Finally, brothers, whatever is true,
whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely,
whatever is
admirable--if anything is excellent or admirable think about
such things.--Phil. 4:8
Think on things above--the High road. When we
think, most often it causes action and actions cause results. Now
the results are directed by our thoughts. So if what we are
thinking is noble, pure, and righteous our actions and ultimately our
results will be noble, pure, and righteous. (Phil 4:8) Another
way to put it is “where our thought life goes there we will be
also.”
To do this, it takes training. We are so used
to letting our thoughts roam, very seldom realizing that we need to
control them. Paul says in 2 Cor. 10:5 to take captive every
thought. Paul didn’t say, ”don’t think,” nor did he say,“to take
captive some of your thoughts,” he said to take them captive--all of them. In other words,
if a thought pops up in our head we must be conditioned enough to
realize we had the thought and analyze the thought in a
nanosecond. Is this thought beneficial to God’s purpose or my
own? Is it destructive or selfish, does it encourage and build
up, or does it degrade and tear down? We must decide what thought
we have, take it captive if it’s not of good intentions, or free the
good thought of encouragement to build up God’s Kingdom. Remember
acting upon that thought causes results that we will have to deal with
later--whether good or bad. We need to examine whether it is
beneficial or non-beneficial to the kingdom.
Paul did not say, “do not think,” he said to take our thoughts captive.
If we were to put a bird in a cage it would be in captivity and would
be there until we free it. If we were to leave the bird in the
cage without ever feeding it, the bird would soon die. It is the
same with our thoughts. If we feed a thought it will keep
growing, sometimes out of control. If the thought gets out of
control that little thought can become destructive, not only to you but
also to your family, friends, acquaintances, job and so on. The
thoughts may continue long enough that they become uncontrolled,
creating bitterness, resentment, selfishness, anger, etc. These
out of control thoughts can result in unforgiveness and, ultimately, in
sin.
A perfect example of this is to see someone of the
opposite gender, in my case a woman. She is very beautiful
and attractive. My thought life has just been engaged and there
is nothing wrong with that so far. She is beautiful and
attractive, a creation of God, move on. If I choose not to move
on, that “thought” becomes a problem. If I harbor that thought
and feed that thought toward the woman my thoughts can only turn from
noble to self-gratifying thoughts, moving into sin.
Depending on where you are in your walk with the Lord, depends on the
standard for how far you will take your thoughts. If your thought
goes beyond, “she is a beautiful creation of God,” the thought is
probably starting to wander off the noble path. I’m not only
talking sexual thoughts, but thoughts like, “I wonder how many face
lifts she has had?” or “I bet she hasn’t worked a day in her life to be
able to look that good.” I have actually heard other women say
that about other women, I believe this is called jealousy. Those
types of thoughts could actually go on forever if we keep feeding them.
If you are single, (or not) you may think “is she
married, or spoken for?” “Would she possibly care to get to know
me?” “What kind of man is she attracted to?” Your thought
life could actually take that woman or man and put them into your life
to the point that you are married with four perfect children, two girls
and two boys, a perfect dog, and a perfect job. All of this
without you ever saying hello. If you are married, that thought
should not even enter your mind! Women are not immune from this
type of thought life at all. How many women watch soaps, read
romance novels, or talk to a girlfriend about their husband? Your
mind has been engaged and off you go. STOP! There is
nothing of God in any of those thoughts.
I can easily speak on the example given because I
was a single man in the military. (I’m not saying all military
men are like I was but for the most part they are, it is the macho
thing to do.) I would let my thoughts drift, feeding them and
letting them go much further than they should. Who would they
hurt? They’re just fun thoughts. I thought they were fun
thoughts, but God did not see anything but destruction in my
life. This is not the purpose God had intended for me. I
never had the nerve to walk up to the beautiful lady and introduce
myself to her, but I certainly did in my mind, and then it was off to
the races.
It was easier making this woman to be who I wanted
her to be in my mind, rather than dealing with reality. I never
gave her the chance to say shoo fly, you bother me, or, on the
other hand, she may have said “yes, I would love to go to dinner with
you.” But being where I was with God, or you might say, my choice
to be absent from God, my thought life had nothing to do with being
self-controlled or noble. The fact is, I probably thought that I
was self-controlled by my choice of thought. My way of thinking
was, if the woman would say no for any reason, my mind would start to
work, justifying the rejection, ending up who knows where, possibly a
pity party and broken pride balloons all around. If she were to
say “yes,” my thoughts could travel to the end of the evening and past,
conjuring up thoughts of an evening that should not ever happen, but
now I have placed this innocent woman into my filthy thoughts. Is
there any good coming out of this kind of thought? Except maybe
to say I can use it as an embarrassing ministry illustration?
Nothing throughout these thoughts can be used to glorify God.
They are all self seeking and shameful.
I used myself and the total lack of control to suit
my selfish desires, with total disregard for anyone else. By my
choice to travel down a sinful path I gave birth to other sin in my
life. Simply because of my failure to capture my thoughts
and starve them to death.
