Read Jeremiah 12:3 Many people who begin trying to get healthy and lose weight will start by going through their kitchen and getting rid of all the junk food in their house. This is a smart move because the food that is bad for you but tastes so good will often be too tempting to resist if they know it’s there. People take this step because they don’t just want their old life gone, they want it destroyed. They want to be able to move on to something better for their life. As the prophet Jeremiah was talking to God, He asked God, who knew him well, to help him with the thoughts that filled his head. Jeremiah understood that God knew His thoughts, and he asked God to test them. He wanted to make sure that the things he was thinking about lined up with who God was and who God had created him to be. In some stark imagery, Jeremiah asks God to take any thoughts that weren’t from God and drag them off like a sheep to be butchered and set them to be slaughtered. He didn’t just want his negative thoughts to be gone, he wanted them to be destroyed. The only way to truly destroy the wrong thoughts that consume us is by replacing our overwhelming thoughts with God’s truth. If here is anything in our minds that is inconsistent with who God is, there is no place for them. We not only need to identify and reject those thoughts, but we need to turn toward God to know the truth behind our overwhelming thoughts. When we identify thoughts that aren’t from God, we must make the decision to not meditate on the lie, but, instead, meditate on God’s perfect truth. God’s truth, not some false thought, is what should influence who I become. Destroy the negative thoughts that control you, so you can move on to the better things God has in store for you. REFLECT: How often do you spend thinking about God’s truth found in the Bible about you? Why do you think it’s easier to latch on to negative thoughts than it is to God’s truth? PRAY: Ask God to show you His truth to fight against the overwhelming thoughts in your life. Pray to God that He’ll help you read and understand His word, so you can meditate on it instead of your negative thoughts. // TWO-A-DAYS // GO A LITTLE FARTHER WITH YOUR DAILY DEVOTIONS // Go through these questions with your spouse, kids, or friend, or you can even journal about the answers to these questions:
- What was the best part of your day?
- What was the toughest part of your day?
- Where did you mess up today?
- Where did you see God today?
Recent Comments