What are you thinking about these days?
Has someone ever seen you daydreaming and said, “A penny for your thoughts”. Maybe you were in a faraway memory or picturing yourself in that new car you would like or salivating over some delicious tacos or dreaming of a few hours out, away from the house and kids. That’s if you had a happy face. If not, maybe you were thinking about a pile of bills or about just never getting to painting the living room. You can think of a lot of things in a fleeting daydream. But what about your regular, daily thought life?
Thinking is something we all do. Well, there are those people that seem to do and say an awful lot without thinking first. (No pointing fingers!) But the reality is, we all think a lot- consciously, unconsciously and sub-consciously. You may consciously think, I need to get up at 7:00 to get to work or class on time. You may unconsciously think, when I get in my car, it will get me where I want to go. And you may sub-consciously think, I’ll probably be late as usual. It all went through your mind.
Thoughts are not all alike in nature or effect. There are fleeting or “fly by” thoughts. These are opportunities for good or for bad. Inventions are created, organizations are born, and lives are transformed, because a moment’s inspiration was seized. But likewise, families are destroyed, frauds engineered, and the most terrible crimes committed sometimes by people following a sudden spontaneous thought.
Thought patterns are like riding a bike on well-beaten paths. It’s easy to get into the groove and go along with it but not so easy to get out.
Some thoughts fall into patterns in our mind. These are like riding a bike on well-beaten paths. It’s easy to get into the groove and go along with it but not so easy to get out. A pattern begins when you have a thought in reaction to an experience and decide that the thought is for you, of course, probably very unconsciously. But it is lodged in your sub-conscious. So, when you have a similar experience, the thought pops to the surface, and unless you stop the thought by saying it isn’t so, you affirm it to be so and react the same way as before. And so it goes, every time you do the same, the path is beaten down a little more and a pattern established that you hardly realize you are following. But you are.
Then there is meditation. When I say meditation, I am not talking about yoga or going into a trance or anything like that. I am talking about when a thought comes to mind and you turn it over and over in your mind for awhile. And then maybe you get focused on something else, but after awhile, you find yourself thinking on it again and again. Like when your spouse left you on a sour note in the morning, and as he goes out the door you are thinking- how could he have said that to me? You are upset and thinking of all the reasons why he was so wrong, and you are right to feel as you do. You get busy with work, the children or the house and so are distracted, but as you fold the clothes and get to your spouse’s socks, you start thinking again about your offense. Then errands, dinner prep, and homework have you running, but the minute you see your husband come in, you’re either seething or expecting an apology. But nine times out of ten, he just comes in with a peck on the cheek, totally oblivious that anything is wrong. True or false?
Meditation has been likened to a cow chewing her cud. For those of you not familiar with the term, let me explain. A cow takes in grass, chews on it for awhile, and swallows it. But the interesting thing is that cows have two stomachs, and their food goes through both for full digestion. So chewed grass goes down into the first stomach and begins to be broken down, but after awhile, it comes back up into the mouth in a yet coarse form, which is the cud, that the cow chews on again before sending it to the second stomach from which it works its way out. Sounds rather unpleasant to say the least, doesn’t it? But how many of your thoughts do you rehash time after time?
Not all meditation is bad. Basically there are two kinds of meditation. The negative form is brooding and the positive building. The latter lightens your load and helps you focus on growing and glowing. The first is like a storm in the making. Those that let the steam out often may just create scattered showers, but others hold it in until a F5 tornado bursts out with mass destruction. Does your meditation create more twisters or rainbows?
When words seem to slip out of their own accord, it’s probably because you have quite a stockhold of thoughts on the matter.
So, here’s the deal. Your thoughts pretty much make or break you. Jesus said in Luke 6:45, it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. So, when words seem to slip out of their own accord, it’s probably because you have quite a stockhold of thoughts on the matter. The Bible says, as a man thinks in his heart so is he. Thoughts produce attitudes, words and actions. With more thinking, these produce habits and patterns, and over time, your character and lifestyle. Our tendency is to blame others for so many of our problems and our daily suffering, when in reality, we are usually our own worst enemy, and more than we realize or want to admit is self-inflicted by our own thought life. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
In chapter one thirty nine, the psalmist describes how lovingly God created you and me in our mother’s womb with care to every detail and prepared all of our days here on the earth; it’s all written. He says, How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You. (v.17-18) Yes, you read right! God thinks about you all the time and is always close by awaiting your call.
Maybe you have thought God was out to get you, or at least, he really didn’t care about you given the way you have lived. But nothing could be farther from the truth. He says, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11)
God does not want you to live in anxiety, fear or despair, but rather in peace and hope. How? He goes on, Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. and you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity. (v.12-14)
Wherever you are, turn to God today, pour out your heart and hurt to hIm, ask him forgiveness for doing things your way, give him your life, and ask him to give you new life according to his thoughts in place of yours. And you know what? HE WILL!
Follow me with the upcoming series: Renew your Mind, Transform your Life, based on Romans 12:2 which says, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. When you begin to replace your thoughts with God’s, your understanding of life will begin to take on a whole new perspective. You and those around you will be amazed at your extreme makeover (transformation) and purpose filled life. Don’t wait, start today!