If we feed our thoughts about another man or woman
eventually we will end up at the door step of adultery, making this
woman or man something he/she probably is not, and putting our self in
a sinful thought pattern, having to repent and ask for
forgiveness. Just think, it should not even have gotten
that far, if only we had self control. Proverbs 25:28--Like a
city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks
self-control.
If we allow the lack of control to persist in our
lives, the more desensitized we become making it easier to justify our
thoughts giving birth to more thoughts of the same nature, going
further and further each time. Possibly one day taking
action on that thought, causing results that will create more sin in
our lives. Possibly now having to deal with hurt, pain and
destruction in your own life, as well as others, leading into a cycle
of bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness all over again. But
now it has spread to others, causing pain and destruction in their
lives--and the destruction spreads from there. Just think all of
this destruction because of one out of control thought. It has
now gone full circle, but now we have pulled someone else into that
sinful life we have chosen to live. Simply because of the choice
we have made--not to take captive our thoughts, choosing to feed the
thoughts we have, letting them grow, and possibly releasing them to do
their destruction in someone else's life. Our thoughts may never
get this far at first, but keep feeding them, they will.
Everyone who is reading, hearing or studying this
teaching, has their own experiences of how they struggle with their
thoughts, maybe not to the degree that I illustrated but sin is sin and
an uncontrolled thought life will lead to sin, even into greater
amounts of sin.
I have used these examples simply because they are
easy to relate to, but how about thoughts on lust, covetness, jealousy,
envy, anger, deceit, gossip, pride, and so on. Are any of these
profitable for our walk? Do any of these build up, or just tear
down?
Maybe yours isn’t adultery, but how about
covetness. Has there ever been a time when you’ve coveted
someone else's car, job, home, lifestyle--having the thought “If only I
had that job how my life would be different. I could do this or
that, I would even do this differently and the end result would be much
better than he or she has done.” How do you know? You
don’t, you’re just feeding that out of control thought. If you
can do it better, apply for the job, get the job and do the changes to
make it better. If you don’t get the job, your miserable thoughts
are all you have. Let them die.
Maybe you think “if only I had their money and
lifestyle, I would do this or that” and then your mind races off once
again, out of control into an area where God has not intended you to
be. If you had what you were coveting you would more than likely
be coveting something else bigger and better. We need to
understand that we are to live in reality, doing what God has created
us to do, with what God has given us. Stop trying to live someone
else’s life.
Maybe God wants us to have all these things, but
first we must check our motives (our heart). If your motives are
not true,
noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy the
chances are they aren’t from God. You can only know the will of
God if we seek Him every day, not just when we want something to
please
our selfish appetite. Paul, in Ro 8:7 says, ”the sinful mind is
hostile to God.” We need to be aware of where our thoughts are
and take control of our thoughts.
Our desire should be to draw closer and closer to
the Lord, not dwelling on thoughts that we have created in our
minds. If God wants us to have that other person’s car, job,
home, or lifestyle, He will make the way for us to have it, until then
your focus should be on the Lord and where He wants us. Not where
we want to be. Our whole purpose of being a Christian is to serve
the Lord, and to do it right where we are, not where we want to
be.
I’ve actually heard someone say “if only I had that
job or that car, or that motorcycle, I could really minister to that
group of people.” But do you minister to the people where you are
at now? If not, you probably wouldn’t there either. We
should be content where we are and see the blessings in
it. Paul says in Php 4:11,”to be content whatever the
circumstances,” by doing so God can and will use you right where you
are, and He will move you as you grow in your walk with him.
Think of it as a a spiral traveling upward, the more we learn, the
closer we get to the Lord, creating more growth, getting closer to the
Lord, and on and on, spiraling upward in the knowledge of the Lord.
This is what it means when Paul talks about the
whole measure, Eph 4:12-13--to prepare God's people for works of
service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach
unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become
mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
God’s timing and your measure of faith set the
guidelines to what God can, and will do with you at that time.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. “Come near to God and he
will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your
hearts, you double-minded.” (Jas 4:8) Gaining the personal
relationship that God so desires will take you to places your mind and
thoughts could never take you on your own, but now it is actions not
just thoughts.
We need to serve Christ rather than our selfish
desires. We have the mind of Christ, it is up to us to receive
the mind and use it for the benefit of His kingdom. "For who has known
the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of
Christ. (1 Co 2:16)
The only
way we will know His thoughts is through His word, and a personal relationship
with Him, and realizing that it is not our understanding but His we are
to lean on. Otherwise not depending on anyone or anything except
the Holy Spirit.
I have heard too many times the phrase “the devil
made me do it.“ Stop giving the devil so much credit. The devil
may have tempted you but you chose to act. A good rule of thumb
is, “The devil can only take what you give him.” So we need to
set our thoughts on things above. “Set your minds on things
above, not on earthly things.” (Col 3:2) And fix your thoughts on
Jesus. Heb 3:1--Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the
heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high
priest whom we confess.
Paul in Php 4:8 gives a guideline of what we
are to do with our thoughts, and how we are to apply them to our lives,
causing results--positive results--that the Lord can and will
use. “Finally, brothers, 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.” Take captive every thought and you will be free to serve
God with all your heart and all your mind.
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