Have you ever had a dream in which you have a complete conversation with someone?  Then you wake up and realize it was a dream.  The conversation never took place but your memory has wrapped itself tight around it.  The words said, the tone of voice used, the posture of the person and your part in the conversation continue to come back to mind over and over.  You know that it was a dream and yet you can’t let it go.  Pretty soon you have thought of it for so long that it seems very real.  The dream you had now affects how you relate to this person.  Does this seem ridiculous to you?  Maybe, but it happens because our minds are powerful.

Did you know that your actions begin with a thought?  Something crosses your mind which seems like a good idea and then you act on it.  The thoughts we have every day pop in and out of our mind.  We act on those that we catch and hang onto.  A bad idea that pops in our mind can be thought of so much that it actually seems like a good idea.  Then we act on it.  When we do we suffer, or we cause others to suffer the consequences of our bad idea.  This is how sin is given birth in our lives.  It starts as a thought.  We rehearse it and pretty soon it seems like a good idea that we can benefit from or enjoy.  We then act on the sinful thought.  The answer is not to stop thinking but to begin to think with discernment.  Our minds are powerful and discernment can help to reign in that power.

How do we gain discernment?  Paul prays for the Colossians, “…you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understand so as to walk in a manner worth of the Lord…” Colossians 1:9b-10a  God has given us His revealed will in the Scriptures.  We need to be in the Scriptures in order to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will and gain spiritual wisdom.  It’s this knowledge and wisdom that gives us discernment to know whether our thoughts are ones we should be entertaining or not.  We need to know God!!  This takes work; but with this work comes joy beyond understanding.  There is joy in being able to dismiss a thought as untrue or selfish or sinful.  Our minds are powerful. Let’s use the power of our minds to fight against those thoughts that are destructive to our walk in Christ.

How do we use the power of our minds to fight?

“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ,” 2 Corinthians 10:5

We read here that we take control of our thoughts.  We know that we are to be self-controlled.  This self-control does not just refer to our actions but to our thoughts as well.  When we have thoughts which are not pleasing to God, we are to take control and seek to destroy those thoughts.  We tell ourselves the truth about the thoughts.  Then we can really take control by making our thoughts be obedient to Christ.  We are to not only destroy the thought, but we are to take it captive as well.  Then we are to tell ourselves the truth and believe the truth about this thought.  Our minds are powerful.  So powerful with the Holy Spirit that we can take over the bad and replace it with the good.

Why don’t we do it?  There are many reasons why but I think the main one is we are self-focused.  Our thoughts revolve around us.  When we think of what was said in a dream over and over, we tend to be the victim of the conversation.  Those sinful thoughts that enter our mind become ones that will seemingly bring us pleasure.  The other reason is that we are just too lazy to fight our thoughts; and it is easier to dwell on them than to fight back with self-control.  Are these reasons enough to keep us from looking like Jesus?  It’s true we don’t even think of our thoughts as having anything to do with looking like Jesus, but they do.  Our minds are powerful and we can win the thought battle because of Jesus.

We have a choice to either be a woman tossed to and fro by every thought that goes through her head, or to be a woman who believes she can look more like Jesus by taking control of those thoughts.  Who are you going to be?  Our minds are powerful.  God made them powerful because He knew life would be hard at times and we would too easily believe lies.  He gave us His Spirit which changes our minds from powerful to Spirit Powered.   Let us follow hard after Jesus powered by His Spirit.