Thought patterns
2020-05-07Romans 12:2 NIV
The way we think influences the way we act. It’s important to make sure our thoughts are lining up with God’s truth, so that we can live in a godly way. But it can be hard for us to change the way we’re thinking, or even to realise that our thoughts aren’t actually God’s truth. The things we go through in life can lead us to have certain negative thought patterns. For example, if we’re constantly put down or compared to others, we might feel like we’re not good enough or that we have to earn other people’s love and acceptance. These thought patterns shape how we live, how we relate to other people, and how we relate to God. They pre-programme us to respond in a certain way to situations. But we have a choice. We don’t have to believe and act on everything our mind tells us about ourselves or our situations. The Bible says, ‘be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’ We need to learn to renew our minds by replacing negative thought patterns with God’s truth. To do that we need to know what God’s truth is. We can find that out by spending time reading the Bible. God’s Word tells us the truth about who we are, and who He is. But if we don’t take time to read and learn the truth, we won’t easily recognise the thoughts that are lies. The Bible says: ‘Set your minds on things above’ (Colossians 3:2 NIV). By setting our minds on what God thinks about us, we’ll be able to recognise when the enemy is trying to make us believe a lie. We need to uproot the wrong thought patterns in our lives, and instead cultivate healthy, godly ones.