Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, March 13th. Are your thoughts helping you or holding you back? Today’s podcast wraps up a message from Colossians chapter 3 focused on controlling your thoughts. You and I live in a society and in a time in a culture that our minds are continuously bombarded by what? things that we see on the television or in the movies, things we read in the newspapers, things other things that we read for example, words that you hear, sites that you see. Our mind is always
receiving all of these things. Sometime that’s good, sometime it’s not so good. The question is, how can you and I live a godly life and think right when we live in a world that’s throwing all of these things that are not right at our mind? So I want you to listen very carefully. What you think today is affecting your life more than you realize.
Who you are today is the result of what you’ve been thinking all these years of your life. And what you think today is going to determine where you’re going to be tomorrow and what you’re going to be tomorrow. Because you see, it’s our thoughts that cause us to become what we are. It’s our thoughts that influence our relationships, our choice of occupation, our marriage partner.
It’s our thoughts that cause us to move in a certain direction to make certain decisions that affect our finances, that affect every aspect of our life, that affect our relationship to Jesus Christ. Our thoughts are powerful mediums. Now the problem is how do I face these situations and circumstances and listen to these words and all the bombardment that Satan and all of his outfit throws at us day by day.
How can I face that and at the same time do what he says that is keep on seeking him set my mind on him and remember this the mind is like the pilot the mind’s like where the radar is this is the captain of your life that is what your mind says you’re going to do I I want you to turn to first Peter the first chapter and the 13th verse look at this here’s what he says therefore Prepare your minds for action.
Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. That is prepare your mind. That is I have a responsibility. For example, let’s say that you choose to sit down and watch some program on television and uh you heard about it and you heard it was sort of questionable.
Well, you certainly have a right to decide whether it was or not. And so you sit down and you begin to watch it. And what you have to remember is to prepare your mind. You see, if you just sit with a mind in neutral, you’re going to be in trouble. But you prepare your mind. How you prepare your mind? I prepare my mind that as a child of God, I will be alert to what would lead me into erroneous thinking.
I will be alert to what would lead me to want something I don’t have any business having. I will be alert to what I hear to whether it’s a truth or whether it’s unscriptural. Now I can’t tell somebody else how to live. I can simply say here’s what God’s word says. Now a thought reaps what? An action.
An action reaps a habit. A habit reaps what? Our character. And our character reaps our destiny. When you begin to think about something, what happens? As you think about it, before long, if you agree with it, your feelings get involved. Next thing you know, your whole body gets involved and you’re moving in that direction.
And then if you just keep on doing that, you and I would say, well, you develop a habit. And if we keep doing that, that habit becomes a part of who we are. so much a part of who we are. It becomes a part of our character. That’s what we are. It’s our character. And then when we reach that stage, that’s our destiny. That’s where we’re headed in life.
And so you might think about that right in the back of your Bible. And remember, when you take a move in a direction as a result of how you think, remember it’s going somewhere. It isn’t just stagnant. And he says, “Our focus, our mindset, what we’re seeking in life, and if I were to ask you today, what is it that you’re seeking most in life above everything else?” Most people more than likely would think in terms of security or that is something material or some relationship, something maybe sensual.
