Some thoughts are definitely not welcome, they are not worth our time, or even losing sleep over! Here are some great scriptures. Matthew 9:4 “Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?” Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.” 2 Corinthians 10:5 “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
I am sure you already know these scriptures — but today I want to briefly talk about taking them seriously and acting on them. We would not ask an unreformed, repeat-offender, serial killer to stay at our house and babysit our kids! That would be, like … insane!! Yet, in our minds, there are times when we entertain all kinds of bad and poor thinking habits… and we kid ourselves that those thoughts don’t matter. Entertaining dumb thoughts is like nailing one foot to the ground — we will go round and round and round – and get nowhere. Because those thoughts will eventually take us CAPTIVE.
Whatever we have meditated on in our heads will come out of our mouths. ‘As a man thinks so is he.’ If all you can think about is how mad you are at someone else, then that stuff will leak out… somewhere. It’s like a forest fire, give those thoughts enough kindling and we end up with a blaze nobody can control!! Let’s look at this a bit to clarify the subject.
Before anything happens it starts as a thought. My advice is to do spot checks on your thoughts and begin to decide, for yourself, which ones aren’t worth a welcome mat, because they are not helpful. Otherwise, what we often end up doing is this: we will beat ourselves up for having some rotten thought – and satan probably ran by and threw the thought at us in the first place. However! he is delighted to add fuel to that kind of fire. In the end we can get so busy concentrating on what we think we are not… WE FORGET WHO WE ARE NOW!
Blaming yourself produces nothing but shame. Shame produces hiding. Hiding produces avoidance of the truth instead of application. Stop the production line! Simply agree with the bible and apply it to your life. Act on it. Truth becomes stronger when you stand on it in faith – no matter how you feel. You know, Almighty God doesn’t say ‘always get it right‘ – He says use your faith! God loves YOU and I unconditionally. As we walk with Him, we need to grow used to living in His unconditional love for us. That’s how we will grow His fruit. Acting on our faith, not our feelings.
Try to look at the bible as helpful hints, and don’t allow a bad thought to stay long enough to become an obsession or an action. There’s a very old saying: ‘You can’t stop the birds of the air from flying overhead, but you can stop them from making a nest in your hair!’ When Paul tells us: ‘“let your mind dwell on these things.” He is talking about the things that help us: “whatever is good right and profitable.” Beating yourself up for doing something dumb IS NOT PROFITABLE. All you will learn is punishment, not LOVE. Repent, repair, and then – move on! Teach yourself to discern what is not profitable by digesting the book. Digestion follows doing.
The time to take the next step is often when we least feel like it, but we can learn through the Lord’s processes that our feelings run dead last in a kingdom mentality. God isn’t saying we need thought police, instead He is telling us what sort of things are helpful to think about and warning us what to stay away from! Do you have family or friends? Start thanking God for them. Even if some of those things are broken – just transfer your thoughts away from what’s wrong about them, to what He says is right. It’s a skill, just like brushing your teeth… we all can learn it.
We can feed our minds good things to think about by reading His book regularly. Read the bible until you get happy that you started reading it! Look for how much He loves you. Instead of seeing the bible as things I can’t possibly do, read it to find out what Jesus wants to say to me, TODAY. If He is pointing out something that needs changing, thank Him. “For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.” Hebrews 12:6. Don’t get stuck on the discipline part, firmly plant yourself on the fact that our God loves us enough to discipline us. That verse tells us that correcting us is His Way of showing us His love.
God is on our side and He does not stand afar off, instead, He’s closer to us than our heartbeat. The Body of Christ has forgotten who we are – we are His kingdom in action – we are the people who know that going the wrong way starts in our thoughts. Tell the things that push and shout at you, and demand to be entertained – they are not welcome. Put out the welcome mat for the things that remind you how much He loves you. 👋
