Change Your Thoughts, Change Your World By Bobby SchullerSample

There is no doubt our thoughts impact our lives. What we think about ultimately results in the decisions that guide our lives. Yet we often don’t think about what we think about. We don’t realize that our thought lives can be scattered or disciplined, anxious or at peace, filled with faith and hope, or wallowing in despair. Instead, we allow our minds to wander like corks bobbing on the sea. What if we are actually supposed to be training our minds, thinking with discipline, so we can be the people God has called us to be?

This, of course, is what God wants for us. Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians to “have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). He told his protégé Timothy, “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline” (2 Tim. 1:7). Too often, we allow very dark thoughts, like bitterness, entitlement, fear, or despair, to be our norm. Then we self-medicate through substance, work, or other vices to get our minds off of them. But it doesn’t really help in the long run. Jesus said, “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it” (Matt. 12:43). That demon leaves, only to come home later to find everything swept and in order. So, he brings seven others to join him!

This is also an analogy of what happens when we try to rid ourselves of dark thoughts without replacing them with new, life-giving thoughts. We just leave a clean, empty house for more bad thoughts to inhabit. There is a better way to control our thoughts, and it’s not “try harder.”

Learning to control thoughts is the key to a healthy mind. It’s important not to allow negative  thoughts—jealousy, blame, accusations, or others—to swirl around in our heads. They quickly and easily turn to bitterness and sin. By “thinking about what we think about,” we can move from being a person of bitterness to a person of blessing.