Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
The interest of organic and non-genetically modified foods is on the rise because of their health benefits in comparison to the highly processed foods that has become the staple of our diets. We have heard for years that physically, you become what you eat, and science has proven as much. So we should be diligent to eat healthy and in the right proportions. However, there is something else that is more profound and has even more far-reaching effects in terms of our overall physical, mental and spiritual health. It is the way we think.
According to Dr. Caroline Leaf, “87% to 95% of the illnesses that plague us today are a direct result of our thought life. What we think about affects us physically and emotionally. The average person has over 30,000 thoughts a day. Through an uncontrolled thought life, we create the conditions for illness; we make ourselves sick! Research shows that fear, all on its own, triggers more than 1,400 known physical and chemical responses and activates more than 30 different hormones.
Toxic waste generated by toxic thoughts causes the following illnesses: diabetes, cancer, asthma, skin problems and allergies to name just a few. Medical research increasingly points to the fact that thinking and consciously controlling your thought life is one of the best ways, if not the best way of de-toxing your brain. It allows you to get rid of those toxic thoughts and emotions that can consume and control your mind.”
Jesus’ inaugural message was a simple, but extremely profound truth, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 4:17). Repent means change the way you think. Jesus revealed up front if we desire to experience true and lasting change it would be from the inside out and not from the outside in.
The most foundational of all factors in our life is the way we think. It is the thoughts you allow yourself to think, the subjects that you allow your mind to dwell upon and how you process those thoughts and subjects that make you and your surroundings what they are. The bottom line is if you want to change your life then change the way you think.
This is brought out so clearly in the New Living Translation of Romans 12:2:
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Notice, the “pleasing and perfect” feelings that flow from knowing God’s will don’t come first. Rather, a changed way of thinking comes first. In other words, right feelings follow right way of thinking.
It all boils down to the source of our thinking. Back in the garden we switched sources. We ate from the wrong tree and one moment our source was God-in-and-through-us, a moment later our source was boiled down to just us with the devil’s help. The way we change the way we think is to switch back to the original source.
Jesus’ goal was to give us a new source and a new way of thinking. The New Testament is a demonstration and revealing of what that new way of thinking looks like. Of course Jesus Himself is the source. When we stay connected, think abide, to Him we can begin to tap into His mind, His way of thinking and then begin to do and say what He is doing and saying. That is the only way to really live the abundant life we are promised and be who He said we are.
Many Blessings, BW