Think On These Things

This semester I have been doing a precept study in Philippians with some ladies from church. This week we focused on chapter 4 verses 8-9.

8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.

9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you.

These two verses really focus on our mind. Dwell on these things and the God of peace shall be with you. So we have to replace the thoughts of fear, anxiety, worry, etc. with what is true, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, and worthy of praise. So if we obeyed these teaching......how would our lives change? Would it change what we read, watch, listen to, talk about, think about? How can we do this? First we must take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5).

But then we must replace those thoughts with something new. A friend of mine gave a great illustration of this. Imagine you have an empty toilet paper holder. You take some of the toilet tissue and stuff it inside the holder. To get that tissue out you have to replace it with more....something new. That's the way our mind works. We must replace the anxiousness with the peace of God. I love this. If you are like me and struggle with worry this is a great thing to put into practice. Back to the question, how would this change what we watch, etc. I think we have to rely our conscience unless it is obvious sin. Can you watch it etc. and still dwell on whatever is......lovely...etc. I'll finish this post the way Paul ended Philippians.....the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit.