The secret of controlling our thoughts!

Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts! Can a human being sit still without any thought running through his mind? Some say meditation helps. Even then, when he is still and trying to empty his mind of thoughts, he is thinking of emptying his mind. That again is a thought.

Experts estimate that the mind thinks between 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts a day. That’s an average of 2500 to 3,300 thoughts per hour. Some other experts estimate a smaller number, of 50,000 thoughts per day, which is  about 2100 thoughts per hour.

Have we ever wondered that, if we think so many thoughts, what exactly are we thinking? 

By paying attention to the thoughts in our minds, we would discover that most of our thoughts are useless and unimportant. They are thoughts that pass through the mind with a huge velocity. These are words we repeat in our mind, comments our mind makes, repeating what we heard said, questions, answers and a lot of senseless wandering thoughts that we might not even be aware of. Yet, if we probe deeper, we will discover that our thoughts have three distinct origins. We will discuss about that in awhile.

Thoughts shape our attitude which in turn shapes our character. We become what we constantly think of. Due to the ill effects of our thoughts, we constantly face spiritual attacks in our lives. The only way to win this battle is to control our thought life. We cannot do it by ourselves. It is impossible. Who, better than the Holy Spirit can help us to sieve the thoughts that go through our mind. It is the Holy Spirit Who empowers, prepares and equips us for spiritual warfare.

The more we people alienate ourselves from God, the more we open ourselves to demonic activities. The more tumultuous will our thought life be.

As I mentioned above, our thoughts have three distinct origins; self, God and the devil. Some are placed there by God to remind us to walk in His ways, some generated by ourselves and some planted stealthily by the devil, to steal, kill and destroy our souls.

Thoughts of love, peace and correction are from God. Thoughts from ourselves would be thoughts pertaining to our daily duties. Thoughts from the evil one will be thoughts of manipulation, fear, anxiety, guilt, anger, bitterness, rage, judgemental thoughts, self centered thoughts, lustful thoughts, greedy thoughts...in short they will be negative and poisonous thus poisoning our entire being. Therefore we become people after our own thoughts, shaped and moulded by our thoughts.

We have a choice, to entertain or not to entertain the thoughts that speed through our mind. 

When we are obedient to God, we get in place to have victory over the wicked and the wicked thoughts. The devil can counterfeit everything except obedience to God. God's Word tells us to surrender our every thought, making it obedient  to Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)

"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."

Recently, I was tormented by thoughts of confusion, guilt, anger, bitterness, fear, sadness and judgment. I was facing a huge spiritual attack. I was  not able to pray nor read God's Word. I felt as if I was sinking deep into an abyss unable to help myself. I knew that I must take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ, but I did not know how to do it. Everything was so abstract. I was sinking fast.

It was then that I pleaded with the Holy Spirit, asking HIm to be the filter of my mind. I knelt and asked Him to filter each and every thought which goes into my mind. I forbade negative and evil thoughts from entering my mind.

Pleasantly and miraculously it helped me so much that the next morning I woke up fresh and was filled with unexplainable peace. I was able to go about my duties without confusion but with clarity of mind. Now I am able to control my thoughts with the help of the Holy Spirit.

It surely pays to obey God's Word, and when we do not know how, our Comforter and Guide, the Holy Spirit is always there to help us.

Thank you Holy Spirit.

Mary Augustine

The Sin of Ham/Caanan

The Sin of Ham/Caanan

I was pondering on how I conduct my life. It was then the Holy Spirit brought to mind, the little instances when I casually converse with my colleagues and we happen to come across someone we find irritating, or mindless and begin to exchange 'justified' views about him/her. It seems all too casual, all too justified and all too natural. Then one of us will chip in a juicy bit of news the other person is not aware of, such as, " The other day when I opened the door for her she just walked past as if I am transparent and did not even thank me, let alone greet me. These young ones have no manners!" Or, "Do you know that so &so was not even in his class when I went in and the pupils were walking all around the class & they are promoting him. There is the other person who's so hardworking and he is not even noticed. So unfair!" At times we exchange negative news about others with the excuse of pitying them.

We get pulled into workplace politics and we end up pouring our frustrations to one another without realising that we are falling into satan's traps of the sin of gossip, the sin of judging others, the sin of spreading negative vibes and the sin of exposing the sins of others and shaming them.  This is exactly what Ham /Canaan  his son/grandson  did according to Genesis 9:20-22. He exposed his father's sins and thus was cursed.

Sometimes we wonder why we are not blessed, why we are facing problems after problems but we fail to realise that our sins cut away our blessings. Not only are we affected but our children and our children's children down to seven generations.

Upon receiving that revelation, I thanked the Holy Spirit for bringing this to mind today and asked Him to help me keep myself in check always. How glad I am that now, we have the blood covering of Christ Jesus to wash away our sins when we repent and run back into His arms. Thus our curses are broken and turned into blessings for us and our descendants through the redemptive blood of Christ.

Prayer
Lord, help me to present myself well and to abstain from speaking negative things about others. Just as the north wind drives the rain away, so does a backbiting tongue and an angry countenance. (Proverbs 25:23)

New Living Translation
          James 4:11
Don't speak evil against each other, dear brothers and sisters. If you criticize and judge each other, then you are criticizing and judging God's law. But your job is to obey the law, not to judge whether it applies to you.

Reference:-
Genesis 9:20-22 NIV
Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. [21] When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. [22] Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside.

Genesis 9:24-25 NIV
When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, [25] he said, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. ”

Notes:-
Ham was Noah's second son and Canaan was the youngest son of Ham. 'Canaan' in Hebrew language means, "to be humiliated!"

Mary Augustine