Keep Watch

Proverbs 4:²³ “Guard your heart above all else …be careful what you think because your thoughts determine the course of your life, control your life.” (NLT/ERV)

Guard Your Mind Against GARBAGE. Be on guard about what you feed your mind. Avoid toxic food and junk food. While toxic food can destroy your mind, junk food is not necessarily harmful, but it is not very useful either. Feed your mind healthy food, food that nourishes your mind, and helps you become better and stronger in God and in His will for your life. In addition to good food, another thing that I have found useful in guarding my mind against garbage is Conversational Prayer. 2 Samuel 2:¹ “After this, David asked the Lord, “Should I move back to one of the towns of Judah?” “Yes,” the Lord replied. Then David asked, “Which town should I go to?” “To Hebron,” the Lord answered.” Conversational prayer – just beautiful!

Before you pick a call ask the Lord, Lord, should I answer this call? I receive a lot of calls from different people. I typically would not pick up calls from unknown numbers. However, sometimes a call from an unknown number comes in and I am asking, ‘Lord should I pick up this call?’ There was a particular day this happened, and I felt, pick it. So, I picked up the call and it was something very important. If I had not picked up that call, I cannot tell what would have happened. But I did not know the number. So, in conversational prayer, you can actually engage your mind with God, therefore you are eliminating junk.

The second thing I have found useful in guarding my mind against garbage is to Focus On Good. Philippians 4:⁸ “…my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honourable.” (GNT). The way to get bad thoughts out of your mind is not to resist them. The only way to get rid of bad thoughts is to replace them. Imagine that there is a cup in front of you and you are saying to yourself repeatedly, I am not going to think about this cup. Guess what you are doing? You are actually forcing yourself to think about the cup. To take your attention off the cup, shift your focus to the ball next to it. After a while, the cup will fade from your mind.

So, replace those negative thoughts with good thoughts, and focus on good. What I am saying is guard your mind. Helmet your mind. To helmet your mind does not mean to limit yourself, but rather to protect it against the bad things. 2 Corinthians 10:⁵ “…take captive every thought…” (NIV).

Prayer: Holy Spirit, help me capture every rebellious thought and teach it to obey Jesus, that I may have the mind of Christ always, in the Mighty Name of Jesus. Amen!