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(Presented by Lisa Bishop)
If I were to plug into your mind, what would I hear? What thoughts do you find yourself playing on repeat?
If your thoughts were a Spotify playlist, what would the title be? Think about it. You know, it’s been said that your thoughts determine your life. In other words, where your thoughts go, your life will follow. Where are your thoughts leading you? What thoughts do you find yourself dwelling on? What words do you find yourself regularly rehearsing? Are they life-giving, producing gratitude, hope, and peace? Or do your thoughts lead to worry, anxiety, perhaps even anger, self-pity, or self-defeat?
There’s a quote that says, “Each day stand guard at the door of your mind.” As challenging as it is, you have the responsibility to be the curator of the information you consume and the things you dwell on. Now it’s not possible to choose every thought that enters your mind: some will slip through the cracks. But you totally have the power to pick the thoughts you will allow to penetrate your heart and mind.
So, stand guard at the door! Picture yourself like a bouncer at a concert venue. Be ready to kick out any thought that is not allowed a ticket of admission! When a thought enters your mind that does not align with God’s thoughts, ask God to help you give it the boot. Thoughts like:
- 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 always be stuck in this addiction.
- My life will never change
These thoughts do not deserve renting space in your head and just because you think something, it does not make it true.
Choose what you will focus on. Notice I used the word choose. Oftentimes I think 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 instructs us to, “…Demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
Subject all of your thinking to Jesus. Examine your thoughts to see if they align with God’s thoughts and choose to do something with the ones that are not well-pleasing to God before they enter your heart and become a part of you.
In the next 24 hours, take inventory of your thoughts. Are they life-giving or life sucking? Are they worthy of praise or do they cause a panic? Being mindful of what you meditate on is a really important discipline as followers of Jesus.