This is my second letter to you, dear friends, and in both of them I have tried to stimulate your wholesome thinking and refresh your memory (2 Pet 3:1, NLT).
What you think, is crucial to what you become in life. As a man thinks, so is he, the Bible says (Prov. 23:7). The challenge of our age is that the world is so full of junks, thrash and filth that tend to influence our thinking. It is pervasive in the media. Violence, immoralities, corruption and injustice. We are all surrounded by these and they are everywhere.
But in the midst of these, God wants you to guard all the gates into your mind and allow only wholesome thinking. If your thinking is wholesome then your life will be wholesome. If you continue to allow
unwholesome, filthy, violent and perverse thinking into your mind, they will shape the nature and the direction of your life, whether or not you like it.
This is why you should control what programme you watch on the TV, the kind of DVD you watch, what kind of books you read, the kind of music you listen to, the kind of conversation you engage in. Jesus our Lord warned us to “take heed how you hear” (Luke 8:18). He also warned us to “take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness” so that your whole body may be full of light (Luke 11:35-36).
How then can you stimulate your wholesome thinking?
First, by making sure you have committed your heart, your thinking and your entire life to Christ. It is only a good tree that can bring forth good fruit. If your heart is corrupt and degenerate and not converted to Christ, you will only be attracted to corrupt, degenerated thinking. Subsequently, what will come out of you will be corrupt and unwholesome. Give your heart to Christ today and He will sanctify and make you holy.
Secondly, you should be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that draws us away from the filthiness of this world and helps us to think on what is wholesome and holy.
Thirdly, meditate consistently on the word of God. This is what Peter said in our text of today. If the word of God is your constant meditation, you will think the thoughts of God at all time and refuse
all ungodly thinking. Consequently, you will prosper in all your ways (Ps. 1:1-3).
Guard the gates into your mind. What you see, what you hear, what you say, what you touch, the association you keep and every medium by which the enemy can push unwholesome thoughts into your mind.
The Bible says “keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flows the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23, AMP).
Finally, deliberately engage your thinking on what is wholesome. You have a choice in this matter. You can choose the books you read, the columns of the newspaper you read, the T.V. program you watch, the video/DVD you watch, the music you enjoy, the fellowship you keep. You can make your choices, and subsequently your choices make you.
The Bible puts it in a clear term when it 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. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you (Phil. 4:8 & 9).
SCRIPTURE FOR TODAY
PHIL. 4:1-9
FOR FURTHER STUDIES
ROM. 12:1-21
PRAYER POINTS
- Repent sincerely of every unwholesome thought you have allowed to filter into your mind and heart.
- Ask the Lord to take over your heart, to help you to truly love Him and disallow anything into your mind that will dishonour Him or corrupt you.
Confession for Today: I have the mind of Christ; I think the thoughts of Christ. There is no room for anything unwholesome in my mind.
Nations’ Watch: Pray for Madagascar