Faith-bearing Seed for the Soul
"While the earth remaineth,
Seedtime and harvest
....shall not cease"

Genesis 8:22

Changing our STINKIN' THINKIN' habits!

Conflicts! How do they begin? Many conflicts begin with one small ungodly thought, that when escalated, is able to turn the proverbial mole hill into a mountain. We can assume that Euodias and Synteyche (referred to as "Erroneous" and "Soon Touchy" by some) needed their "unity" restored. At the beginning of chapter 4 in Philippians, Paul exhorts these ladies to "be of the same mind in the Lord." One of them, or possibly both, apparently had some "stinkin thinkin" and unbridled attitudes that was causing severe enough problems for Paul to have to address them in a letter.

The mind is the seat of Satan's threshold to our lives. Once he gains access to our thought life, as it says in the book of James, he progressively entices us to sin, and then sinning leads to the loss of our peace and joy, and ultimately spiritual death sets in.

James 1:15-16 LB

Temptation is the pull of man's own evil thoughts and wishes. These evil thoughts lead to evil actions and afterwards to the death penalty from God.

James 1:15 KJ

"When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished bringeth forth death."

I call this the devil's "LSD" that he uses to gain control over us.  Lust--Sin--Death! And it all begins in our thought life.

Paul exhorts the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord always, to be moderate, to pray and be thankful, and he says that in doing these things the peace of God will keep our hearts and minds. When our minds are filled with rejoicing, prayer and thanksgiving, there is no room for Satan to fill us with his stinkin' thinkin' thoughts! Paul tells us in Philippians what we should permit to flow into our minds  and what we should be thinking about.

Philippians 4:8

Finally, bretheren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever thing are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

The next time you begin thinking negative, destructive thoughts  that ultimately rob you of your peace and unity with God, yourself or others, put the thoughts through the following test and if they don't pass the test, throw them out of your mind! Praying about an ungodly thought and repenting of it, usually stops it cold. And,  we can replace the ugly thoughts with the kind of thoughts that Paul exhorted us to think... I often have negative thoughts about myself, as I'm sure many of you have about yourselves. Instead of entertaining those thoughts, how about thinking..."I am wonderfully and fearfully made! I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!"  Now THAT'S a lovely thought!

As a reminder for right thinking, I made myself and my Sunday School class some book markers for our Bibles... Here's yours to copy.

I'm changing

my STINKIN'

THINKIN'

habits!

Test it...IS IT

TRUE

HONEST

JUST

PURE

LOVELY

OF A

GOOD REPORT?

If not, JUST

DON'T THINK

ABOUT IT!

But...I can...

Pray about it!

Or replace it

with a

Philippians 4:8

thought!

God's Word and His thoughts ALWAYS pass this test. Amen!

Rooted and grounded in the love of Christ Jesus,

Marlene JuHaros,

Texas Seed Sower

Seed for Thought Devotionals are written as the Lord leads and are sent only if you request a subscription by e-mail.  

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"Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know

which will grow--perhaps it all will."

Eccl. 11:6

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