Taken from - http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/homeword/
This devotional was written by Dan Johnson
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. Philippians 4:8
Recent studies by neuroscientists have shed great new light on the mind. The human mind thinks up to 60,000 thoughts each day. Most thinking is done on autopilot with the mind thinking the same habitual thoughts over and over again. If it seems like you’re hashing out the same mental routine each day, there’s a good chance you are.
The brain protects its storehouse of information – be it good or bad. Engrained habits are protected so the autopilot lifestyle can be maintained. But when we’ve repeated a new thought or practiced a new behavior for about 90 days, it becomes part of the brain architecture; voila, we have new hardwiring!
The good news is that we CAN change the way we think. After that, those new – and improved – redemptive thoughts become habit. A new lifestyle can become the new norm. The Bible says we can challenge false thoughts by “taking every thought captive.” By thinking on what is true we overcome low self-esteem, fear and doubt. We can also have what the Bible calls “the mind of Christ.” Because those lies of low self-esteem, fear and doubt don’t exist in the mind of God, we can think “as if” we are healthy and whole and soon our bodies and spirits show new vitality.
This is a great day to call those stubborn false thoughts by name, write them down and then tear them down. Replace them with noble thoughts, admirable thoughts, thoughts of excellence and allow your new, bigger thought life to open the door to a grander world.
GOING DEEPER:
1. What are your top 5 dominant thoughts each day?
2. Are your dominant thoughts in line with what God’s Word says about you?
FURTHER READING : Isaiah 55:7-8; 2 Peter 3:1
6 comments:
Pretty powerful stuff eh? Also worth noting it takes 90+ days of consistent behavior to develop a habit. It is awesome to know that through God we can improve self esteem and re-train our brains not think about things we are not supposed to learn to focus on God. Now the hard part….. is as I always say - living it out. I think we all need an prayer/accountability partner to help us focus on achieving this goal????
cas
Agree totally, CAS about the accountability partner. At least, I know I need one. I guess I really need to be more consistent (90+ days) to make blogging a daily part of my routine.
LT
accountability partner would be huge. in fact, just the other day my wife asked me if i had one (she has a group of 3 women that act as her accountability partners).
the mind is amazingly powerful. i know my top 5 thoughts throughout the day arent in love with "loving others" and exemplifying Christ's love. they are usually work oriented, worry about something oriented, gain oriented, etc but not usually love, compassion, positive oriented.
This is in my top 10 favorite verses of the bible! While I could not agree more with it, hard to put into daily execution. While not sure I can do 5 at one time, will start with the following two:
1) instead of finding what I do not like about someone or that "bad habit", will look for something good.
2) I'll try and apply the WWJD to more daily small decisions and in how I react to problems.
DSC
Funny you mention the WWJD comment. How amazing would it be if we asked ourselves that before everything we did?????? I have a little reminder on my key ring, but I think I need the doggy shock collar version in reality.
cas
read it... certainly agree
crb
I've been fighting with car stuff/flood stuff for 3 days now. Been thinking lots of negative thoughts, trying not to.
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