Sisters from another Mister

The Bible says in Deuteronomy choose life not death. I put before you blessing  or cursing . God gave us free will , the ability to choose. It is up to us to be intentional. Our thoughts become our actions , which become our character , which become our destiny. Our lives are just a product of our choices that we make on a daily basis. They give us our daily habits. Daily habits become our life story. Think about the story that you will leave behind.

The famous Dr. Caroline Leaf teaches about this.You can find her on YouTube. She wrote a book called “Switch On The Brain”.I’m working through her 21 day detox of toxic thoughts.

She uses images of trees with leaves trees and without leaves . The Bible says  I will heal you  by the leaves on the trees . Revelation  22 .  As I’m looking at my lemon tree in my backyard I’m realizing once again I’m going to end up with maybe one lemon. Something has eaten away the foliage so it won’t bear fruit. I needed to react and protect the foliage to be intentional to make sure it had foliage so it could bear fruit and more fruit.

God made us to live here in this fallen world to bear fruit and much fruit. We need to make sure that those trees in our brain have foliage. Which means to choose to not focus on the toxic thoughts or to turn those toxic thoughts into more positive thoughts. The way the Bible says it is to take every thought captive to the mind of Christ. Truth……. Christ is the way, the truth and the life. He was the word and the word is the truth. So taking our thoughts intentionally captive to line up with the word of God is what is choosing life.

Well first of all you have to know what the word says to know how to choose. The Bible also says we can do nothing good apart from Christ. He said when he would leave , he would leave us a helper . Our helper is the Holy Spirit ,  He will guide us into all truth . We must pray and read the word to choose wisely. To choose life ,to choose truth.

Our adversary the devil is constantly attacking us in our thought life. He really has no power, but he’ll mix a lot of truth with a little bit of a Lie and bring us down the wrong path. The Bible says he’s prowling seeking to see who he can devour. He comes to steal, kill and destroy. We have to be alert and sober in order to thwart his plans.

My pastor’s wife taught a Bible study recently and she put up a picture of a mouse trap with cheese. It represented the bait that Satan puts before us. In her study it was an offense that would cause us to think against the word of God and then act on our anger from the offense. We can all fall to Satan’s traps. If you’re not looking for them and choosing a good thought life.

The Bible said that the Sheep know his voice. To discern between the Holy Spirit and the devil we must know God’s voice. When we stay in the word and stay abiding in the vine through prayer and communion with Him it helps us to do this. Without that we can bear no fruit and we’re like the sheep on the outside of the fold, dangerously vulnerable  to the enemy’s attack.

Sheep that are in the middle of all the other sheep are the safe ones. It’s through community that we grow closer to the Lord. We learn to  help  and seek out one another’s help . We learn to love others while they’re still broken. While they love us in the same way. Jesus said ” love one another as I have loved you .” But the ones that get hurt , leave the fold and  isolate themselves are overcome by the enemy. They are taken captive to do the devil’s will. 

Dear Jesus, today I pray for each of my sisters from another mister. We would guard our thought life. We would reject those thoughts that exalt themselves against the word of God. We would choose life not death. We would be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit. Through our relationship  with you , we could discern the enemy in our thought life. That we would focus on the word of God and keep our eyes on Jesus.  The Author and finisher of our faith. Lord we need your help to do this. We come before you humbly please convict us. Let your word be a light to our path and a lamp to our feet. Give us a strong desire  to be in your word every day. Let us not be overcome by the temptations of the devil ,  knowing that you always leave us a way of escape. Help us Lord to look for that and to be diligent in our thought life, so that our actions can glorify You. Help us not to get caught in the snare of pleasing men , but to be God pleasers prepared for every good work you have for us until you take us home.

In Jesus name , amen.