Our Thought Life

Where do we go in order to develop character in our lives? You may have noticed that our world is simply obsessed with the outward appearance. Everywhere you turn you see advertisements for products that will make you look younger, make your skin shine, cream that will take out all your wrinkles, etc. God is not so much concerned with our outward appearance than our inward character. It is God’s desire to develop that inward character in our lives. When you and I take time to develop godly charter in our lives, it can and is our highest personal achievement.

When we look at following the Lord, we expect to see change in our lives. This change should be for the positive. If there’s no change in our lives, why would we follow the Lord? It would not pay.

The next three weeks we are going to be talking about how God wants to produce His characteristics in our lives.

Today, we are dealing with our thought life. There is power in our thoughts. I think it is safe to say that we all have a strong desire to be successful. If we don’t, we should. We should desire to maximize our potential and reflect the image of our Creator.

The bible often speaks of the power of the mind and the power of our thoughts. This morning we are going to talk about how we need to change our thinking, that we need to think more spiritual and how our thinking leads to the way that we live out our lives.

I. Change your thinking

A. Perspective

a. By changing the way that you think, it will change your perspective on things.

b. The bible says in Romans 12:1-2(NKJV) 12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

c. The preacher Warren Wiersbe is quoted to say “ Nothing paralyzes our lives like the attitude that things can never change. We need to remind ourselves that God can change things. Outlook determines outcome. If we see only the problems, we will be defeated; but if we see the possibilities in the problems, we can have victory.”

d. Jesus was constantly challenging people to change their thinking. Regardless of how many times you have read or read the bible, if your mind does not change then you simply will impose your own biases to the words that you are reading.

i. So the take away is, read the bible as if it was truly the Word of God and allow those Words to change you from the inside out.

B. Power of fear

a. Fear can keeps us back from changing our thoughts. Fear has a tremendous amount of power. It can keep a grip on someone’s life. I know this personally as I once was gripped by the power of fear.

b. Testimony of being fearful of everything.

c. One day I came across a verse found in 2 Timothy 1:7(NKJV)7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

d. I began to speak the verse over my life and the fear dissipated. Notice, the fear did not dissipate on it’s own. I had to speak over my life.

e. Once we have conquered fear, we wonder “Why was I trapped for all this time?” “Why was I so fearful?”. I found a story about a young boy to illustrate this point.

i. One summer night during a severe thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small son into bed. She was about to turn the light off when he asked in a trembling voice, "Mommy, will you stay with me all night?" Smiling, the mother gave him a warm, reassuring hug and said tenderly, "I can't dear. I have to sleep in Daddy's room." A long silence followed. At last it was broken by a shaky voice saying, "The big sissy!"

C. Cast down negative thoughts

a. So what happens if I get a negative thought?

b. First of off, just know that everyone gets negative thoughts. (Including myself) You are not weird or ungodly because you got a negative thought.

c. The bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:5(NKJV) 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,

d. Take action when you get a negative thought.

e. Do not just sit back and expect that thought to disappear.