A few weeks ago, a fellow blogger commented on my post. She mentioned to me that she had tried to comment already, but it didn’t go through. This prompted me to check the spam folder, where I found her original comment. Also in the spam folder were thirty-five other comments, which really were spam. One by one, I went through each comment and deleted the bad ones. I approved the one comment that was genuine.

This made me think about our thoughts. We have thousands of thoughts run through our heads each day. Yet not all of those thoughts are good thoughts and worthy of retaining. Some are negative, some are complaints, and some are lies. Yet we tend to allow them to stay. Many of us aren’t prompt to delete the bad thoughts that run through our minds.

Paul told us to take every thought captive. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 10:5

This can be difficult to do in the beginning because we have let our minds run rampant for too long. But once we make an effort and pay attention to our thoughts, we can see progress.

In Luke 4:1-13 we read the story where Jesus was tempted by the enemy. One important point about this story is that for every lie that the enemy threw at Him, Jesus came back with Scripture and truth. This is a great example for us as well. If we are diligent to stay in the Word of God and memorize Bible verses, we can fill our hearts with truth.

We also have to be careful about what we watch, what we listen to, and what we surround ourselves with. We have to filter out anything that is not healthy. When we are intentional about filling ourselves with good things of the Lord, we will see the negativity dwindle in our minds.

But if we are not careful and we allow pessimism to remain, then the things that are on the inside of us will come out in the words we speak. Jesus put it this way, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45)

This is a great reminder to fill ourselves with truth, the Word of God, hopeful thoughts, and strong faith. Then when the enemy tries to throw lies at us, we will have the tools to replace the lies with truth.

Joshua 1:8 says, “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

We too can keep the Word always on our lips, and meditate on it day and night. When we fill ourselves with God’s truth, we will leave little room for the lies and the negative thoughts. We will be able to take every thought captive. And as a result, we will have more peace in our minds and hearts.

Thank you for reading!

© 2022 Bridget A. Thomas