From Ponder to Action

We always spend a lot of time talking about how we think because Proverbs 4:23 is the truth. Out of your heart spring the issues of life. The point of that is not to let what is in your mind show present itself your actions unless it is of Christ. Guarding your heart means taking those thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ before you act on them. This is a deliberate action taken every minute of the day. You commit to setting your mind on Jesus and renew your commitment every single day, every single hour, every single minute and every single second.

The commitment will only work if you are replacing your nopeful thoughts with hopeful ones. I hope that last week you tested out the waters. Did you attempt to at least recognize your nopeful thoughts (hopeless thoughts). The way to do that is to tag them as hopeless. Name them hopeless. Ask yourself if there is any hope within that thought, anywhere? If the answer is no, take it into captivity because it is hopeless and not worthy of any of your time.

There is hope for everyone including you. Your nopeful thoughts are robbing you of any hope that you thought you had.  And those thoughts will continue to rob you of any future hope you will have. There is no sense in going forward in our discussions unless we deal with this. Are you ready?

I have told you this before, but it bears repeating – hopeless thoughts will not go away until you make them hopeful. A couple of examples might help here then we will move to how to transform them. What do you think when you look in the mirror. Just yesterday I said to my husband, “My old thought of my ugliness snuck its way into my brain.” I was getting ready to go out for dinner with my kids and my hubby when I looked in the mirror and saw ugly. I quickly changed that to my favourite saying, “You look like Jesus.” And walked away. I hadn’t seen that ugly thought in months. It took me years to get rid of it and I am not going there again. What do you say to yourself when you look in the mirror? You know you are created in the image of God, right? Then say, “Hello, Jesus.” when you look in the mirror.

What do you say to yourself when you get dressed? I have spent probably $50,000-$100,00, over my lifetime on clothes to make up for my face. I now buy what I like to wear. The problem with all of us is that we are so hung up on what other people say and think that we forget what we like. Who has God created us to be? Did He create us to be carbon copies of someone else? Certainly not!

So, let us get into how we are going to change our thinking. We know we all think bad thoughts at one time or another but what we really need is to NEVER camp on them. You will need to come up with a phrase, sentence or word that will instantly work to snap you out of that hopeless thought. When I started doing this for myself, I said, “Now, stop that!” this sentence was long enough for me because I was VERY dedicated to changing the way I think. You might need a longer sentence because it takes a few minutes to change your thinking. Your brain wants to go back to that bad thought but don’t let it. A lengthy sentence will help you leave that bad thought and switch it to a good one. You could memorize a verse, such as, Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Philippians 4:8 or make up your own sentence like I did. No matter what you choose to do you must do the same thing each time.

I cannot say this enough. Your brain will begin to recognize your BUZZ WORDS. It will be like pressing on a buzzer for your brain each time. It will learn what to do and you will be successful at modifying, transforming and thinking on good things rather than bad things. Now, go take a few minutes to pray about what you are going to do. Write out what you are going to say and make sure it is buried in your brain.

You will not regret the work you have done to make this happen in your life. The Lord wants us to have a sound mind, so we can do the things He wants us to do. A sound mind comes from taking the hopeless thoughts captive and transforming them into hopeful thoughts that last. They will not get in the way of our decision making or our problem solving. When you ponder your thoughts and act on the ones Jesus wants you to act on your fruit will last for all of eternity.