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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Finally, brothers and sisters, 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.
Philippians 4:8
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In a world that offers more than a few reasons to think negatively, we find that God’s word exhorts us to remain steadfastly optimistic with specific directions on how to channel our thoughts. As we saw in the first message in this series, those directions are found in verse 8 of Philippians, chapter 4. Look again at the words written by the Apostle Paul while he was incarcerated in a Roman prison:
Finally, brothers and sisters, 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.
Through these words, the Lord is calling us to the power of positive thinking and to shun the temptation of pessimism.
Yesterday, we looked at the importance of thinking about what is true and noble.
Jesus called Satan the father of lies (John 8:44) before identifying Himself as “the Way and the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). Since our spiritual enemy desires to deceive us, we can see why we are called to think about whatever is true because this would be counter to what the devil wants us to buy into and Jesus is the way to always find perfect truth in our lives.
We also saw where the Lord calls us to think about things that will lead us to adopt a strong moral character, noble things that will set our thinking apart from the way the world thinks. Again, carrying out the ways of Jesus, to include the way He thought and behaved, will bring us to the place where our thoughts will align with His and there could be no other important elevation of thinking than that.
Today, we turn to two more prescribed components that show us the power that is in positive thinking. Let’s examine them now.
1. ...whatever is right
Go back to the very first interactions with His people and you will find God impressing the critical importance of righteousness on them.
It makes sense if you think about it because following the great fall in Eden’s garden, mankind was infected with the ability to think wrong and then do wrong, something we refer to as sin. The Bible is full of accounts where people allowed transgressive thoughts to drive their behavior, leading to countless acts of atrocity against others.
This is why this call to think about whatever is right is so critical and when we follow the prior two urgings to center our thoughts on things that are true and noble, we can ensure our thoughts are right because the Lord will always direct our mindset towards righteousness.
All we need to do is allow Him to.
2. ...whatever is pure
When I think about purity and the scriptures, I am always drawn to the illustration of how precious metals like gold and silver are decontaminated.
Are you knowledgeable of the process?
First, the solid metal is melted down, super-heated into a molten state. When this happens, the metal’s impurities rise to the surface.
Next, a tool is used to skim off the impurities.
Finally, the metal is repoured into a mold and cooled, now better and purer and of greater value than before.
Friends, the Lord wants us to refine our thoughts, allowing Him to super-heat our minds and hearts with the fire of the Holy Spirit so any impurities can be removed. Only when we allow this process to happen will our thoughts be pure and positive as the scriptures demand.
As you examine the way you think, are your thoughts grounded in truth and nobility, righteousness and purity as the Lord commands them to be?
If we’re honest, all of us have lots of room for improvement so I pray today that we will buy into what God is calling us to do and allow Him to show us the power, which is His power, found in positive thinking.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
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