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8
Bringing Thoughts in Line With The Word of God
Thoughts are continually coming to mind. Thoughts can be funny, uplifting, joyful, fearful, terrifying, depressing, misleading.
We are told in Bible that we are to take every thought captive to bring it into obedience of Christ (The Word) … II Cor. 10:5
Sometimes thoughts come and we are not even aware of them coming … Sometimes we even feel a little pulled down and when we realize this, we don’t know why this has happened. Thoughts can be very subtle but very destructive.
God always has an answer if we can remember to turn to HIM asking,
“What happened?”
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Often the thought that brought the depression is a thought that is not even correct … fear of what will happen in future … money fears … fear of what will happen to children or loved ones … fear of how our animals can be taken care of if we become disabled … fear of job loss … fear of reaction of other people … fears, fears, fears …
Some thoughts are triggered by TV commercials or something we have seen or heard on TV.
Some negative thoughts are brought about as a result of books we read.
Sometimes other people make statements which become as seeds planted in us and these thoughts grow in us and later surface to bear negative fruit unless we catch them at the time they are planted and uproot them by the Word of God or through committing the statement to God in prayer.
For example: My neighbor started building a fence adjacent to the front corner of my house where the room is where I do most of my work. There was a fear that he might be building the fence as a dog run area. (I love animals so why the fear?) Dogs bark. What if this happens where I am trying to work?
I turned to God with this fear.
After several prayers over this, I began thinking: How did I get the idea this might be a dog run? I haven't seen neighbor with a dog.
Then I realized a few days prior to this fear, I was at mailbox and one of my other neighbors came to chat with me and she saw him building the fence and said, "Maybe he is building a dog run."
Her words were like a seed going into my heart and later bearing evil, troubling fruit.
(It turns out it is not a dog run.)
Many troubles come to us like this ...
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It is critical for us to remain “sober” (clear minded), alert.
I Peter 5:8 … Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
We must continually force our mind to focus on that which God has told us.
We have a woman in our church group who is married to an unbeliever … God gave her a dream showing her husband reading the Bible!
After that dream, many times she would have thoughts that her husband could not be saved. He is very intellectual.
She has to cling to that dream about him reading the Bible. It is a life preserver to her in a sea of doubt.
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It is not unusual for negative thoughts to come to us after God has shown us something. Those thoughts come to try to steal the word from our hearts and make us doubt what God has said.
Mk 4 … The sower soweth the word. And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.
And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.
And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.
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We must hold fast to the Word God gives us on the issue.
We must build our house on what God says in the Bible.
“Where is THAT in the Bible?” must be a continual examining point for “truth”.
We must build our house on the Word of God.
The apostle Paul said: But refuse profane (secular) and old wives' fables (superstitions), and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. I Tim. 4
There was a woman I once went to lunch with from time to time. She was filled with worldly sayings, wisdom of this world, wisdom of humans and many superstitions of man which she often spoke.
I would counter by saying: "That's not in the Bible."
(Showing the Bible is that which I build my house on. It is a foundation that is sound and true. I do not want to build on anything that is not in the Bible.)
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Paul warned Timothy not to take in "profane" things (secular things) nor "old wives fables" (superstitions).
Many untrue things are out there. Refuse them, says Paul.
Many times I "reject" profane sayings, saying of man based on their own wisdom and superstitions.
Often I cry out at the TV: "That's not true ..." (rejecting what they say)
Frequently I will be reminded of a scripture to show the truth even as they are showing the false concept on the TV program or commercial.
This is God through the Holy Spirit taking that concept captive and bringing that false concept into the obedience of the Word of God.
And I often do the same thing with people, especially those professing to be Christian, when they speak worldly wisdoms and superstitions of man... "That's not true ..." (rejecting these profane concepts)
Ephesians 4:21... If so be that ye have heard HIM, and have been taught by HIM, as the truth is in Jesus: (The WORD is truth.)
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We can build our house on the wisdom of this world ... or we can build on what the Bible says.
Preventive medicine?
Luke 5:31... And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
Bodily exercise?
I Timothy 4:8 ... For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
Planning for future?
Matthew 6:33 ... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and HIS righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:34 ... Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Trusting in man?
Philippians 3:3 ...For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus (The Word), and have no confidence in the flesh.
Psalm 118:8 ... It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
Psalm 146:3-6 ... Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:
Success in life?
Joshua 1:8 ... This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Psalm 1 ... Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in HIS law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
John 18 ... Jesus says …My kingdom is not of this world.
Col. 3 ... If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with HIM in glory.
Freedom from troubling thoughts of the past:
II Cor. 5 ... Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. (The WORD)
Phil. 3 ... Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded:
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These are truths from God which I am trying to build my house on, rejecting profane (secular) sayings of man. But it takes work to live in these truths from God. Man is always trying to get us to accept sayings of man, profane (worldly) sayings, secular sayings and live by them. But I want to build my house on what God says. I see that as safe.
Mt. 7 ... Jesus says ...
24-27 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of MINE, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
And every one that heareth these sayings of MINE, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
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