Listen to it here:
Thought Life Questions
When did you first start paying attention to your thoughts? Were you one of those kids who was always lost in their thoughts? Do you think about your thoughts? Do you set aside time to think? I'm not sure if you can tell but I love to think about my thoughts.
You'd think that with endless scholarship, articles, and books on thoughts, we'd be better stewards of our thought life. I'm here to encourage you to analyze your current thought life and decide what you should do next to improve it.
How our thoughts impact our lives
Thoughts are important but they are not the root cause of what impacts our lives. What greatly impacts our lives is our decision to walk with God. When you decide to accept Christ as your Lord and Savior, you gain salvation, life eternal, and abundant life. Your decision for Christ affects your thinking.
As a Christ follower, the Bible becomes the anchor of your thought life. We read in 1 Corinthians 2:16 that we have the mind of Christ. We do not operate in the way the world operates. We don't think the way they think. We have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. 1 Cor. 2:12 says:
"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God." 1 Cor. 2:12
A few verses down we find verse 16 which says we have the mind of Christ.
The thought life you are currently experiencing is like a fruit in a tree. Every fruit comes from a root. You and I need to trace the root and find out why we are experiencing our current thought lives.
It all starts with awareness. 15 years ago or so, I was living in NC. I was part of a community of Bible-believing Christians who believed in freedom in Christ. They read their Bibles. They took those words of life seriously. I heard story after story of people being set free from negative thought patterns.
I decided to pay attention to my own thought life. My Bible was and is my main textbook. I also read a few books on the subject of thoughts and thinking from a Biblical perspective. I remember asking for prayer and advice in the area of my thought life. I often heard testimonies of God helping people make progress in that area. People around me were very vocal about what happened to them. All of this encouraged me to pay attention to my thoughts.
Sometimes, we become aware of our thought life through sermons, conversations with friends, and even counseling sessions. No matter how we become aware, we need to do something with awareness. Ask yourself:
• From 1 to 10 with 10 being excellent and 1 being poor, how do I rate my thought life?
• Why did I rate myself this way? Find an event that led you to earn that rating.
This initial discovery is a good place to start deciding on what you need to do next. Prayer is always appropriate.
Pray about your thoughts
God cares about what you are thinking about. He wants you to pray about the current state of your thoughts. He will both lead you and guide you to freedom.
Since my North Carolina years, I've been praying about my thoughts. God always leads me to be anchored in His word (the Bible).
When we moved to Texas my kids were little. The demands of life (which were all good) were weighing on me. The cares of all (which are not always good) were heavy too.
I decided that in addition to the Bible reading I was doing daily and going to counseling, I needed to monitor what was going into my mind. After praying, I felt that while I was experiencing freedom in Christ, I could have a better mental space.
I started to analyze the content I was listening to. My professional training and Masters Degree are in Journalism. I love the news. I love listening to it, reading it and discovering new content. I was feeding my mind with a heavy amount of news. Because I studied journalism, I know that part of the formula is fear. I was feeding fear to my mind for a large amount of daily time. Friend, even 1 second of fear is not ideal for a child of God who wants to live in freedom. Once I realized the problem, I had to vote on the solution. I decided to limit the amount of news I consume on a daily basis. Yes, I'm still informed. No, I am no longer bound by the fear I allowed to enter my mind.
Freedom begets freedom. I started to pay attention to other content I allowed to enter my mind from other sources: I started unfollowing any podcast or any social media influencer that was not encouraging. Instead of mindlessly listening to what an influencer says, I keep my mind alert.
Just this morning, I was listening to a motivational speaker. He made a statement about the mind. I said, "this is ungodly." I turned the audiobook off.
I'm learning that I can be selective about what type of information I allow to enter my mind.
The enemy's fight is to gain mindless followers who do not guard their hearts. I'm not going to fall for that. Only through God's help and a greater awareness of God's Word than the words of the world, I will be able to do that.
Awareness is followed by prayer which is followed by a decision to obey God.
Here are other tools, in addition to daily Bible reading and study, that help me in this area:
• Think on paper - writing my thoughts on paper really helps me. It helps me get rid of stress. It allows me to put my thoughts and feelings in order. If I "think on paper" during my daily Bible reading, it allows me to retain what I learned. Any piece of paper will do. The goal is to start writing.
• Think about what you think about - Once I started analyzing my thoughts, I discovered that I can:
- Trace my thoughts - if my thoughts are serving me okay. If not, I can pray and decide how I am going to change them.
- Feed your thoughts - The best food for my thoughts is the Bible. I had to make room for it. I let go of hours of fear-based content to make room for the good news. I also pay attention to other areas of my life such as sleep and hydration. You'd be amazed at how you think better with plenty of sleep and water in your body.
- Speak out loud - if you hear catch a wrong thought pattern trying to take root in your mind, talk back to it. Speak the truth of God. I speak out loud all the time. I don't care who's around. What don't want is to be bound by ungodliness. Speaking out loud breaks that secrecy pattern the silence of our minds carries. It alerts the rest of my body that there is a better way in Christ.
Lifestyle
Changing your thoughts is a lifelong, lifestyle change. It is similar to the process I went through when I needed to lower my blood pressure so my health could improve.
I changed the following things over time:
• The types of foods I eat
• How much I move my body
• The types of restaurants I go to
• How much I sleep at night
• How much stress I entertain
• How I manage stress
• What I believe the about the foods God created
• How often I go to the doctor
• What I teach my children
• The people I hang out with
I basically turned into a new person because I decided I wanted a better life. When you change your lifestyle, the way you introduce yourself changes.
Instead of saying "Hi, I'm a walking heap of stress" I say " Hi, I'm a free woman in Christ."
I want you to think about how you will introduce yourself once you change your thought life as a Biblical way of living.
Here are some things you can immediately think about:
Philippians 4:8 (AMP) says, Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart].
Take action - Feed your thoughts with the Word of God so the source of your thoughts can be Godly.
Pray.
Decide what you will do next to improve your situation.
Post a Comment