Our thought life is like the helm of our souls. It can turn you this way and that if you don’t bring the influx into submission. And it’s up to you to decide what kind of thoughts get airtime in your mind.
The mind is easily molded by what it is fed via thoughts. It can create strong emotions and feelings that can even lead us into sin. Now obviously we don’t have control over what thoughts pop into our minds but we do have control over what we meditate on and what we brush away.
If you continue to dwell on thoughts of convetousness then you will find yourself becoming a greedy and bitter person. If you dwell on thoughts of godly love and compassion you will find yourself pursuing God’s righteousness and servant spirit.
Your thoughts that you dwell upon are the things that can infect your mind in a bad manner. For cleaving onto certain thoughts becomes sin. And sinful thoughts can soon turn into actions if left unchecked. Jesus said…
”Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.“
Matthew 12:34 NKJV
This all starts in the mind. The traffic of our thought life. The thoughts popping up again are not the sin. But if we choose to dwell on it and let it sit at the table of our conscious then we have messed up. It’s like keeping bad company. After a while it corrupts our good morals. In Philippians 4:8-9 the Bible says this…
”Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.“
Philippians 4:8-9 NKJV
Here we have a very conveniently laid out list of thing to think about. So there really isn’t any kind of excuse to make for a lack of better things to think about for the believer. Any thought that doesn’t meet the criteria is not what we are to think about. Developing a thought pattern by God’s guide will not only make your mental health better but it will make your spiritual health better too. Because thoughts spill into actions and in doing these things God’s peace will be with you. Why? Because you are obeying your Father’s instructions and His way is the way to life.