Bad Thoughts Ruin Lives

Philippians 4:8,9 Brothers and sisters, continue to think about what is good and worthy of praise. Think about what is true and honourable and right and pure and beautiful and respected. And do what you learned and received from me—what I told you and what you saw me do. And the God who gives peace will be with you.

There are times in our lives when dark thoughts invade our consciousness, when the belief that life’s rotten and that it’s never going to get any better overwhelms our better angels.

That’s a pretty bleak picture, but it’s true, isn’t it? There have been times in my life and yours where a dark pessimism descended on us like a shroud. This (source unknown) describes it perfectly:

Bitterness is the belief that God got it wrong. Anxiety is the belief that God’s not going to get it right. Regret is the belief that God can’t make my story beautiful again because of something I’ve done or something that happened to me. Victimhood is this belief that I can’t celebrate where I am until the circumstance I am in changes.

Perhaps some of that even rings true for you today. So what’s the answer? Writes the Apostle Paul from his dank, dark dungeon on death row:

Philippians 4:8,9 Brothers and sisters, continue to think about what is good and worthy of praise. Think about what is true and honourable and right and pure and beautiful and respected. And do what you learned and received from me—what I told you and what you saw me do. And the God who gives peace will be with you.

What we spend our time thinking about is actually under our control. We can choose, even in the darkest death row moments, to think on that which is true, honourable, right, pure, beautiful, respected. And then we have the power to act on those things, despite our circumstances.

And when we do, here’s the promise – the God who gives peace will be with you.

That’s His Word. Fresh … for you … today.

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