Whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things. — Philippians 4:8
This Scripture is one of my favorites — in fact, God gave me this Scripture for the title of my radio show. As each year goes by, I can understand this Scripture more and more! This thought is biblical. I did not really see what it was saying until I read Napoleon Hill’s book about 15 times or more. Hill repeated over and over, “Thoughts are things.” The principle is easily seen in so many ways, as we see daily the happenings in our world today. You sure can tell who is watching what they say by carefully orchestrating their words with a positive spin!
These positive people choose, with their own free will, to stay focused on those things that are right, noble, pure and lovely. They do their thinking much more on the positive side of this life rather than always thinking those dark and negative thoughts. For example, when someone makes a mistake, those negative thinkers will automatically declare that this happened on purpose rather than giving them the benefit of the doubt. There is quite possibly another reason why something happens.
Pessimistic and depressed folk tend to have negative attitudes towards anybody and anything, and they’re always choosing to think and dwell on the negative side, the way Jeremiah did. That’s why they called him “Weeping Jeremiah,” always crying about something! Jesus did warn us that we would go through many trials and tribulations. Job 14 NIV says, “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.”
However, there is a flip side to this coin. On the one side of the coin is the darker side of this life, but on the other side of this coin is the good, positive and brighter side. It is not all death, doom and destruction. Even in the worst-case scenario, there is always hope and a light at the end of that storm cloud tunnel. However, those with constant negative thoughts think quite the opposite.
The difference between these two types of people is in their thought. The people who are always happy, upbeat and positive have chosen to look on the brighter side of things, even when times are awful! Bad thoughts bring down your spirit, bring down your health, and definitely bring down your productivity. You will walk around with a defeated attitude. Therefore, you will indeed get defeated in everything you put your hands to do!
The Scripture in Philippians is very clearly telling us in the above verse that we can all choose what to think about and dwell on. We do not have to become slaves to negative and pessimistic thinking. In other words, we can choose to think about what we want to think about! Our thinking and thought process does not control us — we control it! Negative-type thinking habits can be broken by becoming more aware of the thoughts you’re thinking. Then make the switch, on purpose and be sincere about it. When you’re feeling sorry for yourself because of something you do not have, begin to count your blessings. That negative thinking will turn and go in the opposite direction, because you will be filled with joy, thanking God for all He’s doing for you and your family!
Don’t allow negative thinking to take a stronghold on you! You can change the way you think, and you can do it the way the Bible tells us to in Philippians 4:8 where it tells us to “Think on These Things!”
However, as you will see in some of the Scripture verses I will list below, the Bible tells us that we can take “captive” what we think about. The verse that will give us this revelation says we have to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus. Proverbs 23:7 tells us, “As someone thinks within himself, so he is.”
Lyndia Grant is a speaker/writer living in the D.C. area. Her radio show, “Think on These Things,” airs Fridays at 6 p.m. on 1340 AM (WYCB), a Radio One station. To reach Grant, visit her website, www.lyndiagrant.com, email lyndiagrantshowdc@gmail.com or call 240-602-6295. Follow her on Twitter @LyndiaGrant and on Facebook.
