When It Hurts…Sample

Good Thinking

Our thoughts are so powerful; our mind can control our actions, emotions and character. The Bible tells that “we have the mind of Christ.” Yet our thoughts don’t always add up to this. Negative thoughts can enter our minds and influence how we feel and act. But we have the ability to stop this from happening. Romans 12:2 tells us that we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and in 2 Corinthians 10:5 we are told to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. Negative thoughts will still enter our minds, but we can choose to not let them control or change us. Each thought needs to be weighed: Does it fit with Scripture? With what God says about us? With what we know to be true? This isn’t an easy task. Some thoughts are so consuming, so real, that we can struggle to take them captive and not be emotionally affected by them. The more we practice taking smaller negative thoughts captive, the easier it will be to automatically dismiss these thoughts and we’ll have a better chance of taking those bigger, more intense, thoughts captive, too. So, to be stronger in controlling our minds, we need to be aware of what God says is true. And the way to do that is to get into our Bibles and read God’s truth about our identity and His promises to us. Once we start knowing these truths, we can use them to counteract those negative thoughts that come into our minds. We don’t need to be controlled by our negative thoughts. We have the authority to keep our mind on track with the truth.

What Now?

Find five truths in the Bible about your identity. Write them out and stick them somewhere you’ll read them every day.