcome, as well as to relive every negative part of our past and recreate it. The devil wants to keep us bound, down and out of the game, he wants us to lack the good things of God, and he wants us to remain under his influence. When we make a point to fix our thoughts on what Scripture instructs us to think about, we are truly set free. Thinking about things which are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, excellent and worthy of praise incinerates the hold of pessimistic bondage the devil desires to have over us, it is the first step in bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. When we begin to think of something undesirable, we must counter-think, and Scripture is the one always-effective weapon to attack those thoughts.
Let’s Pray: Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for the blessing of a new day filled with new mercy, new opportunities and more of Your faithfulness! May we take every thought captive today and turn our thinking to excellent and worthy things. May You bring to remembrance Your word during moments when our thoughts seem difficult to get ahold of. We thank You for Your strength and wisdom in bringing our thoughts captive, and we offer ourselves to You as an act of worship. We give You all glory, honor and praise, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Today’s Attitude of Worship: It has not always been easy for me to control my thinking, my imagination has a tendency to run wild at times, but I have been reading and working through a book called The Answer for Life written by a woman who also attends my church, Donna Fiorini. She wrote about her journey with God in healing her thought life and the impact our thoughts have on our reaction to life situations. If you struggle with your thought life, I encourage you to pick up the book.