YOUR THOUGHT LIFE

 What are you thinking about right this minute? Before you sat down to read this devotion what was on your mind? Were they good thoughts or impure thoughts? Our mind has to be trained to be Christlike. It has to be disciplined to "feed" it with good input and not garbage. Whatever we put in our minds is often the kind of person we are.

For instance, a constant "diet" of R rated movies full of cursing and crude humor may produce a mind and conscience seared like a hard heart. The more you take in the less it bothers you. Perhaps you get to a point where you feel it is normal.

A person who feeds their mind on pornography is also going to send their mind into a pit of destruction. When you know certain things are wrong you need to be disciplined to run the other way. Flee evil.

Many forces in the world today make sin and crude language seem common place. You watch television to a constant stream of "bleeps". What happened to pure speech and a clean heart?

Philippians 4:8(NIV) is a good verse to memorize. It says 'Finally brothers, 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.' Meditate on that scripture then ask God to help you discipline your mind for the kingdom of God.

PRAYER: Forgive me Lord when I allow wrong thoughts or impure thoughts into my mind. Help me Lord to keep my mind meditating on the word of God to counteract the attempts of the evil one to get me distracted and using my mind in the wrong way. In Jesus' name. Amen.

LIONS, TAINTED LETTUCE, TSUNAMI'S, OH MY!

Being afraid of disasters and what "could happen" is probably pretty common with some people. Like in the classic movie "The Wizard of Oz" the late actress Judy Garland who played the main character Dorothy who was on her way to Emerald City going through a scary forest. She chanted "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" as a way to possibly take care of her fears. I have to admit when I was a child it was those flying monkeys that scared me.

Turn on your nightly news and no doubt you are inundated with news of murders, wars, rapes, floods, fires, recalled food, failing schools, sex scandals, financial ruin, drought, riots, and on and on the list goes. If a person feeds their mind with nothing besides bad news all the time then what do you suppose they will do? Probably worry and speculate when something is going to happen to them. Certainly they will have a difficult time having peace.

Then there is Hollywood, bless their sweet little hearts. When I was growing up all the television shows were mostly happy and family friendly. Bonanza, My Three Sons, Lassie, Lawrence Welk, The Ed Sullivan Show, No Time For Sergeants, The Lucy Show, Andy Griffith, Gun Smoke, Batman, Donna Reed, Flipper, Mickey Mouse Club, Leave it to Beaver, and The Monkees to name but a few of the choices on only three channels. Many of you reading have no idea what on earth I am talking about. I am talking about decent, wholesome television that taught values and didn't create fear. The movies were basically the same. The slippery slope we have gone down since the 60's continues. Today we have crime dramas, implied sex on television, alternative families, murders, lawyer shows, reality shows and on it goes. Most likely the best viewing will be not the mainstream channels with a very few exceptions.

What do we as a Christian do? We do not act holier than thou, but we really need to ask ourselves if what we are about to watch is suitable if Jesus were your guest. No one needs to have a steady diet of profanity and violence in their heads. The infamous F word has become like slang and some are not even phased by its' use.Even government officials have been caught on open mikes using it.

Do we purposely and intentionally go to things that scare us or do we practice discernment? Some say "It is only a movie". So what do we do?

Let me give you a few verses to ponder. The first is Romans 12:2(NIV) which says 'Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is God's will-his good, pleasing, and perfect will.' Next is a verse found in Psalm 101:3(NIV) 'I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate, they will not cling to me.' Finally Isaiah 41:10(NIV) says 'So do not fear, for I am with you.Do not be dismayed for I am your God.I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.'

We are to be in this world but need to be different in our choices of things based on our walk with the Lord. The whole point is that it is the enemy who wants you fearful of things in your every day life. It is Jesus who brings peace. Turn off the bad news and fearful things around you and turn on to God instead.

PRAYER: Lord forgive me when I have intentionally gone to a movie knowing it was not going to be good for me to see. Convict me Lord when there are things around me that seem popular and I may want to fit in but these things I know deep down in my heart are not right. I want to be your witness and therefore keep me on the right path. In Jesus' name.Amen.

JUNIOR MOMENTS ARE GREAT!

Since I am part of a group called "Hopelifters" I need to be spreading hope. That means being positive and joyful and trying to look up and be grateful and not look down in despair and anguish. Some of my readers may not be old enough to ever have used the term "senior moment" and may in fact think 40 is extremely old. It's not. My job today is to spread hope so no longer will we say "senior moment" or put yourself down when you forget some thing okay?

No matter what age you are I am certain you have misplaced keys, forgotten your sunglasses, locked your keys in the car, did not write a compete address on a letter and so on. I am sure we can add to the list.

If you are blessed with say fifty or more years do not keep saying "I am having a senior moment" but try saying "I am having a junior moment" instead. I did it the other day at a post office when I had to mail back a folder that came back to me with one number wrong in the address. Stuff happens okay?

