July 6, 2023 What are You Thinking About?
“May all my thoughts be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD” (Psalm 104:34 NIV).
So many thoughts race through my mind in the course of a day, an hour, a minute. Most of them are on auto-pilot. I don’t have to do anything to bring them into my mind. They just flood in. But the ones that matter are the ones I dwell upon. You and I are not forced to give attention to any useless or unhealthy thought.
Consider this. After Jesus came up out of the Jordan River filled with the Holy Spirit, He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness where He was tempted by the devil for 40 days (Luke 4:1, 2). You know well how He responded. He dismissed every depressing, mission-killing thought the enemy put in His mind, because they were not His thoughts. He replaced the devil’s impure and negative thoughts with pure, lovely, and virtuous thoughts from the word of God. All Jesus’ thoughts were pleasing to God. That is why when Jesus was in the water, praying, God proudly exclaimed, “You are my beloved Son. In You I am well pleased” (Luke 3:21-22).
He is well-pleased with you too when you dismiss those thoughts that come from the devil without dwelling on them. When you rejoice in the LORD and pray, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart (my thoughts) be acceptable (pleasing) in Your sight,” (Psalm 19:14), we are saying, “May all of my thoughts be pleasing to Him.”
So, what are you thinking about? Perhaps the devil has told you, like he told me, that no one cares what you do. “What you write every week doesn’t matter.” Maybe he is telling you that God-given project or dream you are trying to fulfill is not possible. He might have told you that you are not going to get well, or you are not qualified for the position, the promotion. Maybe he told you to give up on your children and that they are never going to be saved, and more.
Know this! Those are not your thoughts. They are the devil’s thoughts. And the devil is a liar! Do not dwell on his thoughts for even a moment. Instead, rejoice in the LORD and do this:
“Whatever things are true, 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” (Philippians 4:8).
Focus Quote: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You because he trusts in You.”