Joyce Meyer - Powerful Thinking

Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life. If you continue to believe as you have always believed, you will continue to act as you have always acted. If you continue to act as you have always acted, you will continue to get what you have always gotten. If you want different results in your life or your work, all you have to do is change your mind.

A NONYMOUS

A re you completely satisfied with every aspect of your life? Or are there areas you would like to change? Are there parts of your life where you feel you need to grow and become stronger? Are there goals you want to reach and dreams you long to fulfill? Is there something you believe you were made to do or be, and you just cant seem to get there? The key to changing your life is changing your thinking. As you develop thought patterns (mindsets) that agree with Gods Word, everything about your existence will begin to improve. In some cases, your experiences will change, and in other situations, the change in your thinking will cause you to view the same circumstances from a different perspectiveand that will change your life. Either way, you win.

Your thinking is more powerful than you may realize. Everything in life begins with a thought, and your thoughts become the mindsets that chart your course in life and ultimately determine your destination. Your mindsets impact everything within you and everything you encounter. Every word you speak and every action you take originates in the mind. Your mindsets form your attitudes; they produce certain opinions and perspectives; they shape your self-image; they affect your relationships; they determine how productive you will be personally and professionally; they heavily influence your priorities; they guide the way you use your time, energy, and financial resources; and they make the difference between success and failure. There is no area of your life that your thinking does not touch. I cannot overemphasize how significant your thoughts are.

Your thinking can work for you or against you in surprisingly powerful ways. This is because the mind is not simply a function of your human body; it is part of the human soul, along with the emotions and the will (the ability to make choices). The mind is also a spiritual battleground, and the thoughts you think will either help you grow in your relationship with God or hinder you by causing you to think the way your enemy, Satan, wants you to think. It is the ground on which you wage war not only with the enemy over your personal life and your destiny, but also with worldviews and concepts or ideas that threaten to deceive you. It is the battlefield on which you make the decisions that lead to frustration and defeat or the ones that lead to strength, health, love, joy, peace, and abundance.

Scripture clearly teaches that we become what we think about. Thoughts and mindsets have the ability to make people happy, positive, strong, successful people or frustrated, negative, weak people. Mindsets make the difference between those who reach their goals and live their dreams and those who never seem to be able to do what they really want to do.

Before I continue, I want to state emphatically that I do not believe we can think into existence anything we want. That view of the power of thoughts is a form of humanism, which is an ungodly philosophy. But simply recognizing the fact that thoughts are powerful is not humanistic at all. In fact, its quite biblical, according to Proverbs 23:7 ( NKJV ).

The Bible teaches us that our minds must go through a process of renewal in order to experience Gods plan for us (Rom. 12:2). His thoughts are above our thoughts (Isa. 55:89), so in order to walk with Him and experience His good plans for our lives, we must learn to think as He thinks. Human nature is not bent toward thinking godly thoughts, but we can choose and discipline ourselves to do so.

Few people realize that we have the ability to choose our thoughts and decide what we want to think; most of us passively meditate on whatever comes into our minds without ever realizing that the enemy uses our minds to control us and keep us from fulfilling Gods plans and purposes for our lives. It is important to understand that while becoming a Christian immediately affects a persons heart and spirit, it does not suddenly cause a person to think differently. Each person who experiences regeneration through receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord receives a new spirit and a new heart from God. But our natural minds must be renewed, and we must learn to think with the mind of Christ in accordance with Gods Word. The intent of a persons heart may be pure while the mind is still confused. The Bible declares that we are to be transformed by the entire renewal of our minds and attitudes (Rom. 12:2). We do this through diligent, thorough study of Gods Word and thinking accordingly.

Choosing to think powerfully is not always easy. One of the greatest breakthroughs I have ever experienced took place when I finally realized I had the ability to control my thoughts, and one of the greatest challenges I have ever faced was the challenge to change my thinking once I realized that was possible. You can read more about my journey toward godly thinking in my books