We have the "mind of Christ" and I am pretty sure Christ would not be walking around making himself into a joke or putting himself down. Try to focus on positive things once again. If you are say 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and beyond you have much to contribute. You are not washed up. Even though our modern world likes to only highlight youthful people in their advertisements unless it is for some product like laxatives we are to be thinking on "things above".

Let me leave you with a verse to memorize. '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(NIV)

Now go out no matter what your age and make a difference in the world around you.

PRAYER: Thank you Lord for each year of life and for the mind you have given me. Help me Lord to not be negative or put myself down but to rejoice and be glad in each and every day of life you have given me to shine for you. In Jesus' name.Amen.

Check out the following website:
Www.hopelifters.org

A PRAYER VERSUS A SCARE

 

What scares you? What is it you fear? What makes you feel there is no way out? We are not to live fearful lives but faith filled lives. How do you get this faith filled life? The main thing you can do is pray and next it is to trust God. When you are praying and praising God you have little room for fear and worry.

Anything that is causing you fear is not from God. Is there something you can not keep from dwelling on in your mind? When you have a worry, concern, or fear that does not seem to want to go away the best way to get rid of it is to stay in an attitude of prayer and thanksgiving. Satan can have you paralyzed if you keep concentrating on things that scare you or seem to take you away from God.

Phillipians 4:8 says "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." It is hard to have bad thoughts if you purposefully focus on good things. Are you able to make your mind dwell on good things?

When you are feeling wrong thoughts creeping into your mind start praising God. Say " I thank you Lord for the victory I have in you. I thank you Lord I do not need to listen to the lies of the enemy. I thank you that the things of the past are behind me. I thank you Lord for loving me and forgiving me. I give you Lord any of my worries and fears and choose to look to you for my strength."

God can turn bad things around. You need to stay focused on Him and His word. Proverbs 3:5-6 says to us "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."

PRAYER; Lord God I am so very thankful that you are available 24/7. When friends forsake us you are there. When things go wrong you are there. When we feel a pity party coming on, you are there. I am thankful for your forgiveness in times when I have messed up. Thanks Lord for taking away my fears. In Jesus name. Amen.

MIND CONTROL GOD'S WAY

Got your attention with that title didn't I? To walk a walk with the Lord and stay on the right path we have to have our minds renewed with the word of God daily. You can not continue to 'feed' your mind with the worlds' garbage and expect to live victoriously. Plus sometimes we have wrong thoughts that lead us into thinking things that are not really happening. We imagine people do not like us. We fear the future. We worry about our children going off God's path. We worry about things at work.

Each and every day you have to start your day with prayer, praise and God's word. Do you wake up and the first thing you do is tune into the local news or the syndicated news shows out of New York City? Sure there may be a lot of good things on them but there are things that bring us down when we hear bad news or gossipy type things all the time. You can stay informed other ways by listening to news on the radio for instance. You may have to discipline yourself to keep the television off in the morning if it is distracting you. Maybe it is the newspaper that you put first before God. You may have to choose to not take the paper for a while if you are constantly spending hours in it and not one bit of time studying or meditating on God's word.

You can have 'the mind of Christ' if you fill your mind with good and pleasant things. If you start to get angry or upset about issues of our present day then try giving it over to God and praying. It helps to praise God when we start to slump into a pit of despair or anger. The world situation may get us down today. At the end of this devotion is a wonderful prayer ministry link that prays for the nation.


Rom 12:1-2 is a good verse to commit to memory and it says "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." You renew your mind when you put good  things into it. You may have heard the phrase 'garbage in, garbage out' referring to junk we put into our brains. For instance if you have young ones that you are raising for the Lord what an excellent time to build up the spirit of God that lives inside of them. There are many fine Christian books to read to children and even Christian children's TV shows and DVD's. And of course the most important book to train your children's mind with is God's word.

You have to control what you think. It takes discipline. But with God's help you can get this control. In yesterdays devotion I mentioned self control in the aspect of temptation but now you need self control to tame what comes into your mind. It can be done but it takes practice to think right thoughts. Philippians 4:8 says "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." Sincerely ask yourself if things you put into your mind daily meet this heavenly criteria.

Proverbs 23:7 says "as a man thinks in his heart so is he" so if you  have wrong thoughts and thinking you have to truly ask for God's help to think the right things. Philippians 2:5 says to "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus". Romans 8:6 says "The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace". Philippians 4:7 says "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Where are you today in the 'mind control' department? God can help you if you only call on Him. Start today and read a Psalm or Proverb each day to start getting your mind back on track if you have been away from the word of God for a while. Be blessed.

PRAYER: I choose to watch what I put into my mind and thoughts Lord. Sometimes it is very hard. Help me resist the enemies attempts to get me worried or fearful. I choose to think on good things and to be guided by the truth. Help me with the self control I need to keep focused on you Lord. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Note if the things in the world today are bothering you and getting you scared or depressed I urge you to check out the link here and read others prayers and post prayers. This site is not related to the White House in any way but it is independent ministry from Scottsdale,AZ.
http://www.presidentialprayerteam.com/