We can make a sincere effort to try to counter our thoughts and to bring them into subjection to Christ and obedience to Him, and we will discover that they will affect the life that we lead. I would urge you to look these over from day to day (what Paul lists here) and ask yourself are these the things that you are thinking about?

Now ordinarily we don’t stop and consciously ask ourselves what thoughts are going through our minds, but I think that we need to do that more often. We need to be as it were a supervisor of our own thoughts—a bishop, which is an overseer, of the thoughts of our minds to see what kind of thoughts we are dwelling on.

When we see that we are beginning to go down one of those well-worn channels again, that we say, “Stop, you are not going down that channel anymore.” We want to replace the ungodly thoughts with godly ones.

Unholy thoughts lead to unholy living. Holy thoughts do lead to holy living. Some people have said that a person is what he thinks about all day. That may not be totally true, but the old saying is true: garbage in, garbage out. Be the bishop of your thoughts.

Father, give us strength for today to control what we think about. Forgive us for allowing our minds to dwell on evil things. Lord, renew our mind and so renew our lives…