The Reward of Steady Thinking - Perfect Peace.

I am positive, putting my life on it, positive, that I am not the only one who allows bad news, hurtful comments, or irritations to consume my thoughts without trying. The ease with which bad things can consume us came to my mind this morning. And, as only a loving parent, God drew my attention to the truth of my need to train or discipline my mind. The reason it must be redirected is that it will always go to the lowest common denominator, Me, Myself, and I. Our thoughts are consumed with self-preservation, what is unfair for us, and what makes us unhappy. It is because we have traded others' centric thinking for self-absorbed focusing. That is why I know I am not alone.

This kind of thinking began with Adam and Eve, their sin, and, when held accountable, their thoughts turned to how to rescue themselves, so they blamed each other. The steady shift from pleasing God to pleasing self began in their thinking, in their preoccupation with self. And it has continued through their children to today, and will not end until Jesus returns. But it can be thwarted through Christ, through living from resurrection.

"Me" focused thinking is the bad news. That is the news of the flesh. That is the news of self-aggrandization. This morning, when irritation woke me from my slumber to pour my coffee and lead me to my big chair to finish waking up, I recognized my mind was chock-full of me. After an hour of this, I became irritated that I could not turn it off. I intoned, "Lord, why is this so easy? Why is telling myself to stop not enough?"

My spirit received a gentle, "It is an intentional refocusing on Me, and steadying your thoughts that changes your thinking, beneficially."

Passages began to flood my mind, Isaiah 26:3: "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. ⁴ Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock."

Colossians 3:1-2: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth."

Psalm 1:2: "But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law, he meditates day and night."

Hebrews 12:2: "Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith..."

Philippians 4:8: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

Our instincts are to be liked, to expect good, and to be happy, and anything that disrupts that, consumes us. Not because we necessarily care about the things or people that may have brought these experiences into our lives, but because of self-centeredness. We believe we deserve better, so the expenditure that takes us over is wrestling with how someone could think differently about me than I feel about myself, how someone could misconstrue my motives, or why this bad thing could happen to me. And the thoughts begin to swallow our every moment and regurgitate themselves into our minds repeatedly and without pause. We do not stop it, though it makes us miserable, there is an emotional catharsis that makes us the hero in our thinking and repining over our victimization. This is my theory; it is my conclusion. This will not change until we make it happen through obedience to Scripture and by trusting the promises of the passages as mentioned earlier, and so many others replete throughout Scripture.

The question is, how do we do this? How does this happen? Some may even say, "I have tried this before and nothing changed." Let's look at the instructions and discuss what God promises. This is not a one-and-done occurrence. The "present tense," which most of these passages give their instruction in, indicates ongoing action in the present. Each incident must be handled consistently and continually until the promise bursts through. Eventually, you will realize you have moved on to something else, something more biblical has entered your thoughts.

Let's take the part in Isaiah 26 that says, "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you." "Stayed on" is to carry on, endure, linger, pursue, sustain, or to extend. This is a practiced and ongoing action, with design in mind: to reach "perfect peace." And the passage says, "He will keep in perfect peace..." It is God who brings that outcome. If he brings it, his timing is on him, but we can count on the promise as we do our part.

In Matthew 4, when Jesus is led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, we read of three temptations faced before the angels came to minister to him, or give him a pause from the battle. Not knowing how long the testing would go on, he was prepared with "It is written" for the next one, but there was no next one at that time. Only the relief of God's timing and his angels restoring Jesus. Jesus was still prepared; that is our example.

Along with that, James writes in chapter 4:7, "Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you." That is a promise without a time attached, but one we can count on. Some of us will experience relief immediately as we submit and resist; in some situations, the relief may not come as quickly. We may continue submitting and resisting without a break for a while, but eventually, "he flees." Ours is to trust God who promises. Be confident in God's faithfulness and continue what he has given us to do. Quitting leads to discouragement, and that can lead to "unbelief" and to turning away from the living God, as Hebrews 3&4 says.

Our ability to stop the landslide of "Me" focused consuming thinking is to trust the promises of God and act on his commands. Keeping our minds stayed on him, setting our minds on, meditating day and night on his word, delighting in scripture, fixing our eyes on Jesus, thinking about the things that please God. This is work, it takes commitment, and shows trust that God will do what he has promised. We are not told to do this alone. God fills us with help. His Helper, His Spirit. The promises we can depend on receiving are perfect peace, being raised with Christ, being blessed, seeing the joy before us, and knowing we are God's children. Marlon used to tell our kids, "My blessings are for those in my house." Knowing God's promises belong, unwaveringly, to those in his house should help us want to act against the thoughts that naturally consume us and displease him.

This morning, I was eager to be finished with the selfish, luxuriating, and all-consuming thinking. I made the decision to refocus my eyes, to set my mind, because this is what it takes to receive the reward for steady thinking and to gain perfect peace, and guess what? Writing this, exercised my obedience to put off the "Me" thinking; God has put his provision of "Perfect peace" into my mind. And I know he is ministering to me, as Jesus was ministered to at the end of his spiritual battle. Experiencing God's pleasure through his promises does feel good. For me, I write; for you, it is worked through differently. However, obedience is worked to and from, as long as that is the work that is all that matters.

Another wilderness will come, but I'm ready with "It is written."