On Purpose Thinking

What if I said to you, "Don't think about what you are going to have for lunch."

What's the first thing you are going to do? Think about lunch, of course. Our thoughts can be hard to control. Our minds are a battlefield and more battles have been won in our minds than anywhere else.
I can physically choose not to do certain things. I can choose not to drink or smoke. I can choose not to watch R rated movies. I can choose not to get that second dessert. But when my mind gets involved, it becomes much harder. "One drink won't hurt." "That movie only has a couple of bad words in it." "I exercised this morning so that second dessert won't count." 

We can justify just about anything if we think about it long enough. We can build up scenarios in our minds that may or may not ever happen. We can take a simple, insignificant issue and turn it into a major problem just by mulling it around in our minds for a few hours. Or sometimes, it only takes a few minutes to create a proverbial mountain from the proverbial molehill. 

Have you ever looked at your schedule for the day and decided it was going to be a bad day before it even started? Our moods are directly linked to our thoughts. And it can become a self-fulfilling prophesy. We'll have a bad day because we've already convinced ourselves it's going to be. 

So what are we to do with this runaway train we call our minds?

Our minds are a battlefield. If Satan can control our minds and thoughts, our actions won't be far behind. We have to choose our thoughts on purpose. If we don't choose our thoughts, the enemy will make the choice for us. 

Our words begin in our thoughts. Self-talk is a powerful thing. Let's say your spouse irritated you this morning and you think about that all day. By the time he/she gets home that night, you explode on them because you have moved from irritated to full blown mad based on your self-talk. 

This is why God gave us Philippians 4:8:

"And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."

God has given us the ability to make choices about so many things in life, including our thoughts, and we must be responsible to make those choices carefully. 

On purpose thinking...controlled by the Holy Spirit. It is possible. 

2 Corinthians 10:5 "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (emphasis mine)