Monday, April 14, 2008

Words of Encouragement



Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught at the voice of the enemy, at the stares of the wicked; for they bring down suffering upon me and revile me in their anger. – Psalm 55:1-3

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, 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

What are your thoughts? Stinking thinking. On this past Sunday, my Co-Pastor, Sis. Reid preached a message from Philippians 4:8, entitled “What are you thinking? As I sat listening to the message there were some things that the Lord spoke to me that will be our focus this week in the Words of Encouragement.

As we take a look at the scripture we see David troubled in his thinking. David is troubled because of the wickedness and the treatment he is receiving. His thoughts are so focused on what is around him, that at this very moment this is all he can see. The trouble in his life while real has become consuming.

He is troubled. Troubled means he is anxious, distressed, worried, bothered and uneasy. You know what happens when you become anxious, distressed, worried, bothered and uneasy about things you are facing in life, you become immobilized.

This is just where the enemy of our soul wants us to be, stuck in our thoughts and worried about all that isn’t going our way. I call this “stinking thinking”. It smells of the enemy’s tricks! If we are stuck thinking about what is going wrong and how the wicked seems to be prospering while we are in agony and defeat, we become depressed.

Instead what then are we to do when our thoughts are focused on the things that the wicked are doing against us? Well the first thing we see that David did that was right; he took his concerns to the Lord. There is a next step then that we need to do and that is what the scripture in Philippians tells us. We have to change our focus. We have to change our focus from stinking thinking, thinking about those defeating things, to the good things of the Lord. We need to begin to affirm to ourselves that we have victory in Jesus. That the enemy is already defeated in our lives and we can trust God to do what he has said he will do.
Today I pray for someone that has stinking thinking. God change our thoughts so that we will not dwell our thoughts in those things that smell of defeat and destruction. Help us to change our thoughts so that we can think your thoughts and walk in your way.

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