Think on These Things

I do not fix problems, I fix my thinking, then problems fix themselves. Louise L. Hay

I heard a sermon last week that really challenged me and has brought some changes to my thinking patterns!

We filter our coffee, the oil in our car, our furnaces, appliances, water……it’s endless really. We want these things to be free of dust, impurities, chunks…whatever the case may be. Why is it that we don’t apply a filter to our thoughts? We think so many things that are literally full of doubt, worry, fear, retribution….but we don’t find anywhere in the scriptures where this type of thinking is acceptable to God. Yet day after day we persist in doing it.

Philippians 4:8, says Finally, brethren, 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.

Wow. If you start putting your thoughts through this filter, you will be thinking as God wants you to. If you start asking yourself these questions when you think, you will be amazed! Is it true? Is it honest? Is it just? What about pure? Is it lovely to think about or a good report? I think just about every news station and newspaper would have to shut down if they were accountable to these principles set by our Heavenly Father!

We as believers, however do need ( and must ) hold ourselves accountable. We confess not only with our words, but mostly with our lives what we really believe. I heard a minister recently say, “Preach always, use words when necessary “.

We should be a living breathing testimony that God is alive and living in us. If He is alive He will conduct Himself exactly as His precious Word says.

Let us challenge ourselves today to think on these things. Let us be determined to spend time filtering our thoughts and tossing out the unprofitable ones. We will be heading in a positive hopeful direction and one that is pleasing to our God.