Power Thoughts: 12 Strategies to Win the Battle of the Mind (31 page)

Just last week I had a situation with someone who was acting very badly. She was complaining, showing no appreciation, and being extremely difficult to get along with. We had a few heated words and I left. I hoped she would call and apologize because in reality she was wrong, but she did not call. I remembered that Matthew 5:23–24 says, “So if when you are offering your gift at the altar you there remember that your brother has any [grievance] against you, leave your gift at the altar and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift.” Since God recalled that Scripture to my mind, I realized He was asking me to do what was right even if the other person would not. I called her and asked how she was doing and we chatted a little. I did not apologize because I had not done anything wrong, but I did reach out to her as a way of saying I am not angry at you. My peace returned and I had the satisfaction of knowing that I had obeyed God and the rest was up to Him.

I realize now more than ever that making right choices is the key to a happy life, and keeping our minds on right things is another one. Don’t let your mind wander around and do whatever it pleases. Remember, you have a spirit of discipline and self-control. You have been given a sound mind.

Sometimes, when I am riding down the road looking out the passenger side window while my husband is driving, I realize my mind has drifted or wandered off onto something that is worthless and will not produce anything good in my life. That doesn’t make me a bad person; it just means I have a choice to make. Will I be lazy and let it “drift,” or will I once again discipline myself to stop thinking that wrong thought and find something good and noble to think about?

I mentioned that my mind sometimes wanders in conversations with Dave, but it also happens sometimes when others are speaking and what they are saying really isn’t very interesting to me. It seems to be important to them, but it isn’t to me. My mind begins to drift to thoughts such as,
I hope they get this over quickly; I have more important things to do.
Or
, This is so boring; I will be so glad when I can get out of here.
Then, I suddenly remember a message I often preach on love—the one about how one way to demonstrate love is to listen to someone to make him or her feel valuable. I am faced with a choice: do I walk in love and show respect for the person talking to me, or just keep pretending to listen while I have very unloving thoughts?

Are you surprised to learn that these types of things happen to me? I will tell you a secret: they happen to everyone. We are not bad people because bad thoughts come to us but if we don’t resist them, we can become whatever we choose to focus our thoughts on.

The Bible teaches that we have to
seek
to do good (see 1 Thessalonians 5:15, emphasis mine).
Seek
means “make an attempt” (
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
, Eleventh edition). We also have to seek to think right thoughts. It takes discipline and training, but we can do it. Determine today to set your mind on right things and discipline yourself to keep it set on them and you will enjoy the great and powerful life God has in His mind for you.

Think about It

What will you do in the future when your mind begins to wander?

Control Yourself

Self-control is closely related to discipline. If you have one, you have the other. I like to say that self-control and discipline are friends that will help you do what you don’t want to do, so you can have what you say you want to have. It is obvious that God has given us the fruit of self-control because He expects us to control ourselves. It is inaccurate for a person to say, “I can’t control myself.” The truth is that they could if they wanted to. People cannot change unless they face the truth about where they are, so all excuses have to cease and they must take responsibility in these areas we are discussing. Begin thinking and saying, “I am a disciplined and self-controlled person.”

The apostle Peter wrote about several positive qualities we need to develop, including diligence, faith, virtue, and knowledge (see 2 Peter 1:5). He then went on to urge us: “And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop]… Christian love” (2 Peter 1:6, 7). Showing love for people is the will of God and should be every Christian’s goal. It is apparent from what the Bible says that the exercise of self-control is necessary in order for us to reach that goal.

To live with self-control means to exercise restraint. Restraint is not always fun, but the Bible presents it as an admirable thing to do. In Proverbs 1:15, when King Solomon writes to his son about how to live with sinners all around, he simply counsels, “My son, do not walk in the way with them;
restrain
your foot from their path” (emphasis mine). Obviously, this is good advice for the young man. Proverbs 10:19 notes, “In a multitude of words transgression is not lacking, but he who
restrains
his lips is prudent” (emphasis mine). Here, we see that restraining ourselves is part of being wise. It’s also part of having good common sense, as we see in Proverbs 19:11: “Good sense makes a man
restrain
his anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression or an offense” (emphasis mine). Obviously, restraint has many benefits and learning to practice it will serve us well in every aspect of our lives.

We must teach our children to exercise restraint in their lives, for if we don’t, there will always be trouble. Eli, the Old Testament priest, allowed his sons to do whatever they wanted to do—and the things they wanted to do were sinful. As a result, God made this pronouncement about Eli’s family: “I will judge and punish his house forever for the iniquity of which he knew, for his sons were bringing a curse upon themselves [blaspheming God], and he did not restrain them” (1 Samuel 3:13). Because Eli did not restrain his sons who were sinning, a curse came upon his house forever. That’s a high price to pay, and Eli could have avoided it and had blessings upon his house, had he disciplined his children.

