Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Self-control”
Our Bible verse for today: “Finally brothers, what ever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable – if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise – dwell on these things.” Philippians 4:8 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “How you think matters.”
Perhaps the most important area of life we need to gain self-control over is how we think. Patterns of thought have a huge impact on how we act and on our overall quality of life. Therefore the things we allow ourselves to dwell on are vitally important.
Many people are prone to patterns of negative thinking. They tend to expect the worst in every situation and then in their mind they create elaborate scenarios of how they think it will play out in real life. In their mind they have lived the event before anything actually occurred in the real world, and it was all bad. But that kind of thinking darkens a person’s personality and sucks the joy out of life.
Other people tend to focus their thoughts on the things they don’t have, rather than being grateful for what they do have. But this leaves them in a perpetual state of discontentment, always longing for something more. This too sucks the joy out of life and it is also an offense to God. He has filled your life with many wonderful people and things for which you should be thanking and praising Him.
In Philippians 4:8 the Apostle Paul shows us a better way of thinking. There he provides a laundry list of examples of the kinds of things we should intentionally focus our mind on. First and foremost he urges us to think about what is true – as opposed to what is not true. In one sense that can be about resisting the lies and deceptions of the world, but in another sense it also means resisting the temptation to engage in imaginary fantasy scenarios in your mind.
He tells us to intentionally think about things that are honorable, pure, just, lovely and commendable. This could take many forms. It could include memorizing and reciting passages of scripture. It could include singing along with your favorite praise songs. It could mean intentionally counting your many blessings over and over again.
In the book, “The Traveler’s Gift”, God has our time traveler David Ponder on a trip through history to meet seven historical figures, each of whom will teach him an important life principle which is essential if a life is to be lived fully and well. His fifth stop in history involves an encounter with the young woman Anne Frank, the author of the famous book “The Diary of Anne Frank”. The life principle Anne teaches David is, “I choose to be happy.” She told him, “David, happiness is a choice. I can choose to think thoughts and engage in activities that bring me joy. I choose to be happy.”
Amen sister.
The truth is that how you think matters – it matters a lot. Living the full and fruitful life God wants for you involves developing the self-control to manage your thought patterns so they are constructive rather than destructive, helpful rather than hurtful.
You can do this. Be intentional about how you think. You might want to start by memorizing Paul’s list of suggestions in Philippians 4:8.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 