How To Control Your Thoughts – Part 1

We’re living in a day and age when anxiety and stress are becoming normalized and expected as an unavoidable part of daily life. Are you ok with that? Have you accepted that as part of your life, not believing it’s possible to live a different way? God has a better plan for you. Read on for a timely message from Pastor Rick Warren, previously aired on “Life Together” with Jim Smith on 93.7 The Light. 

Our theme is Romans 12.2. This week I want us to look at it in the New Living Translation. “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” We’ve memorized it as “by the renewing of your mind.” The renewing of your mind is the way the NIV puts it. The NLT says “by changing the way you think.” Let me sum up what I want to say this weekend in one sentence:  

God is far more interested in changing your mind than changing your circumstances.

We want God to change our circumstances. We want Him to take away all the problems, all the pain, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the sadness…and God says “yeah, yeah, I know that’s important, but really more important than all that is what is happening in you. I’m far more interested in changing your mind before we change your circumstance, because nothing happens in your life until you get the renewing of your mind. No transformation takes place; no change takes place in your mind or in your life until your thoughts begin to change. Now why is it so important that I learn how to manage my mind? Let me give you three reasons:

1. My thoughts control my life. 

Every single action always begins as a thought. If you don’t think it, you don’t do it. That’s both good and bad. If it’s a good thought, you’re going to do good; if it’s a bad thought, you’re going to do bad. 

“Be careful how you think, your life is shaped by your thoughts.”

Proverbs 4.23 GNT

You don’t realize how important your thoughts are. The Bible says the power of your mind, the power of your thoughts have tremendous ability to shape your life, for good or for bad. If you accept the thought- if growing up, somebody said to you “you’re worthless, you’re no good, you don’t matter, you’re ugly, you’re uncoordinated- if you accepted that fact, whether it was right or wrong, it shaped your life. We’re always interested in our feelings, but your feelings don’t shape your life- your beliefs do. And it doesn’t even have to be true. If you believe it, it’s going to shape your life. A lot of you were taught things as a kid, about you, that just aren’t true, and years later, you’re still acting on false information. 

Be transformed by changing the way you think. 

2. My mind is the battleground for sin.

It’s where I win or lose the battle. In fact, all temptation happens in the mind. We think temptation is something out there, something external, something that happens that we see out there and say “oh, that’s tempting to me.” It wouldn’t tempt you if there wasn’t a correlating desire inside you. All temptation happens in your mind, between your ears. As a result, sin happens in your mind, it happens between your ears. We talk about the sins of pride or lust or bitterness or hatred or anger or fear or resentment or envy or worry. Where are those things? They’re all in your mind. If you can learn how to manage your mind, you’ve learned how to manage your life. This is where the battleground is. Paul, in Roman 7, is very articulate in explaining how we’ve all felt in this battle that pulls us in many different directions in our mind. 

“I love to do God’s will, so far as my new nature is concerned, but there’s something else deep within me that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin within me. In my mind, I want to be God’s servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin.”

Romans 7.22-23

We can all identify with that. I want you to notice several words in that passage. War, fight, slave, enslaved- what’s he saying? He’s saying there’s a battle in your brain. It’s one of the reasons why you get mentally fatigued, because there’s a battle in your brain and it’s going on 24 hours a day. Sometimes you’re conscious of that battle, and sometimes you’re unconscious of that battle, but it’s going on in your life. The reason why that battle in your brain is going on and it’s debilitating, is because it’s so intense. The reason why it’s so intense is because your brain and your mind is your greatest asset. Satan wants to control your mind. The world wants to control your mind, and there’s a battle for the way you think. Why? 

Whatever gets your attention, gets you. 

So I need to manage my mind because my thoughts control my life and because my mind is a battleground for temptation and sin. 

3. It’s the key to peace and life.

Managing my mind is actually the key to peace and the key to happiness. If you learn what we’re going to talk about this weekend and you begin to plan in your life, your peace of mind will go up dramatically and so will your happiness and so will your understanding and enjoyment of life. An unmanaged mind leads to tension; a managed mind leads to tranquility. An unmanaged mind leads to pressure; a managed mind leads to peace. An unmanaged mind leads to conflict, chaos; a managed mind leads to confidence. An unmanaged mind leads to stress- you don’t manage your thoughts, you let them go all over the place. You don’t ever even try to control your mind and the way you direct your thoughts. You’re going to have an enormous amount of stress in your life; but a managed mind leads to strength, and leads to security, and leads to serenity. The Bible says it like this in Romans 8.6: If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death.” By the way, what is death? It’s the opposite of life; you’re not really living. “But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace.” 

Be sure to check back for the next blog in this series “How To Control Your Thoughts – Part 2” for more biblical wisdom from Pastor Rick Warren.