Many times, we fail to discipline our children because we are not disciplined ourselves. Only a disciplined parent will do what is necessary to properly discipline their children. Don’t wait until your children are teenagers and then wish they were disciplined. We never get what we desire by wishing; we have to practice the disciplines that are necessary in order to obtain what we want. It is amazing the difference in children who have been regularly and properly disciplined compared with those who have not. It is actually unpleasant to be with undisciplined children for a long period of time. They constantly have to be told over and over what to do and what not to do. Undisciplined children interrupt when people are having conversation; they make messes for others to clean up, and are generally obnoxious in their behavior. As parents, we would be wise to do the work we need to do on the front end of raising our children so we can enjoy them for many, many years to come.

As the leader of a large organization, I sometimes become weary of correcting people over and over who are under my authority. Often, simply forgetting or overlooking a matter would be much easier than dealing with it. But, I discipline myself to discipline others, because I know they may not learn to be disciplined otherwise—and I know that discipline will not only solve my problem at the time, it will also reap a good harvest in the lives of those on the receiving end if they receive it with a good attitude. Of course there are always times to be merciful and just overlook mistakes, but if they are made out of negligence or occur repeatedly, that usually means it is time to confront.

Many people are not interested in restraint or self-control; and discipline certainly isn’t a popular concept. People tend to prefer living by the motto, “If it feels good, do it.” The problem is, that just doesn’t work! I don’t believe I am exaggerating to say the world could well be in the worst condition it has ever been in right now, and people enjoy more supposed “freedom” than at any other time in history. Human rights and true godly freedom is a wonderful thing, but to think that “freedom” means we can do whatever we want to do whenever we want to do it is to invite disaster into our lives. I believe God knew what He was talking about when He encouraged us to be disciplined. Discipline is a good thing. Increase the discipline in your life, and you’ll see what I mean. Think of areas in your life that you want to see improve; it could be finances, health, better organization in your life, how you think or what you talk about, or any number of things. Now say, “I am a disciplined and self-controlled person and I will do my part to get my life in order.”

Think about It

Do you believe you exercise appropriate self-control? In what area do you most need to improve your ability to restrain or discipline yourself?

Power Pack

“For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Hebrews 12:11

“Everything is permissible (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things). Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become the slave of anything or be brought under its power.”

1 Corinthians 6:12

“And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop]… Christian love.”

2 Peter 1:6, 7

“Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.”

1 Timothy 4:7
NASB

POWER THOUGHT

12

I put God first in my life.

“You shall have no other gods before or besides Me.”

Exodus 20:3

I
did not place this power thought last on our list because it is less important, for truly it is the most important. I placed it here because I wanted to leave you with what I consider to be the most vital thing in our lives and that is simply putting God first in everything. We should put Him first in all of our thoughts, words, and decisions. The Bible says that God is a jealous god. That means He is not willing to be second place in any area of our lives. He loves us and wants us to have the very best life possible. He knows for that to happen we must keep Him and His instructions to us as our number one priority at all times. I think the following Scripture says it all:

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. [For all things originate with Him and come from Him; all things live through Him, and all things center in and tend to consummate and to end in Him.] To Him be glory forever! Amen (so be it).

(Romans 11:36)

I love to meditate on that verse because it helps bring me back to the reality that life is all about God. When our lives here end all that remains is God and that is a sobering thought for anyone to ponder. The Earth and the things in it will vanish. They will simply disappear and we will all stand before God and give an account of our lives (see Romans 14:12). I believe each of us should be careful how we live and learn to keep God first in all things.

Everything God asks us to do is for our good. All of His instructions to us are intended to show us the way to righteousness, peace, and joy. Jesus didn’t die for us so we can have a religion, but so we might have a deep and intimate personal relationship with God through Him. He wants us to live with, through, and for Him. He created us for fellowship with Him. It is a tragedy for people to live and ignore God unless they have some sort of emergency that they ask Him to help with. In Jeremiah, He said that His people had forgotten Him for days without number and that is sad indeed (see Jeremiah 2:32). Since God is everything how can we forget Him?

Sadly, most people waste a lot of their life, if not all of it, before they realize that having a right relationship with God is the most important thing in all of life. The world struggles to find peace and joy in all the wrong places and the truth is that He (God) is our peace and our joy. He is also everything else that anyone truly needs. God delights in providing for and helping us but He refuses to be treated as a type of spiritual Santa Claus. That is, someone we go to only when we need or want something.

God said that we are to have no other gods before Him. What do you worship? What do you place first in your life? What do you think about, talk about, and spend the most time doing? If we are honest with ourselves, it doesn’t take long to locate what or who is number one in our life. We tend to be self-serving, and our number one goal is usually getting what we want. The thing many people fail to realize is that they can never be fulfilled or have the satisfaction they desire apart from God. He created us for His pleasure and delight. He did give us free will so we can choose or reject Him because He has no delight in a heart that does not serve out of choice. He gives us life as a gift and if we will freely offer it back to Him, then and only then we can live it fully and joyfully. However, if we try to keep our life for ourselves, we will lose it. We may live out many years but they will be frustrating, unhappy ones.