lovely thinking

Hello darlings!

Today, I saw this picture on an Instagram post and was inspired.

May seem like just an uplifting quote, but it's SO BIBLICAL.  Do y'all know how true this is?  God desires for us to fill our minds with lovely, pure, and true things.  Satan wants the opposite... he'd give anything for you to think only on hateful, dirty lies.  I don't know about y'all, but I wanna do what God wants for us, and kick the devil to the curb.

As the Message version puts it, we should think "on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse." (Philippians 4:8)

Please don't spend time thinking about horrific things, or gross things, or unclean things.  I definitely struggle with anxiety, so sometimes I find myself stuck in a rut of thinking about all the things that could go wrong in a situation, or all the bad, nightmare-ish things that could happen to me or people I love.  Our Father hates that; He hates to see us worried.  Instead, fill your mind with good things, like how perfectly your Savior loves you.  Or how incredible your Lord's kingdom is.  Or how powerful His grace is, and how it covers anything and everything as long as we love Him and put our faith in Him.

Later in the passage, the bible gives us a promise: "Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. (Philippians 4:9).  This is from the Message version again, and I love how beautiful and poetic it sounds. But to simplify it a bit... In the NLT translation it says "and the God of peace will find you".  So, basically, back to what the quote says, good will find us.  God is the ultimate good!

I definitely think that my generation struggles with this sooooo much.  Teenagers have so much access to evil, right at their fingertips.  Technology makes it easy to lie and be sneaky, drugs are a bigger problem than ever, and everything has been sexualized and perverted to a point of destruction.  We need a spiritual revival, and personally, I think changing our minds to think in a lovely way will do it.

DON'T think about how that girl made fun of your outfit in front of everyone in 2nd period.

DON'T stress about how terrible you think you are because you probably failed your geography test.

DON'T fill your mind with worries about the kidnapping that happened yesterday in the next town over.

DON'T think about the boy who made nasty, degrading comments about you.

DO think about how someday, we will see our Father face to face.  We will get to touch Him.  And we will praise and worship him, in person.  There will be no tears, no worries, no fears.  It will be beautiful.

DO think about how even though He's not physically with you right now, you have His Holy Spirit inside you. How insanely incredible is that?! I have a part of The Lord inside me.  Wow!  He loves us that much!

Stay positive, y'all!  Anytime you catch yourself thinking about something the devil would want you thinking about, shoot it down and think Godly thoughts.  Be a WARRIOR in your thoughts!

Much love and encouragement,

CJ