Written by Dawn Rutan
A couple books I’ve been reading lately have challenged me to think about thinking. It’s so easy to fall into the cycle of negative thinking and not even realize it. John Ortberg wrote:
You can’t stop thinking wrong thoughts by trying harder to not think them, but you can do something else. You can ‘set your mind,’ for the most basic power you have over your mind is that you can choose what you pay attention to (The Me I Want to Be).
Leslie Vernick put it this way:
Once we become aware of our negative thoughts or feelings we often try to suppress them because we don’t like having them. Other times we acknowledge they are there but feel guilty or shamed because of them. The result is that now our original emotions are compounded with additional toxic feelings and negative thoughts (Lord, I Just Want to Be Happy).
One morning recently I woke up long before my alarm, so I lay there for a couple hours trying to occupy my mind with good things like Scripture and prayer. I was doing okay for awhile, but then my brain latched onto a negative subject that I really didn’t want to think about, and I found myself getting angry. Eventually the only solution was to read a few chapters of Genesis until I could relax and go back to sleep. Ironically, while I felt like a slave to my brain, it was the story of Joseph being sold into slavery and ending up in prison that came up in my reading schedule. Somehow in the midst of terrible circumstances, he apparently kept his mind on holy things and remained faithful to God.
When there are truly difficult situations, it’s hard to discern exactly what you can and should think or say. You can’t live in denial and pretend everything is fine when it’s not. But you also can’t obsess over it constantly and analyze every worst-case scenario. I imagine Joseph wondered if he would ever get out of jail after having been framed by his boss’s wife. Perhaps he feared that his childhood dreams would not come true, or maybe he clung to them in faith that God would provide a way.
The Apostle Paul made several comments about our thought life:
- Colossians 3:2 (ESV)- “Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
- Philippians 4:8- “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
- Romans 12:2- “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
- 2 Corinthians 10:3-5- “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
Obviously we do have the power to choose what we will dwell on, though that might be difficult at times and can even be a battle of spiritual warfare. Our enemy would be glad for us to waste time and energy thinking about failure, pain, and resentment. One of the ways we can fight that battle is to choose gratitude. Henri Nouwen wrote:
Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment. It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of complaint. I can choose to be grateful when I am criticized, even when my heart still responds in bitterness. I can choose to speak about goodness and beauty, even when my inner eye still looks for someone to accuse or something to call ugly (as quoted by Vernick).
While it’s not always true that positive actions and words will produce positive thoughts and emotions, it certainly can help over time. Households and businesses would quickly deteriorate if people only did things when they felt like it. Since most of our thoughts involve relationships, it’s an ongoing process of loving people in word, in deed, and in truth.
I had never noticed before that following the description of godly love in 1 Corinthians 13 comes this verse: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (v. 11). Love should somehow inform the way we mature in our thought processes. I can quickly recall many times when my thoughts have been childish and petty, and I would hate for anyone to judge my level of maturity by such thoughts. Thankfully God doesn’t leave us in our immaturity, but keeps refining us through the trials and difficulties of this life.
“Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.” -1 Corinthians 14:20
