The Mind part 1
Here's where I think we get into trouble sometimes: We get our thought life all messed up. I can't stress enough how important what you think, and what you believe, is. What you do flows from what you believe. I'm telling you, behavior modification doesn't work. Because it doesn't get to the root of the issue. Its a bandaid on cancer, if I can say it that way. Real, true, lasting change doesn't come from an exterior list of does and don'ts. Real, true, lasting change comes from within. When what is inside... comes out. That's why when we link together 1 Corinthians 2:16, "For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ," and Philippians 2:5, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," I always say: Let this mind of Christ (that's already in you) BE in you. USE the mind of Christ that you already have. Let me say it another way: "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2). And I like it even better in the NLT, "Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth." I'm telling you right now, you don't have to believe everything you think. Bringing your thoughts into captivity is not about chasing down all the "bad" thoughts and beating them into submission. Bringing your thoughts into captivity is about focusing on what is true, and right, and good. Thinking about things that are enlightening, and edifying. Again--USING the mind of Christ that's already in you. Letting it BE in you. Because what you feed is what will grow. What you magnify is what will manifest in your life. Remember when we were talking about making mountains out of molehills? Things are important when (and if) we make them important. I can't tell you how many times I've driven myself crazy (over) thinking about things that really don't even matter. And I usually fall back to what my step-mom taught me at Bible college: When you start to get mad about something, ask yourself if it will even matter a year from now. Because its easy to ride that emotional rollercoaster. Get way up when something goes right, but then plummet when things go wrong. And when we judge things by appearance, instead of seeing the bigger picture and judging righteous judgment, we can very easily go off the rails on that crazy train. We can let minor setbacks and inconveniences wreck us. When, really, most of the time we simply need to check ourselves before we wreck ourselves. We need to THINK life so that we can SPEAK life. I think in this Rant series I'm going to get a little bit into how important confession is. People say, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me," but the truth is... your words are incredibly powerful. The first part of Ecclesiastes 8:4 says, "Where the word of a king is, there is power." And we are kings and priests on this earth. So what we confess, or decree, is what goes. And it flows from within. It flows from our thought life. It flows from the mind. What we believe is what we do. What we think is what we say. Its so important...