Mind Strength

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. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.  Philippians 4:8-9

I call this verse “mind exercise” and I love it!

There are times when I catch a thought, sometimes it’s good, bad, false, anxious, regretful and sometimes it’s all of them in a matter of minutes! Has that ever happened to you?

Well, in these verses Paul tells us to think about WHAT we’re thinking about. The more time we spend meditating on God’s Word the stronger our mind gets, and it allows us to make better decisions and to design our life the way we want to live it because we do have control over our mind.

Our thought life.

I know this Philippians verse presents a long list, so focus on the first one primarily: “whatever is true.”

I take the thought and hold it up to God’s Word—is it true?  Does it line up with or contradict God’s Word?

I’ve been practicing this for the last few weeks and decided to try my hand at blogging. I considered to post about mind health, both spiritually and emotionally. And just like that, all these negative thoughts rushed into my mind:

• Nobody cares what you have to say.

• You’re not smart enough.

• You’re not good enough.

• Who told you you’re a good enough writer to publish advice?

Even today I hesitated whether to post this or not. A good place to start practicing or exercising my mind, I think.

If the thought does not line up with His Word, then guess what—it’s a lie, it’s not good. I don’t play with it; I don’t entertain it. 

I start pumping God’s Word into my mind and meditate on that. For instance, let’s pick one thought: I’m not good enough.

God says in Zephaniah 3:17 that He rejoices over me with singing! Well, that definitely sounds to me like I’m pretty worthy for the God of the Universe to rejoice over ME with singing!

Let’s pick one more: Nobody cares what I have to say.

BUT GOD says in Jeremiah 29:11 that He has a plan for me with hope and a future. I have a purpose so I believe what I have to say may be of value to someone. 

It’s not easy but then whoever said exercising was easy. It takes work! It takes an everyday commitment. I wish I could just exercise once in a while and have abs of steel, but it doesn’t work that way, does it? 

Paul reveals that in the next verse. He didn’t just give us a list of what to think but also tells us to put it into practice. That means exercise it every day. Lift up God’s Word every day. Meditate on HIS Word everyday and your mind will get stronger with the peace of God.

Reflection Question: Read the bullet points above again. Have you had thoughts like that flood your mind? How can you search out God's answer to those questions?