Let’s think about our thoughts

Let’s think about our thoughts.  (Tentraising Two.)

Do you ever stop and think about what you think about?

As you walk along the way, what is running through your mind?

As you drive down the road, how many different trails will your thoughts take?

Aye…

   ~ YOUR THOUGHTS ~

              are they more likely to be …

good              or something far less than good?

positive         or pessimistic?

valuable         or destructive?

empowering   or deflating?

holy               or depraved?

hopeful          or despairing?

joyful             or worried?

noble             or cowardly?

confident       or fearful?

contented      or never satisfied?

pure              or corrupt?

purposeful     or a wasteland?

lovely             or ugly?

humble          or prideful?

admirable      or ignoble?

life-giving       or critical?

Indeed if all of your thoughts from the last week were projected on a white wall, what would they resemble … a minefield?

                                                            a cesspool?

                                                            a swamp?

or   a garden, where good things

have the ability to flourish?

You see, how we think and what we think about is important to God.

 How we think and what we think about is critical to our own well being,

 and how we think impacts our ability to discern the voice of God,

 and to sift God’s voice from all the other voices in our head. 

 Indeed, I submit to you that our thinking is one of the four keys to rightly hearing from God.  (The other three being our salvation, the work of the Holy Spirit transforming us, and the active involvement of God’s words, the Scripture constantly informing, renewing and growing us ~ drawn from ‘Tentraising’ ~ didn’t read this? 

You see, right thinking matters . . . especially as Jesus followers, longing to be in communion with him--as does discerning the origination of our thoughts.  It is the heart of God that our thoughts would thrive with that which is good and life giving; Paul summed it up beautifully,  “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”¹ 

It is good to take stock and conduct an interview with one’s self occasionally.  So, about what would you say you spend most of your time thinking?_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What thoughts do you have that are pleasing to God?__________________________________________________________________________________

Which thoughts are not? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________      Paul said, "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that . . .”  fill in the rest from Romans 12.2 “_____________________________________________________________________.”

Next we consider the originator of those thoughts that tear us down, that make us question and compare, fill us with guilt and regret.  We must take control of our thinking and we first do that by thinking about it!

Christine

^{1 – Philippians 4.8}

^{2 – question: why do you think Paul follows Philippians 4, verses six and seven with the content about thinking in verse eight??  www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+4.6-8&version=...}