Lois, my mother in law, enjoys watching the varied birds that visit her yard. She has spent many moments enjoying their antics from her kitchen window as they frolic and splash in the backyard birdbath. Recently, however, she’s discovered there’s a down side to her feathered friends. Two birds enjoyed her yard so much they built a nest near her front door. At first she welcomed the addition, that is, until they began to leave her little messy presents all over the sidewalk and door mat. As visitors they were fun but as permanent residents they’d become a nuisance. Thoughts are a lot like birds. They flit in and out of our mind all day going wherever they will. Many emerge from our lighter side but others, the harmful ones hatch from eggs of darkness. They too come in many varities and enter without our permission. One shouts a message of envy over a friend’s good fortune while another brings moans of sexual desire toward someone not our spouse. A different one whispers fears about the future while still another carries self-doubt and hopelessness in its beak. Those that draw from the darkness within have great potential to do us harm. The longer they fly around our mind, the more damage they cause.
When we dwell on unhealthy thoughts, we encourage them to remain. We can’t control if and when these dark creatures fly into our consciousness but we can stop them from building nests. We can chase them away as soon as they arrive. If a bird takes up residence in an undesired location, they are caught and relocated. So too must we take our unhealthy thoughts captive as soon as they flitter into our mind and replace them with Godly ones following the precepts of Philippians 4:8 which tells us "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
Some unhealthy thoughts may be such a regular part of our self-talk that multiple generations of these dark creatures have shared the same nest. The longer they live within us, the more damaging and the harder they are to eradicate. But if we are intentional, with the power of the Holy Spirit living inside us and the strength of God’s word, every one can be eradicated.
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. 2 Corinthians 10: 5
The Holy Spirit continues to guide us into all truth. In many areas over the past few weeks the thoughts and words we speak has been topic of discussion my many christians. It is as if God is answering prayers and cry's of his people regarding the situations they are facing and how to address them. I believe that he is reminding us of the authority we have to create our situations through our thoughts and words. Certainly we have to develop our fruit but how we think and speak about ourselves and our situation will make the difference, and a place to start seeing this fruit increase. We as believers must trust and use God's word as a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We have seen how Jesus as our example used the word to combat satans temptations. I know that God desires that his word be used as a sword against the fiery darts that are sent at us. The mind is where the darts are aimed. Using Gods word to offset these thoughts, I believe is the difference. Seeing ourselves as God does begins with our thoughts. If we allow negative unproductive, wordly thoughts to plague our minds and settle in it can be the beginning of our demise. Our speech will be affected, our attitude will be affected and our health and physical circumstances can be affected. That is what the word means to me when it says what a man thinks in his heart so is he, and when the scripture tells us that life and death are in the power of the tongue.
ReplyDeleteI am really understanding this to be so and believe that we must recognize that our minds are the aim of the enemy to steal, kill or destroy the life that God wants for us while here on this earth. Jesus (THE WORD MADE FLESH) came so that we can have life and have it more abundantly. As believers who have Jesus Christ and the gift of eternal life, we should choose the life of peace, prosperity ( not just money) and contentment through God's word. We have to mediate on God's word
which would mean mull it around in our minds instead of the other things that we cannot control anyway that only increases stress and eventually can cause health problems. We should be thinking on things that are of good report and pure. Our minds should be on things above not on the things of this world. Thank God that we can hope in God to help us to develop in this area and have victory in our thoughts and our speaking that they will agree with God's will and plan for us. My prayer continues to be "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable unto you oh Lord my strength and my redeemer.
KT