Think On These Things
Philippians 4:6b-9
6b Tell Him every detail of your life, 7 then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ. 8 So keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising Him always. 9 Follow the example of all that we have imparted to you and the God of peace will be with you in all things.
Some days it is a battle not to slip into thinking and dwelling on negative things and happenings in one’s life. These thoughts don’t announce themselves, like a sentinel shouting a clarion call—"I will now suggest negative thought patterns to you!” No, it’s a slow, smooth, creeping strategy that seeps into one’s mind, one small sneaky suggestion and then a few minutes later, another. And of course, we, as the slow human beings and spiritually slow discerners, buy into the enemy’s evil suggestions. Not Jesus though. When He went up on the mountain with Satan, and Satan tried so very hard to get Him to fall for his evil suggestions, Jesus always and every time answered Him with Scripture—“It is written.” “It is written.” “It is written.” Paul, the writer of the book of Philippians is giving us good instruction concerning our thoughts. He is explaining that our God wants us to draw close to Him and tell Him every detail of our lives. The Lord of all earth wants to have intimate interaction and conversation with us! Amazing! Paul tells us that that’s when God’s wonderful, full peace will rise above our human understanding (which is very limited), and He will give us the answers to us through our intimate relationship with Him. Our brain has grooves like little roads all over it. These are actually maps of our repetitive thoughts grooved into the brain. It’s called mental mapping. When we think negative thoughts so many times, our brains automatically go into the same grooves, thus thinking the same negative thoughts. We need to make new roads or grooves by practicing what Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit tells us to think on. We have to intentionally practice thinking on “these things.” Think on things that are authentic and real, not fake and phony. Honorable and admirable, not gossipy and cruel. Beautiful and respectful, not ugly and dishonoring. Pure and holy, not nasty and devilish. Merciful and kind, not cruel and mean. Practicing these new ways of thinking, these new patterns, will make new mental mapping within our thought patterns, thus making room for more clarity and sense of the Lord’s Presence in our lives. Fasten your thoughts on the things the Lord is doing and give Him your praise throughout your day. If we will put these verses into practice, we are assured that the God of peace will be with us in all things. This is how I want to live.
What about you? How’s your thought life? Take a moment and really evaluate it. Could it be better? Ask the Lord to search you and know you and then invite Him to come and dwell in a stronger and richer way in your life today. Have a great day in Him.
