Day 5 - Thoughts Control Our Lives

Today's Bible Reading: Romans 12:1-21

Devotional: A toxic thought contains poisonous material that can cause sickness and even death. We will identify and reject all toxic thoughts and we will replace those thoughts with God's truth.

Response by: Jay Vance

Toxic thoughts are things that eat away at us until we don’t recognize ourselves any more.  When we allow ourselves to be what the world wants us to be, we have lost sight on what God has planned for us.  “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”  (Verse 2).  Instead of trying to do everything on our own, we instead need to be remember that God has a plan for us, and any deviations from that plan take us further away from him.  As long as we stay in God’s presence, the chances of our thoughts becoming toxic as much less.  

Recently, I went out for a run.  The plan was to run with some others, but I decided to get out early and start on my own.  Everything started out fine, I started faster than I had planned and it just wasn’t feeling particularly great.  After awhile, I noticed a little discomfort in my hip, but didn’t think anything other than hey it’s cold, so that’s what that’s from.  The upcoming schedule for the day, things I needed to get done at work and home, and the general business of life kept me moving, just not at the pace I knew I could go.  

Along the way, I ended up running into the original group and we took off together.  After spending time talking with them, I didn’t notice my hip.  In fact, I wasn’t thinking about any of those other activities.  We went a few miles and when I took note of our pace, and it was quicker than when my hip was bothering me.  We kept going until there was just myself and a friend left.  The early miles were starting to catch up to me, and my thoughts started to revert to where they were earlier.  I know that I would have quit, except my friend was telling me that there was no way I was going to quit, that he knew I could do it.  This change of my thoughts brought me back to the better part of my run and I was able to continue at the quicker pace.  When I remembered to keep myself in that positive mental attitude, everything went well.  

So it is with God.  When we remember to keep our lives in line with God and others in the family of God, life will go better for us.  When we allow us to think we can do things on our own; the struggles of life will overtake our lives and we will struggle.  Verse 21 reminds us to not let evil conquer you, and we can do this by making sure our thoughts remain focused on God.

Something to talk about: In what ways do you renew your mind and focus your thoughts on God's truth?