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(Presented By Lisa Bishop)
When it comes to your thoughts, which ones do you find yourself dwelling on? What fears, failings, unproductive patterns of thinking get recycled in your mind? What words do you find yourself regularly rehearsing that lead to worry, anxiety, perhaps even anger or self-defeat?
It has been said that our thoughts determine our life. Where our thoughts go, our lives will follow. What we believe determines how we live.
A really important part of our faith as followers of Jesus is our thought life and being mindful of what we meditate on.
If you were to take an inventory of your thoughts over the last 24 hours, what were some that were on repeat? Were they life giving and encouraging thoughts or did they lead you to be anxious, worried, or drive you into a pit of despair? Are your predominant thoughts lovely or life sucking? Are they worthy of praise or do they cause a panic?
“I will never amount to anything.”
“I am a failure.”
“I don’t have what it takes.”
“God doesn’t really care about me.”
“I am not lovable.”
“I will always be alone.”
“I will never measure up.”
“I will never get out of debt.”
“I will always be stuck in this addiction.”
“My life will never change.”
Hopefully I didn’t just depress you with that list but if we are honest, how often do our thoughts sound strikingly similar?
The power of our thoughts shapes us. What we choose to focus, dwell and ruminate on influences our lives and affects our peace. Notice I said the word choose. Oftentimes we take the position of being a casual bystander of our thoughts, we leave our thoughts unchecked and let them consume us and ultimately rule us. We can get captured by our thoughts rather than holding our thoughts captive to Christ.
Second Corinthians 10:5 gives us instruction when it comes to our thinking: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
What Paul is referencing are ungodly philosophies, untrue thoughts about God and false religions. But Paul’s principle has a much broader application. We have the ability to boss our thoughts around. We are not helpless victims or recipients of our thoughts. We can choose to interrupt our thoughts and bring every one of them into captivity to the obedience of Christ—thoughts of lust, thoughts of anger, thoughts of fear, thoughts of greed, bitter thoughts, worrisome thoughts, angry thoughts, thoughts of envy and comparison.
Holding our thoughts captive is a very active and intentional action and process. And when Paul is telling us to hold our thoughts captive that word in the Greek means to lead away, to bring under control. As followers of Jesus we are instructed to bring our thoughts in alignment with truth, with God’s thoughts. Notice Paul says every thought. That encompasses thoughts about God, ourselves, our circumstances, and others, our future and our past.
So what do we do when we recognize that our mind has wandered and started to entertain thinking that is not in line with what God thinks? We reign our thoughts in! It reminds me of a time my girlfriends and I spent a week at a ranch in Colorado. One day when we were trail riding we came across a wide opening in the field where the ranchers were wrangling cattle. It reminded me of those old western movies where they would swing the lassos above their heads and cast it out to capture a runaway cow. That is what we want to do with our thoughts. Picture your thoughts like a cow. When you sense one running rampant, lasso it in! Bring it into the fold of God’s thinking.
And in order to think like God you must be in the Word of God. I love the reminder in Psalm 1, blessed is the one “who meditates on his law day and night, That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither (Psalm 1: 2b-3) Do you see the promise in those verses? Meditate on the law of God, truth, the thoughts of God, and you will be like a tree planted by streams of living water that bears fruit. Doesn’t that sound refreshing? Frankly it is much more appealing than jumping in a pool of standing and stagnant water where a bunch of unhealthy things can grow. We don’t want old, stale, unhealthy thoughts, we want godly life-giving ones. And when we dwell on godly thoughts, meditating on God’s Word, our thoughts produce godly fruit, our lives are transformed.
I love the reminder in the NLT version of Romans 12:2: “Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” What we think determines how we feel and our feelings produce an action or behavior that is either fruitful or not.
Let’s play that out. If I have the thought, “I am inadequate,” that thought leads to a feeling. I may feel anxious or depressed. And that feeling leads to an action or behavior. If I feel depressed, I may want to stay in bed or isolate. Or if I have the thought, “My boss doesn’t like me,” that thought leads me to feel fearful, worried or anxious. And that feeling of worry can cause me to avoid my boss or stop speaking up in meetings. The point is our thoughts produce feelings which produce actions and behaviors, and as a follower of Jesus we want to dwell on thoughts that are beneficial and fruitful.
What is the fruit of your thought life? In Philippians 4:8-9 the Apostle Paul gives us some solid guidance on what thoughts to entertain and focus on. I call these thought filters.
…. Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
These verses tell us what the peaceful mind, freed and guarded from anxiety, should dwell on, as well as the kind of behavior such thought patterns should produce. They remind us that our thoughts produce something.
It has been said that the mind is like a garden. We need to be aware of what thoughts we are allowing to grow and take root. And going back to the fruit analogy, we want to produce good fruit, godly actions and behaviors in our lives and that will require us to root out, weed out, thoughts that do not produce a healthy harvest.
It is sobering to remember that Paul is writing these words to believers while he is imprisoned. Paul enjoyed peace in the midst of personal hardship. He did not let his circumstances dictate his thoughts. He trained his thoughts in the midst of his circumstances to inform how he would feel and act.
