Thoughts Matter

Right now I have an old Rolling Stones song stuck in my head. I frequently have songs get stuck in my head and drive me to distraction. They’re called earworms and they crawl inside my mind and take up residence sometimes and will not move out all day. Sometimes it can be a pleasant song or it can be a maddening commercial ditty. Either way, though, they can invade my thought life and make me miserable. But I do have ways of fighting back.

 Our thought life is important to God. What transpires inside our minds matters very much because what we think orders our steps. If I allow certain thoughts to go unchecked in my mind, I find myself being careless with my words. Thoughts that encourage feelings we should be rejecting put us on a path leading away from God’s presence. If I feel anger and begin meditating on it rather than dealing with it properly, I drive a wedge between God and myself and the person with whom I am angry and open up the real possibility of acting on the emotion because I have stirred it up by my thoughts.

 In Philippians 4:8, Paul writes, “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (NRSV) He went on to say that the God of peace would be with them. In other words, they would experience His presence as they practiced thinking this way. Scripture also encourages us to meditate on God’s word.

 In the Psalms, David exclaimed, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all day long…I have more understanding than all my teachers for your decrees are my meditation.” (119:97, 100) “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (119:105)

 We do well to corral our thoughts and remember God is Lord over them as well. We can’t always control what pops into our heads but we can replace those thoughts and deliberately choose to meditate on those things that please God and that will help lead to Godly living.