| Your Life Is Shaped by Your Thoughts |
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| By Rick Warren — Jun 18, 2015 |
“Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.” (Proverbs 4:23 TEV)
God is far more interested in changing your mind than changing your circumstances.
We want God to take away all of the problems, pain, sorrow, suffering, sickness, and sadness. But God wants to work on you first, because transformation won’t happen in your life until you renew your mind, until your thoughts begin to change.
Why is it so important that you learn how to manage your mind? Let me give you three reasons.
Manage your mind, because your thoughts control your life.
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts” (TEV). The power of your thoughts has tremendous ability to shape your life for good or for bad. For example, maybe you accept the thought someone told you when you were growing up, “You’re worthless. You don’t matter.” If you accepted that thought, even though it was wrong, it shaped your life.
Manage your mind, because the mind is the battleground for sin.
All temptation happens in the mind. Paul says in Romans 7:22-23, “I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin” (TLB).
One of the reasons why you get mentally fatigued is because there’s a battle in your brain 24 hours a day. It’s debilitating because it’s intense, and it’s intense because your mind is your greatest asset. Satan wants your greatest asset!
Manage your mind, because it’s the key to peace and happiness.
An unmanaged mind leads to tension. A managed mind leads to tranquility. An unmanaged mind leads to conflict. A managed mind leads to confidence. An unmanaged mind leads to stress. When you don’t try to control your mind and the way you direct your thoughts, you will have an enormous amount of stress in your life. But a managed mind leads to strength and security and serenity.
“Letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace” (Romans 8:6 NLT, second edition).
Talk It Over
- What do you fill your mind with that pleases God? What do you fill your mind with that disappoints God?
- How do you practice managing your mind?
- What role does Scripture play in managing your mind?
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He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
--Psalm 1:3
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Over the past week, we’ve been looking at what a true man or woman of God looks like. We’ve seen there are awesome benefits to planting yourself by the life-giving water of Jesus Christ, including stability, vitality, and productivity.
Today we’ll see that a true man or woman of God exhibits consistency and maturity.
“Its leaf does not wither” speaks to consistency. It means you won’t burn out! Your leaves will not dry up…your fruit will not wither…you will be forever green.
There's nothing more pleasant and powerful than a strong, stable, solid man or woman of God….someone who lives the life they profess.
Then in the verse above we see that all the man or woman of God does prospers or matures. This means there will be maturity in your family life…in your business life…in your social life…in your personal life…and in your witnessing life.
As you look at your life today, does it exhibit the qualities of stability, vitality, productivity, consistency, and maturity? It is my prayer that God will help you continue to grow in each of these important areas of life!
A true man or woman of God exhibits consistency and maturity.
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