Penny for your thoughts
Or how bout this one....”One track minded” or “narrow minded” could also be a way to talk about how we can think.
I don't know about you, but I have lots of thoughts through out the day and some are up and some are down.
Have you ever thought about what you have available to you regarding your thoughts as a Christ one?
There are many scriptures that point us to what our thinking can be like. Here is one we can look at today.
Philippians 4:8
.... whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
There's many things we can set our minds on throughout the day. One way I like to ponder God's Word is to look at the opposite of a word.
Taking the words from the scripture we just read into the dictionary - True, Honest, Just, Pure, Lovely, Good Report, Virtue, Praise could be expounded like this.
True is not - false, fake, phony, mock, counterfeit
Honest is not - dishonest, false, lying, mendacious
Just is not- unfair, unjust, irrelevant, incorrect, unjustified
Pure is not- mixed, contaminated, polluted, diluted, spoiled, tainted
Lovely is not- poor, vile, lousy, terrible, pathetic, rotten, awful
Good (Report) is not - bad, wicked, wrong, sinful, indecent, improper
Virtue is not - evil, sin, iniquity, immoral, badness, villainy
Praise is not - blame, criticize, censure
Wow! what a list of heaviness on the mind if we go to the opposite thoughts of where we find Life! When you do a quick study like this, it can really open up to you what a verse is wanting you to know about our heavenly Father. All of the words we just looked at, in the verse, speak of attributes of God, Himself.
As you look through all of those negative words that leave you with a bad taste or a heaviness in your mind, we are instructed in 1 Peter 5:7 to cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
How can we cast our cares (relationships, decisions, health concerns, etc.) on Him? Best place to start? Prayer! Just start opening up and telling God all about it. Then look or press in, by listening to him as He shows you in His Word His truth, His honesty and so on. He doesn't just say to do these, He IS these! I love the end of the First Peter scripture, because it tells you why?
He cares! FOR YOU! in every situation and every relationship. He's not a far away God who looks down on us, He's available 24/7 in us as his child. When the Holy Spirit moved into our spirit, we gained all of these in the treasure box. It tells us this in:
2 Corinthians 4:7 NLT
We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
Heaviness isn’t to be apart of our daily life experience, it truly does not belong to us. So if you’re feeling a weight, I would encourage you to think about, what your thinking about. When you identify it, look at what the exchange from Jesus is. Let me be clear, I’m not talking about positive thinking, or just get it over it. I’m hoping you’ll see through what I’ve just shared, that we can go through difficulty and still think on the things we just mentioned. Instead of dwelling on a list of the “is nots”.
If you’d like to spend some time with me talking through this subject more, please contact me to set up a phone call or schedule a face to face meeting.
I’m going to expand on this a bit more in my next blog.
I hope you found this encouraging.
Growing In Him,