What are you thinking about?
Mar 30, 2016 12:09:36 GMT -5
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Eric W., Adrienne, and 2 more like this
Post by Sharon on Mar 30, 2016 12:09:36 GMT -5
From Matt McMillen Ministries
Your thoughts will destroy your life – if you let them.
For years, I didn’t realize that my thought life dictated how my day would go. I’d wake up every morning like a sheep being led to the slaughter. As soon as a thought popped into my mind, I’d agree with it as the truth.
Each and every thought that the enemy put in my spiritual head (my mind), along with my own incorrect learned thinking, would immediately ruin the day before it even began. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I didn’t realize that just because I had a thought that created fear, anxiety, or made me want to sin – I didn’t have to act on it, or even pay any attention to it.
As I sought out Christ through prayer, Bible study, and good Christian books, Jesus opened up my mind to what I should be paying attention to:
“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.” (Philippians 4:8)
“Well Matt, that’s easy for you to say! I can’t help what I think!”… No, not always. You’re right, you can’t. But you can begin to recognize the thoughts that are true, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy (see above verse), and then THINK (focus on, pay close attention to) about such things.
If we are going to get the most out of this life, we must have our minds transformed and renewed into that of Christ’s! (see Romans 12:2). This happens by PAYING ATTENTION TO YOUR THOUGHTS.
Thoughts on Jesus and His principles, which are: true, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. So when a thought hits you that doesn’t match up with this list, SPEAK UP AGAINST IT!
Incorrect thought: “This person is NEVER gonna change! Give up on them! They keep hurting you! They don’t appreciate you! They don’t even love you!”
Corrected thought: “This is where I feel like God wants me to be, God can change the heart of any person. I’m staying faithful, praying for them diligently, and trusting that God is using this unfair situation for a good, future purpose.”
Incorrect thought: “You’ll never break that addiction! You are weak without it! Don’t even try!”
Corrected thought: “No, I CAN’T break this addiction on my own, but Christ can do anything, and He says that He loves me as I am. So He will help me defeat this addiction. I’m going to try again today, and never give up on trying. I WILL beat this, through Him.
Incorrect thought: “If God is so good, why does He let bad things happen to you?!”
Corrected thought: “God loves me more than I can possibly understand. He doesn’t have the ability to allow any harm to come my way without a greater purpose. It’s my job to react how Christ reacted to unfair situations. After all, He was crucified for a good purpose, and that terrible situation to GET to that good purpose was God’s idea.”
FRIENDS, WE MUST BEGIN TO SPEAK BACK! Speak back to ourselves when we are allowing our minds to go in the wrong direction, and also, SPEAK BACK TO THE DEVIL! Jesus did this all the time, so should we!
Don’t just ignore your incorrect thoughts, CORRECT THEM. Correct them! I say again, correct them! Incorrect thoughts still hit me all the time, but now I recognize them, and I do my best to not act incorrectly to them. If I do, I simply try not to act incorrectly the next time… and the next time.. and the next time… are you getting this? This is the process of forming your mind into Christ’s! And this process will not end until you die (see Phil. 1:6), so be easy on yourself.
Never stop trying to react to incorrect thoughts, correctly. KEEP. TRYING!
When I have a day of “giving up on trying,” which is very rare, I’ll allow the enemy to sneak thoughts into my mind that lead me directly down a path of frustration, sinful anger, and then self-pity (which is 100% worthless, btw; wish I knew this years ago). Then, self-pity turns into unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, and eventually gossip – gossip over the WRONG THOUGHTS.
Then, I’ll find someone to blab my mouth to, and give LIFE to, these incorrect thoughts – if I’m not careful. This is exactly what Satan wants. When we do this, we are giving him his way.
All you’re doing when you gossip is inviting other people into your wrong thinking and them compounding it. I used to do this all the time, to anyone who would listen – and also, all over social media. Oh my goodness, what a mess. How I gave Satan his way on a platter, “Here you go, devil. Enjoy.” Please, DON’T DO THIS! STOP IT. Bring it to God, and let Him correct those thoughts through the Holy Spirit.
ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN WHO NEVER TALKS BACK TO THE DEVIL?… He loves that. He loves that you ignore him. If this weirds you out, then you need to double-check Christ’s handling of Satan. Sticking your head in the sand won’t change anything – YOUR WORDS WILL!
So today, my friends, know this: When you correct your thinking how God wants you to correct it, you are allowing yourself to be molded into the image of Christ! That’s what we want the most! You may even have an incorrect, self-rightesous, religious mindset – you look down on others who don’t do the “Christian” things you do – that is incorrect as well. HUMBLE YOURSELF through corrected thinking. It’s like my Grandma used to say, “Matthew, you can’t stop the crows from flying over your head, but you don’t have to let them make a nest in your hair.” She’s right! No, we can’t stop the thoughts that hit us, but we can choose to not agree with them, and then correct them with the Word of God! -Matt
A prayer for you: Heavenly Father thank you for another day. Not everyone made it to today, but we did, and we know that you have a purpose for us being here right now. Show us what that is. Make it clear each day what it is that you want us to do with our lives, and then give us the grace to be able to walk it out with the same mindset as Jesus. MOLD OUR THOUGHTS, please. Keep the devil far from us and reshape our minds into peaceful, confident, forgiving, loving minds. You can do this, I know you can. You can do all things. We are yours, make us more like you. In Christ’s name, amen.
