Published: August 21, 2009 01:02 am      

Fret not, worry not, fear not. Enjoy the Peace of Christ,

SAM SMITH Butterfly Ministries

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” [Philippians 4:8]



You are enjoying a beautiful day. Sun is shining, birds are singing, the breezes are cool and clean. The clear blue sky is decorated with puffy white clouds, colorful birds and an occasional marvelous butterfly. Life is good. It just doesn’t get any better.

And then---------

WHAM! The negative thoughts invade your mind like a Roman Army. The serenity is erased and replaced by worries, fears, doubts and fretful foreboding. What happened!? How can our thinking change so quickly? One minute we are sailing peacefully in the clouds – next instant we are up to our cerebral cortex in stinking thinking. It’s enough to make you crazy!

I have often thought that we need a “thought filter”. We need some kind of a device that intercepts any negative, unrighteous, evil, fearful or frightening thoughts and prevents them from entering our minds. So far, I haven’t been able to locate one – not a physical one anyway.

Paul addressed this matter in 2 Corinthians 10:5. He said, “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Most of us cannot prevent negative thoughts from reaching our consciousness. If you can please let me know how you do it. Paul taught that once the thoughts manifest, take them captive. In other words, recognize the bad thoughts and do not allow them to take root. Many authorities suggest replacement therapy. Replace the bad thoughts with good thoughts as soon as you recognize them. Recognizing them is a good trick in itself. We have grown so accustomed to negative thinking that we pay little attention to it. Negative thinking can do much damage and cause many problems that we are not aware of. Libraries are full of books on this subject, and many people battle psychological disorders due to an inability to control negative, evil thoughts.

I have heard many folks say that they simply do not ever watch the news, read the newspaper or listen to news radio. They try to avoid the negativity of the world as much as possible. Perhaps they are right. Following 9-11, many of us began watching the news more frequently than before. This has been a most interesting time in the history of mankind. We are so connected to world events by the media, and that has given us the opportunity to see so many things that we would have never seen a few years ago. Consequently, we have more visual aides to help us worry. Once we saw those airplanes crash into the Twin Towers, how can we ever forget it? The same is true with all the other tragedies and catastrophes we see on television. We have images imbedded in our subconscious of horrible, tragic, frightening things. It is not easy to avoid fretting, fearing and worrying. Perhaps it would be wise to turn off the news. What is even more amazing is some of the movies and T.V. shows we choose to watch. Many of the most popular television shows are murder mysteries with graphic forensics and violence. I admit that I like some of them, too. Why do we put that stuff in our minds? If we are honest about it, we know why – and from whom it comes.

We want to learn to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”. We want to think about whatever is true, whatever is noble, what ever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – anything that is excellent or praiseworthy. We want to avoid worrying, fretting and being fearful. Perhaps we can start by filtering the things that we allow into our minds. We may not have control over the thoughts that find their way in to our consciousness, but we can control what we watch and listen to. Even as I wrote that last sentence I realized how difficult it will be for me, but to improve our thinking we will have to make some changes.

Stay in the Word of God. Reading Scripture is always a good way to load our thinking with righteousness and truth. Read Christian books and other material. Listen to Christian music. Listen to Christian radio. Selectively watch Christian television. The more we saturate our thinking with God’s Word, the better we can become at taking evil thoughts captive. We do not have to be at the mercy of the enemy’s attempts to negatively influence our thinking and steal our peace. We can enjoy the peace of Christ.