Thoughts

“A penny for your thoughts.” My husband’s words brought me back from someplace far away. I had been lost in my own thoughts. I blinked awkwardly, suddenly aware that I had not been present for the past half hour. The mind is a curious thing. We have thoughts. Some of them are our own conjectures. Some are divine flashes of insight or inspiration given by God. And some are planted by the enemy who knows us only too well. He ensnares us as we walk the familiar paths of worry. If we can get our thought life straightened out, it’s amazing how much it improves our daily life. Life, in the end, is a series of choices. What to do. What to prioritize. How to act when no one is looking. But perhaps nothing changes our life outcomes more than our thought life. Paul gives us very specific instructions about how we should think—a prescription, if you will. He says, “Think about these things!” (Philippians 4:8, ESV) Read the full verse and make a list of the things we’re encouraged to think about. Whenever your mind wanders to regrets, or fear, or sin . . . look over that list and ask God to help you redirect your thought life.

WHEN YOUR THOUGHTS BECOME A BATTLEFIELD . . .

You will keep in perfect peace

all who trust in you,

all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

Dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

Make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.