Betrayed by your thoughts?
Sometimes it seems that our mind is not our own. We have thoughts that are confused, thoughts of a destructive nature, feelings of depression and hopelessness, or thoughts that frighten us and produce anxiety; and while there can be many causes for this, it is clear that these kind of thoughts are not God’s will for the believer’s life.
How can someone begin to counteract these thoughts? “The Word of God”
Just as we needed Jesus to substitute His righteousness for our sin, we need His thoughts to replace ours. Here are just a few examples in scripture that reveals our need for daily cleansing through the Word:
- (Romans 12:2) – Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
- (2 Timothy 1:7) – For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
- (1 Corinthians 5:7) – Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.
- (Ephesians 4:18) – They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
- (Hebrews 4:12) – For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
- (2 Corinthians 10:5) – We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
- (Philippians 2:5) – Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
- (Jeremiah 23:29) – “Is not My word like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?
- (Matthew 13:15) – For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’
- (Romans 1:21) – Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.
- (Jeremiah 17:9) – The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
- (Ephesians 4:17) – So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
- (1 Corinthians 2:8) – None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
- (1 John 4:1) – Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.