WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

How many times have you had someone advise you to “go with your gut,” or “follow your heart?”  Another one says, “Follow your heart, and your dreams will come true.”  In the Little Prince, there is a line that says, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.”  One little couplet concerning this says, “Break the rules and stand apart; ignore your head and follow your heart.”  In other words, don’t let logic or thinking be the basis for your decisions, it is the heart “that knows what it wants.”  However, we get a small glimpse of the problem in this quote, "The heart wants what the heart wants," said Woody Allen in justifying his affair with Mia Farrow's adopted daughter.

The Bible tells us that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:  who can know it? (Jer. 17:9).  It also says, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.  For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matt. 15:18-19). 

Our nature is selfish, and if one looks at that list of things that our nature loves, we see they are the opposite of what God wants His children to desire.  In the Ten Commandments, He says, “Thou shalt not kill”; “Thou shalt not commit adultery”; “Thou shalt not steal”; “Thou shalt not bear false witness”; etc.  You see, they are the opposite of our heart’s desire.  That is why the lost world hates the truths of the Bible; they demand man quit serving himself, and begin serving God and his neighbor.

The Apostle Paul wrote of the conflict between the heart (the flesh), and the mind when it is Spirit led (Rom. 7:14 – 8:4).  He encouraged believers to “renew their minds” so that they would think like God thinks (Rom. 12:2).  He even went so far as to say we are to think like Jesus.  He wrote, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).  And how did Jesus think?  He humbled Himself, always doing the will of the Father, and gave Himself for the sins of the world (Lk. 22:42; Jn. 5:30; Phil. 2:6-7; etc.).  Paul actually told believers how to think.  He said, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Phil. 4:8).

In this mornings sermon, Pastor preached for us to forget the offenses others have done, and forget the things about people that “bug us.”  He said to think instead, about how those persons have been a blessing to us.  For those is troublesome jobs, remember how you prayed God would help you get it?  It is His gift to you; see it as a blessing (especially with so many out of work, who would give anything to have your job).  For those in a troubled marriage, begin thinking about those things that caused you to either ask the other to marry you, or caused you to say yes when asked.  Make a list of the good things your kids do, and put it on the refrigerator. 

Finally, if you simply cannot find a single thing you appreciate in a person, think of your relationship with him as “iron sharpening iron” (Prov. 27:17).  Your association with him will eventually smooth and sharpen your character!

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7).

What do you want to be?  Think about it!