What to Do When Life Doesn't Make SenseSample

Think About What You’re Thinking About

You may feel like a victim—like things have happened to you that you have no control over. But no matter what happens, you always have control over your thoughts. Nobody else is doing your thinking for you. You decide what to think about.

Take a moment to think about what you’ve been thinking about. Have you focused on your questions, letting them run over and over in your mind without restraint? Have you nurtured your thoughts of sadness, anger, fear, hurt, resentment, or disappointment, spending most of your time thinking about your pain and the circumstances surrounding it?

If so, those thoughts aren’t taking you where you want to go—into a bright future. They’re probably making you miserable.

God’s Word can help. Look at Philippians 4:8: “Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse” (the message).

You are the one who chooses what to fill your mind with. And if God tells us in His Word to do so, we can do it. You’ll do your best by filling your mind with good things!

Second Corinthians 10:5 tells us to take control of our thoughts: “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.” It matters what you think about!

As motivational speaker Earl Nightengale once said, “The mind moves in the direction of our currently dominant thoughts.” If your most dominant thoughts get stuck on things that have gone wrong, hurts that have been inflicted, or fears over trauma that has happened, you’re going to get stuck there. If you don’t lead your thoughts, your thoughts will lead you.

To move forward in your life and break out of the land of hurt and disappointment, you must first of all think about what you’re thinking about. Then you must take control of any incorrect thinking.