"Loving God With Your Mind"

Philippians 4:8 says "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything is worthy of praise, dwell on these things." Paul was very clear about what we need to think about. He calls us to think on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. The problem that we so often have in thinking about what is true is that we devote a lot of thoughts to the past and try to imagine, "If only..." Or we can live paralyzed with fear, imagining "What if..." We also waste time dwelling on the present when out thought are consumed with "life should not look this way. It was not supposed to turn out this way." All of those thought patterns are based on thoughts that are not True. We accomplish nothing with that line of thinking except regret, fear, and resentment. And there is your formula for some very depressed thinking. We must learn to turn that around and acknowledge life as it is. We must deal with the hear and now. We must learn to relinquish the regret, the fear, and resentment and ask the Lord to take everything- all of the circumstances-and use them for His Glory. He can do it, you know. I cannot explain how he manages to take some of our grand messes and rework them so that He is able to gain glory for Himself, yet I have seen Him do this over and over in my life. Ask the Lord to receive all of you- the good, the bad, and the ugly, and to take those negative things, pass them through the fire, and allow them to be used for His Glory. The amazing thing is that when that process has taken place, God can use those very things to minister to others who are hurting.