Stepping Stones: My Thoughts Defy My Will

Transformational Tip

My mother had some simple yet very effective teaching and training methods. When I was around 6 years old, I said something very inappropriate to someone who was visiting my mom. My mother excused herself and took me gently by the hand to another room. There, she told me that I must learn to hold my tongue and not always say what I was thinking. She actually made me hold my tongue with my hand for a few minutes so that the concept of “holding my tongue” would sink in. It worked.

While I have made great progress in holding my tongue since that time (thanks mom), my mind remains restless and unruly. Long after I developed the discipline to “hold my tongue”, my thoughts continue to defy my will and continue to set themselves up against me and God. This is my greatest challenge.

The battlefield for our soul really is the mind/heart…and it is no surprise that the bible really talks a lot about what goes on in our thinking world. In fact, decision-making really is the key spiritual discipline that all others are built around.

The mind is a wondrous and beautiful thing; it’s yet another example that we humans are the summit of God’s creations. And to be sure, it’s at the center of our spiritual warfare. It really is your choice as to whether you develop the Mind of Christ or not.

Today, make the decision to let the Holy Spirit guide and be the key influencer of your mind. Start by looking at some decisions from yesterday that you would like to have back. Journal a little about them, especially what was influencing your lenses? WITHIN REACH will help you hone this skill and more in developing the Mind of Christ. Click here to share with the Stepping Stones community your thoughts defying your will.

Prayer
Dear Father God, I thank You for the freedom you have granted me to think and to learn. Since you created us in your image, I know the ability to think wonderfully complex thoughts is a God-like privilege; setting humans above all other forms of life. Thank You Father. I open myself, Father, to Your light and presence and I ask you to take control of my mind and have my thoughts aligned with Your will. Help me use my brain to discover more and better ways to communicate with You. Help me achieve the “mind of Christ.” I pray in the name of the one whose mind I want to imitate, Jesus Christ; and all God’s children said - AMEN!

The Truth
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:26-27
The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace
Romans 8:6