Examining and disciplining our thought life is essential in the life of a believer. Let’s take a closer look at how Paul instructs us readers to follow a ‘divine mental programming’ that will ensure our peace. Set your mind on, dwell on thoughts which are:
- True—True means those things that correspond to the teaching of God’s Word, literally the truth. Do our thoughts align with God’s truth? What he says about himself, what he says about you and your worth and identity? What God says about others, your circumstances, your life? We need to know what is true so that our minds can discern and quickly sift out lies.
And we need to remember that there is the father of lies, satan. In the book of Genesis we see satan’s first lie to Eve. The enemy planted seeds of doubt about God’s goodness in Eve’s mind. He caused her to think that God could not be trusted and rather than focusing and holding firmly to what she knew about God, she fell hook, line, and sinker for satan’s lies.
We are like Eve. We can easily fall for the enemy’s deception and it starts with what we believe, with what we think. When you are tempted to believe lies, stop long enough to ask, is what I am thinking really true? We can get so wrapped up in our feelings that we mistake them for truth. Take a piece of paper and literally write out the lie that is on repeat and then next to it write Scripture that declares what is true. Our minds have a funny way of gravitating towards untruth so we need to make extra effort to refute it with the very Word of God.
- The next quality of the thoughts we are to dwell on are thoughts that are honorable. Honorable thoughts are those things that have the dignity of moral excellence; thoughts that are worthy of respect. If someone were to plug into your thoughts would they hear thoughts that are dignified and honorable? Do the thoughts you are entertaining and giving your attention to have honest value?
- Are your thoughts just? Some translations say “right,” meaning thinking that conforms to the perfect standard of God’s righteousness.
- Pure—Free from the taint of sin. Thoughts that are holy and morally pure.
- Lovely and commendable—Are your thoughts generous, merciful, and compassionate to yourself and others? Do your thoughts promote love and acting in ways that are loving, pleasing, acceptable, and grateful?
- Does your thought life mirror excellence? And are the thoughts you dwell on worthy of praise? Do they promote goodness, graciousness, virtue and uprightness? Is what you are dwelling on praiseworthy? Would God approve of your thoughts?
At the end of this list in verse 8 Paul says…. think about these things. To think about means to consider, to take inventory of, to determine, to decide what you will meditate on. It’s putting your thinking through these godly filters in such a way that these characteristics influence your thinking.
We have what is called neuro pathways in our brains that are created by repetitive thoughts. Most people live on autopilot with their thoughts most of the time. This is because our neural pathways operate under the law of least effort, or the path of least resistance. A thought meditated on, thought about often enough creates grooves in our brains. If we dwell on a thought long enough over time, it creates a sort of highway in our brain. If my thoughts are worldly or negative repeatedly, it will be easier for my mind to follow that highway and fall into that groove. On the other hand, when we take Paul’s words, which are really God’s words as it relates to what we meditate on in our thought life, we create healthy highways and godly thoughts over time and that will be what our minds gravitate towards.
We cannot control the events and circumstances in our lives but we can, over time and with the help of the Holy Spirit, capture our thoughts and bring them into alignment with God.
This is more than positive thinking. This is the power of the gospel at work in our lives! This is the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in every believer and helps you. It is a daily intention, practice and obedience to conform our thoughts to Christ.
Paul concludes with verse 9 this way: “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” God’s Word promises that when we mind our minds with his thoughts, we are guaranteed peace. That is a pretty good incentive to wrangle and wield in our thought life. He also says, practice these things. Keep practicing and submitting your thoughts, holding them up to the light of what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and praiseworthy. And practicing means continual and consistent discipline and effort. To get rid of mental flab and shape our thoughts to God it will take time. Not like a fad diet where we try eating healthy for two days and think we will drop ten pounds and have six-pack abs. No, it is staying committed, enduring and persevering in minding our minds.
It makes me think of Whole 30. I know a lot of you have either done or know someone who has ascribed to Whole 30, which is a plan that says you can change your life in 30 days by resetting your health, habits and relationship with food to discover lasting freedom. It is an eating plan where you eliminate some things and add others.
It got me thinking, What can our spiritual whole 30 look like? Are we as committed to being mindful and intentional about what we are putting in our brains, the thoughts we entertain, dwell on and consume as we are mindful of the food we put in our bodies? Our thoughts are our brain food. Are they healthy—using the guiding principles from Paul? Do they produce good fruit like righteousness? Right thinking that leads to right living? What thoughts can we add? Eliminate?
I invite you to put your thoughts through Paul’s filter. Is what you think about true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable? Is your mind dwelling on things that are excellent and worthy of praise? What does your mind drift to? What do you dwell on? What thoughts do you entertain about your circumstances, your relationships, your family, your finances, your future?
Grab a journal and write down the thoughts you have for a day or two and start examining them. What thoughts have dominated your mind? What thoughts is God calling you to hold captive to him? Ask God to help you be aware of your thoughts and ask the Holy Spirit to help you hold your thoughts captive to Christ. Remember while we cannot control every thought that enters into our minds, we can choose what thoughts we will entertain and focus on. So if you have a thought that is not in alignment with God’s Word, choose another one that is! Take every lie and replace it with God’s truth and rehearse it, dwell on that truth until it becomes the first thought your mind wanders to. When you practice over time, with intention and consistency, and the power of the Holy Spirit, you will start to see a shift in what you focus on, and as you do, the peace of God will be with you.