Thinking as a Christian

I desire to live a godly Christian life.

Here's what I know. It begins in with my thought life. It begins with my mind. I am only as spiritual as my thought life.

Many followers of Christ are trying to live out their faith without paying attention to their mind. "Christians without Christian minds," as one writer wrote.

It's important that we as Christians think "christianly."

We can pray as Christians.

We can worship as Christians.

We can talk as Christians.

But we are to think as Christians as well.

Let me ask you this: How is your thought life today? Would it be pure enough to place every thought that you have thought today on a screen and show it Sunday morning in a morning worship service? Probably not.

Proverbs 4:23 tells us, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." And then in Proverbs 23:7, "For as he thinks within himself, so he is."

As Christians, we are free to have a Christian mind.

Please pay attention to this: it is a choice. Having a Christian mind is a choice that I make.

I must choose to all negative, evil and ungodly thoughts to dwell in my mind.

In other words, I must be intentional about what I allow to enter into my mind.

I turn my mind from evil thoughts, and I turn my mind toward godly ones.

How "to do" that?

I must read the Bible.

Please pay attention to this as well: I can never have a Christian mind without reading the Scriptures regularly because I CANNOT BE PROFOUNDLY INFLUENCED BY THAT WHICH I DO NOT KNOW.

However, we can't become legalistic about reading God's word by "reading the Bible through in a year." That's all well and good but the Bible nowhere demands this.

Some simply cannot read well, or fast. As Lucy told Charlie Brown: "I just completed a course in speed reading and last night I read War and Peace in one hour......it was about Russia."

Read one verse a day. Read one minute a day. At least - read.

I must read Christian books.

"Reading" is not a dirty word!

Some examples:

"Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer

"My Utmost for His Highest" by J. Oswald Chamber's

Let's all program our minds and think godly thoughts. And we will never be the same.