'Stinkin Thinkin'

What you dwell on, is what defines you; the thoughts that consume you, are the thoughts that make or break you.  

It’s reassuring to know hopeful thoughts are within reach, for God’s Word is within reach, bringing alive the thought-pattern of God.

A favorite scripture of many is Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11).  But a more literal translation is this translation:  “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, NKJV).  

So a central way to digest God’s Word is to digest God’s thought-pattern.  For our tendency is to think ungodly thought-patterns, thinking the worst, not the best.   But there are exceptions.  Ronald Reagan loved to tell the story of the young boy who came across a huge pile of manure in the middle of the road one day.  Immediately, the boy jumped into the manure and started to dig away.  Well in no time an elderly man came down the road and was shocked to see boy digging away in the manure.  “Why in the world are you doing such a thing?”  “Listen mister,” the boy exclaimed, “There’s got to be a pony in here, somewhere!!!”  

But that’s what happens when we think hopeful thoughts, “best thoughts,” God’s thoughts: we find the pony in the manure!   We go beyond the muck -- the junk of life and find a way “gallop through” life, even the despair of life. 

And so replace negative thoughts, with God’s thoughts:

• When you think: “It’s over, I give up!”  Think:  “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” – Philippians 4:13.  
• When you think: I’m lost, I’ll never find my way.  Think:  God never forgets me; for He’s “…engraved [me] on the palms of [His] hands; [my efforts] are ever before [Him] – Isaiah 49:15-16.  
• When you think:  I’m no good –ugly!  Think:  I am beautiful, for “… [God has] created my inmost being…I am fearfully and wonderfully made…”  (Psalm 139:13-14.)  
• When you think:  my best days are behind me.  Think:  “this day is sacred to [the] Lord.  [I will] not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is [my] strength…”  (Nehemiah 8:10).  

Get the point?  Replace what one writer calls:  'stinkin thinking' – with sacred thinking – thinking God’s thoughts after Him.