Art is organized beauty, Music is organized sound; Science is organized knowledge, Government is organized society, religion is organized Mystery, and Philosophy is organized thought. Our thoughts impact how we feel about ourselves and others. We share our fears, our sorrow, our joy, our love, and our dreams with our thoughts. Our thoughts create words and action. Thoughts and Words can actually change the direction of a nation.
Proverbs 23:7 says “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Our thoughts have the power to run our lives, controlling our words and actions, feelings and emotions — even our peace and happiness. When disappointment crushes our dreams, when people hurt or anger us, or when problems seem overwhelming, it’s easy to get caught in the rip current of negative thoughts. And when we think negative thoughts, we feel negative feelings, leading us to believe life is negative overall. Whatever our minds focus on is what will play out in our lives and eventually shape who we are. Our thoughts turn into feelings that have the power to control our lives, gradually steering us — and possibly our faith — in a direction we do not want to go. King Solomon knew this to be true and counsels us to be careful about what we think and feel. He knew it’s often our thoughts, not our circumstances, which cause us to sink. The quality of our thoughts will always determine the quality of our life.
Job said, “The thing I greatly feared came upon me.” You will eventually become what you think. If you allow yourself to think negatively worried, fearful thoughts, then you will become a negative, worried, fearful person. You cannot think of defeat and expect victory. You can’t think of poverty and expect wealth. You can’t think the worst and expect the best. Quit thinking about what you don’t have and start thinking about what you do have. Quit thinking about what’s wrong with you and start thinking about what’s right with you. Quit thinking about how big your problem is and start dwelling on the fact of how big your God is.
What we focus on, we magnify; we’re not changing its actual size, we’re simply making it bigger in our own mind. If we stay focused on our problems, on a negative report, what somebody said about us, how we’ll never get out of problems, all that’s going to do is make it bigger than it really is; it’s changing our perception of it. The Apostle Paul warns us in 2 Timothy 3 that there will be terrible times in the last days. Our hope in times of testing is to magnify the Lord to see him as he truly is – which is always bigger than our problems.
God’s infinite power cannot fit into the confines of our finite minds. So, what is impossible for us is never impossible for God. Psalm 68:1 says “Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered” when we make God bigger in our life when we let Him arise, focusing on His greatness, knowing that He’s in control, fighting our battles, making our crooked places straight, and we go out with this attitude of faith, expecting breakthroughs and dreams to come to pass when we let God arise like that, our enemies will be scattered. Enemies of fear, doubt, depression, sickness, and injustice; nothing can stand against our God. He is the all-powerful Creator of the universe. When we let God arise, we can’t stay defeated; healing, help, favor, and victory comes. Our enemies will be scattered. Always magnify what’s right and not what’s wrong. The truth has been compromised as the enemy seeks to blind the world and destroy it.
The Bible tells us that the heart is deceitful and unsearchable to any but God alone (Jer. 17:9). The first and most important step in seeking a cure is an accurate diagnosis of the problem. If you do not understand the problem, you will not seek the right cure. That is true not only physically but also spiritually. Knowing that indwelling sin occupies a heart that is deceitful and unsearchable should make us extremely cautious. Jesus said, “That which proceeds out of the man that is what defiles the man…….” (Mark 7:20-23). No one commits this outward sin without first having committed them in their mind. So we must win the battle over sin on the thought level because ‘Sin’ is primarily self-centeredness.
Bishop Lalachan Abraham
