The Truth part 4
Your thought life is powerful. Nobody talks to you as much as you do. And what you do flows from what you believe. What you think is true. So its very important to exercise self control. You don't have entertain every thought that comes into your head. You don't have to believe everything you think. And you shouldn't. Because not everything you think is true. That's why there are verses like Philippians 4:8, "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." And here's the bottom line--or the top line--whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report... are things of love. Virture and praise... is love. Its all about love. What we should be thinking on... is love. And I, personally, have to admit that I find myself doing this more often than not. I'm kind of obsessed with love. You may have noticed its just about all I'll Rant about. Jesus Rant. Love Rant. You get it. But the idea is that what you magnify in your life is what manifests in you life. What you focus on--or dwell on, or dwell IN--is what you experience. What you feed is what will grow. You can believe the lie if you so choose. Especially if you've never heard the truth. You can settle for less than what's available to you... especially if you don't know what's available to you. You can think something is accuracte, even though its not true at all. Truth is higher than fact, but we very often get stuck in the fact of the matter. I can't tell you how many arguments I've had--and for the most part I won't argue with you, but it does happen--that were nothing more than misunderstandings. Someone didn't know the whole story--the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Or someone jumped to conclusions Someone thought they had the facts, and that led them down the wrong path. They went the wrong way, if I can bring it back to the previous Rant series. And they needed that voice of Truth to direct them into a U-turn. But that's when you have to make a choice. You can keep barrelling ahead even though another choice has presented itself--dig yourself deeper and make things worse--or you can swallow your pride and admit you were wrong. You can let go of whatever it is you were holding onto, and you can think again. Think on love. I really like the quote I heard the other day about how the first thing you think in a given situation is what you've been conditioned to think, and the next thing you think about it is what you really think. Because I believe there is a lot of surface... stuff... that gets piled up on us. Wounds, and hurts, and bitterness. Society. Our culture. "The way things are." But deep down, in our heart of hearts, we all know the truth. We long for it. We will settle for what the world has to offer, but we always want that real, true, pure, just, honest thing. We always want love. And you can't give what you don't have. Which is why we try so hard to get what we think we don't have. But the truth is: We have it. Its the gift of God and He gave it to us 2000 years ago when He gave us His Son. His Spirit. His life. We always had His love, but because of the cross we can know and believe that we have it. We can experience it by giving it away. By focusing on it. By thinking about it. By witnessing it and being a witness to is. By loving people!