How many times have you heard someone ask, “What are you thinking about?” I used to hear the phrase, “A penny for your thoughts.” If someone said that today, you might reply, “It will take more than a penny to give you my thoughts!”
It is estimated that you think between 60,000–80,000 thoughts a day. Using the lower number—2,500 thoughts an hour or 42 thoughts a minute go through your mind. You might think, “It’s no wonder I am so tired having to process that many thoughts a minute.”
I encourage you to quiet your mind for 60 seconds. Close your eyes and try not to think about anything. How did it go? How many thoughts did you have during that short time? If you are like most people, you may have had a few seconds of complete quietness, but your mind probably wasn’t quiet the entire 60 seconds.
The mind often jumps from thought to thought as a monkey jumps from tree to tree. Your brain comes up with all sorts of things to think about. How many thoughts do you plant in your mind and then let it run wild?
One thought leads to another. For example, the first thought begins with, “I need to have a serious conversation with my co-worker today.”
That thought leads to the following: “This person won’t like what I have to say. They are difficult and don’t support me. Nobody supports me here. This situation is hopeless. I could lose my job over this.”
The thoughts go on and on until you are in a frenzy over the first thought of having a conversation with a co-worker.
God’s thoughts always bring peace. Practice thinking His thoughts!
Proverbs 4:23 in the New Century Version gives us some powerful advice. “Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.” Your biggest battles occur between your ears—in your mind. You become what you think! If you think negative thoughts, your life becomes negative. If you think positive thoughts, positive things will happen to you.
Your mind is under siege every second of the day. Over time, you become on the outside what you believe on the inside. The Apostle Paul warned and admonished the church about the mind. He said in Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you which, was also in Christ Jesus.”
The devil loves to take advantage of a mind ignorant of God’s promises or one that is pushed around by emotions. The thief’s number one area to work on is our minds, as stated in John 10:10 (NLT): “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”
Satan will steal and destroy the abundant life God promised you if you allow him to control your thoughts. The enemy makes the mind his chief point of attack upon your life. J. Oswald Sanders is credited to have said, “The mind of man is the battleground on which every moral and spiritual battle is fought.”
Second Corinthians 10:5 says, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
It is vital to cast down every negative thought the enemy tries to bring into your mind. Thoughts create your emotional state and affect your health. They influence what you do and say to people.
To change a thought pattern, you must center your thoughts around God continually. Hardly a moment goes by that I am not thinking about God. I am usually talking to Him. First, I thank Him for always being there for me. Then I bring my requests to Him and thank God for hearing and meeting my every need. I have found that surrounding myself with good worship music keeps my thoughts on the right channel.
Paul so wisely advises us in Philippians 4:8–9 (NLT), “And now, 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. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.”
Author
Lynette Hagin
Share this Post