HEAD STRONG - If You Don't Like Your Life, Change Your Mind
Our thoughts.
In a day we think over 70,000 thoughts. Sometimes these thoughts can be positive. Sometimes, though, our thoughts aren’t so wonderful. Maybe we worry, maybe we focus on envy, maybe we easily rejoice - REGARDLESS: Thoughts will either run our life, or we will run our thought-life.
A few observations about your thought life:
1st Observation: Everything we will become BEGINS in our mind.
Proverbs writes:
FOR AS A MAN THINKETH IN HIS HEART, SO IS HE. Every habit you have in life, every behavior is born first in thought. If Proverbs was a math equation it would read this way:
Thoughts + Time = Character
Thoughts that take route that become beliefs become the system from which we operate and how we navigate life. Thoughts become character. Jose Gomez writes this:
“The mind is the seat of the soul. It is the place where the flesh and the Spirit exchange ideas and come to conclusions about the world around you. It can either be a conductor for the Spirit of God, or your mind can be a breeding ground for the corruption of the flesh. It is the battlefield for the longest, most difficult war in a Christian’s life; and control of this battlefield is crucial for fulfilling the purposes of God in your life.” – Jose Gomez
We think over 70,000 thoughts a day, 2,000 of which we are conscious of. If this is true, then we need to guide and keep in check nearly every thought we are conscious of. Which leads me to my second observation:
2nd Observation: Each thought has potential.
Jesus talks about our thoughts being like seeds.
Each thought has potential – and the result of those seeds and if they take route is the type of crops you get. We know this. If you plant a flowering tree you get a flowering plant. If you plant an apple tree you get apples. If you plant a cotton wood you get crazy cotton flying in your face in the fall. Right?
But you can’t expect to plant a peach tree and get apples. Right. Dumbest farmer on the planet if you do that.
But sometimes we plant negative thoughts and we expect positive outcomes. Sometimes, we get in habits of ACCEPTING negative thoughts: like anger, bitterness, envy, pride, frustration. Don’t get me wrong, NEGATIVE THOUGHTS WILL COME. They just will. I live in Denver where traffic is the new black. Those negative thoughts will come. The KEY is to not ALLOWING them to take route in our minds.
Oppositely, every thought has potential in the POSITIVE sense. We find this almost completely by consuming God’s word. When we take in scripture, that “God is for us,” that God “never leaves nor forsakes us,” and we allow THAT to take route…
Well, lets just say something AMAZING grows.
3rd Observation If you don’t like your life, change your mind.
ROMANS 12:2 says DO NOT CONFORM TO THE PATTERN OF THIS WORLD,
The pattern of this world is – if you don’t like your life – change your circumstances.
Get a new car.
Go watch TV for 9 hours.
Move to a new town.
Get a new girlfriend.
Buy a purse and return it.
BUY A NEW PURSE.
Paul says – that’s how the world deals with their issues. That’s how the world deals with drama. That’s how the world deals with life.
Paul says though, if you don’t like you life, change your MIND.
Romans goes on: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The way to a new life, a new family, a new focus, a new drive, is by renewing our minds.
Prayer: God, thank you that you made my mind, and gave me a WILL to direct it. I ask that you will be with me as I try to focus on “things above” like Colossians talks about. Let me focus on your promises, help me to check thoughts when they come in. And may the renewing of my mind TODAY affect who I am TOMORROW. In Jesus name, AMEN.