2020 & Your Thoughts
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind..." (Romans 12:2) As we enter a new year, a new decade, let's look at a pivotal area for our growth God intended us to be diligently aware of - our thoughts.
As you can see in the illustration above, one hand is open and the other closed. In relation to our thoughts, God's Word has described our options as casting them or taking them. Let's include in this study how that looks for our finances.
There's two ways to prepare and know the thoughts that are to be cast away, and those to be taken.
Reading and meditating on God's Word regularly. This creates and refines how to "sift" our thoughts through God's wisdom, determining if they line up with Him or not.
It is written in Isaiah 55:9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts". But we can have His thoughts (Praise His Name) - as we read, pause and contemplate His Word.
Believers in Christ at His time on earth only heard the Word from it being taught at the temple and being spoken among themselves, they did not own bibles. As a believer in Christ in 2020, bluntly we have it very easy to receive His Word. It is on the radio, TV and internet. It can be accessed in over 60 different versions on websites and we have printed copies in abundance.
But even if you are not in front of a bible or broadcast, you have the ability to receive from God's Word anywhere anytime, just by thinking and meditating on it right where you are. In Psalms 119:15 David wrote "I will meditate on Your precepts and have respect to Your ways".
Relying on the Holy Spirit. In John 16, Jesus spoke of how the coming Holy Spirit would be our Counselor and would demonstrate to us about righteousness and sin.
When the thought comes that "I have to have this ________ because ________ ", that is when you sift it through God's Word and the Holy Spirit. If you do not have peace about it, that is the signal from the Holy Spirit convicting you to cast that thought away. We're instructed in 2 Corinthians 12:5 to "lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ". This is the casting away part.
If we give lots of time and thought towards what we want to buy (or did not receive for Christmas), that is what we will reap when given the choice at the store or in front of the computer, rather than if our preceding thoughts have been towards those right actions from God's Word - then we will be "tuned in" to what the Holy Spirit says about it.
When the thought comes that "I have to have this ________ because ________ ", that is when you sift it through God's Word and the Holy Spirit. If you do not have peace about it, that is the signal from the Holy Spirit convicting you to cast that thought away. We're instructed in 2 Corinthians 12:5 to "lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ". This is the casting away part.
If we give lots of time and thought towards what we want to buy (or did not receive for Christmas), that is what we will reap when given the choice at the store or in front of the computer, rather than if our preceding thoughts have been towards those right actions from God's Word - then we will be "tuned in" to what the Holy Spirit says about it.
To summarize for our finances, how can we apply this? By first taking the right thoughts from God's Word - to keep out of debt and owe no man anything but love, to spend less than we make, that godliness with contentment is great gain, towards giving and being generous. Then by being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, who knows and promises to lead in the correct course to take.
In closing, God has provided from Philippians 4:8 the way to receive peace from Him by how we think: "whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things."
God Bless you and may He show Himself greatly to you,
Paul