Your thoughts will destroy your life – if you let them.
For years, I didn’t realize that my thought life dictated how my day would go. I’d wake up every morning like a sheep being led to the slaughter. As soon as a thought popped into my mind, I’d agree with it as the truth.
Each and every thought that the enemy put in my spiritual head (my mind), along with my own incorrect learned thinking, would immediately ruin the day before it even began. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I didn’t realize that just because I had a thought that created fear, anxiety, or made me want to sin – I didn’t have to act on it, or even pay any attention to it.
As I sought out Christ through prayer, Bible study, and good Christian books, Jesus opened up my mind to what I should be paying attention to:
“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.” (Philippians 4:8)
“Well Matt, that’s easy for you to say! I can’t help what I think!”… No, not always. You’re right, you can’t. But you can begin to recognize the thoughts that are true, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy (see above verse), and then THINK (focus on, pay close attention to) about such things.
If we are going to get the most out of this life, we must have our minds transformed and renewed into that of Christ’s! (see Romans 12:2). This happens by PAYING ATTENTION TO YOUR THOUGHTS.
Thoughts on Jesus and His principles, which are: true, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. So when a thought hits you that doesn’t match up with this list, SPEAK UP AGAINST IT!
Incorrect thought: “This person is NEVER gonna change! Give up on them! They keep hurting you! They don’t appreciate you! They don’t even love you!”
Corrected thought: “This is where I feel like God wants me to be, God can change the heart of any person. I’m staying faithful, praying for them diligently, and trusting that God is using this unfair situation for a good, future purpose.”
Incorrect thought: “You’ll never break that addiction! You are weak without it! Don’t even try!”
Corrected thought: “No, I CAN’T break this addiction on my own, but Christ can do anything, and He says that He loves me as I am. So He will help me defeat this addiction. I’m going to try again today, and never give up on trying. I WILL beat this, through Him.
Incorrect thought: “If God is so good, why does He let bad things happen to you?!”
Corrected thought: “God loves me more than I can possibly understand. He doesn’t have the ability to allow any harm to come my way without a greater purpose. It’s my job to react how Christ reacted to unfair situations. After all, He was crucified for a good purpose, and that terrible situation to GET to that good purpose was God’s idea.”
FRIENDS, WE MUST BEGIN TO SPEAK BACK! Speak back to ourselves when we are allowing our minds to go in the wrong direction, and also, SPEAK BACK TO THE DEVIL! Jesus did this all the time, so should we!
Don’t just ignore your incorrect thoughts, CORRECT THEM. Correct them! I say again, correct them! Incorrect thoughts still hit me all the time, but now I recognize them, and I do my best to not act incorrectly to them. If I do, I simply try not to act incorrectly the next time… and the next time.. and the next time… are you getting this? This is the process of forming your mind into Christ’s! And this process will not end until you die (see Phil. 1:6), so be easy on yourself.
Never stop trying to react to incorrect thoughts, correctly. KEEP. TRYING!
When I have a day of “giving up on trying,” which is very rare, I’ll allow the enemy to sneak thoughts into my mind that lead me directly down a path of frustration, sinful anger, and then self-pity (which is 100% worthless, btw; wish I knew this years ago). Then, self-pity turns into unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, and eventually gossip – gossip over the WRONG THOUGHTS.
Then, I’ll find someone to blab my mouth to, and give LIFE to, these incorrect thoughts – if I’m not careful. This is exactly what Satan wants. When we do this, we are giving him his way.
All you’re doing when you gossip is inviting other people into your wrong thinking and them compounding it. I used to do this all the time, to anyone who would listen – and also, all over social media. Oh my goodness, what a mess. How I gave Satan his way on a platter, “Here you go, devil. Enjoy.” Please, DON’T DO THIS! STOP IT. Bring it to God, and let Him correct those thoughts through the Holy Spirit.
ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN WHO NEVER TALKS BACK TO THE DEVIL?… He loves that. He loves that you ignore him. If this weirds you out, then you need to double-check Christ’s handling of Satan. Sticking your head in the sand won’t change anything – YOUR WORDS WILL!
So today, my friends, know this: When you correct your thinking how God wants you to correct it, you are allowing yourself to be molded into the image of Christ! That’s what we want the most! You may even have an incorrect, self-rightesous, religious mindset – you look down on others who don’t do the “Christian” things you do – that is incorrect as well. HUMBLE YOURSELF through corrected thinking. It’s like my Grandma used to say, “Matthew, you can’t stop the crows from flying over your head, but you don’t have to let them make a nest in your hair.” She’s right! No, we can’t stop the thoughts that hit us, but we can choose to not agree with them, and then correct them with the Word of God! -Matt
A prayer for you: Heavenly Father thank you for another day. Not everyone made it to today, but we did, and we know that you have a purpose for us being here right now. Show us what that is. Make it clear each day what it is that you want us to do with our lives, and then give us the grace to be able to walk it out with the same mindset as Jesus. MOLD OUR THOUGHTS, please. Keep the devil far from us and reshape our minds into peaceful, confident, forgiving, loving minds. You can do this, I know you can. You can do all things. We are yours, make us more like you. In Christ’s name, amen.
