Do Your Own Thinking
– From The Mind Connection by Joyce Meyer
II Corinthians 10:5
casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
Do you think about what you’re thinking about? This may sound funny, however learning to regularly take inventory of our thoughts is essential to having a good life. Instead of being “unthinking” people, we can train ourselves to think about what’s going on in our mind.
This verse instructs us to refute “every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God” and “lead every thought and purpose away captive unto the obedience of Christ.” In other words, we need to do our own thinking and deliberately choose to think positive, faith-filled thoughts that line up with God’s Word.
If your mood begins to sink or you have a bad attitude, take an inventory of your current thoughts and you will very likely find the culprit. I enjoy knowing that I can do something about my problems…that I can do my own thinking.
There was a time in my life when I would continually dwell on the negative, thinking about everything I didn’t have, the way I was mistreated by a friend, or something my husband did to offend me. This kind of thinking not only made me upset and bitter, but it also prevented God from bringing healing to those areas.
But now it’s exciting to me to realize I don’t have to sit passively by and let the enemy fill my mind with poisonous and destructive thoughts. Instead, I can learn to recognize them, and with God’s help, I can think about something else that will be beneficial.
I often say that learning to tame your mind can be like trying to tame a wild animal. When you first begin making an effort to do your own thinking, attempting to replace the bad thoughts with the good, it can be difficult and you may feel like you’ll never accomplish it. But don’t give up! As you continue to lean on God and keep asking for His help in this area, you will begin to see change…and it’s a change that will affect every other area of your life.
Make the Mind Connection: You can do your own thinking. You can learn to think about what you’re thinking about.
Adapted from The Mind Connection by Joyce Meyer. Copyright © 2015 by Joyce Meyer. Reprinted with permission of FaithWords, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. All rights reserved.