I am sure that many of you have heard many sayings such as, “You are what you eat…” or “you become the people that you hang around with…” and so forth.  The idiom we want to focus on today is “You are what you think.”  This is not some new age notion.  ‘New Age’ stuff and thinking are just rip offs of what has been written in the Bible and Christian teachings. (Sigh.) I digress.

Therefore, I urge you to read the following passage from Philippians 4:8,

Php 4:8  Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

— Philippians 4: 8

Let’s first group the qualities of the ‘whatsoever things’”:  True, honest, just, pure, lovely, good report, virtue, and praise.

These are the quality of the things that we should be thinking about if not all the time, at least the vast majority of the time.   How do we influence what we think about?  Our thoughts are influenced by the things that we read, the things that we watch, the things that we hear (such as music), the people we hang around with, the things that we say, and the environment that we are situated in at any point in time.  This is quite the list of influences that we should watch out for, but the good news is that we have been created in God’s image, and He loves us so much that He has given us the Holy Spirit as a helper (John 14) that is with us always.  Additionally, as we wrote in a previous blog post, it is our duty to command as much of ourselves and the environment as we can, because we are kings, whether you have the worldly given title or not.

We must command our domain, and the first places that we need to command are our minds and hearts.  Revel in the fact that this duty and ability is given to you freely by God, and He has given you the tools to excel at it.