THOUGHTS

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

“The mind’s job is to generate thoughts” – Author unknown…

"Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words. Be careful of your words, for your words become your actions. Be careful of your actions, for your actions become your habits. Be careful of your habits, for your habits become your character. Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny." – Chinese Proverb

Was sitting with a good friend yesterday and we were talking about the power of thoughts.

The BIBLE takes them seriously…

James 1:13-14 (PHILLIPS)

…a man’s (woman’s) temptation is due to the pull of his/her own inward desires (aka thoughts), which can be enormously attractive. His own desire takes hold of him/her, and that produces sin. And sin in the long run means death—make no mistake about that…

We should too.

That Chinese Proverbs makes it pretty clear as to the “rippling” impact of some loose or unchecked thoughts.

But like I said I was chatting with a good friend who is actually in the “thought” business so to speak.  He is an accomplished counselor and psychologist. And we were discussing how the enemy does a wonderful job twisting our thoughts or oppressing our thoughts making us feel at times like we can’t control them or worse yet that they CONTROL us.

And that begs the question today?

How is your thought life?

You have some less than holy fixations?  I will admit it; I do from time to time.  I am not proud of them.  They sometimes even “mature” into less than honorable words and deeds.

But as the author said it is the mind’s job to “generate” them so they WILL continue!  

But for the CHRISTIAN we can ask for GOD’s HELP to MARSHAL THEM!

Isaiah 8:20

Go to God’s teaching and His testimony to guide your thoughts and behavior! If any response disagrees with the word of God, then it’s muddling and wrong and not the least bit illuminating.

Therefore refuse to allow wrong thoughts to linger

If we entertain and embellish wrong thoughts for any period of time, those ideas have a way of transforming into something less than savory!

Charles Stanley vividly demonstrates:

"The initial thoughts the devil sends to us may be just a toehold the first time we entertain those thoughts and dwell on them or fantasize about them. The longer we entertain the thoughts, however, the more likely we are to start making mental plans about how we might act on them. It is then the toehold of an idea becomes a foothold. The more we develop plans for acting on a sinful idea or temptation, the more we find that the foothold has become a stronghold. We come to the place where we feel compelled to try out the idea in our behavior. We come to the place where we want to act on that idea more than we want to banish the idea."

When we reach that point, we are in trouble. And it all began with a thought!

So the question is obvious but better yet the answer is clear.

How can we marshal our thoughts effectively?

2 Corinthians 10:5

…take every thought captive to obey Christ…

 

I love you all!

Freedom Church