A Life to Build Your Thoughts Upon

Habit #2

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Uphill Habits

Most people have Uphill hopes and  downhill habits.

Hope gets you going.  Habits keep you going.

What I starve dies.  What I feed thrives.  It takes 21 days to create a new habit.  Get rid of stinking thinking.  I'll never change my life until I change the way I think. 

(Romans 12:2 MSG) Fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Habit #2

I must control my thoughts.

(Ecclesiastes 10:2 MSG) Wise thinking leads to right living. Stupid thinking leads to wrong living.

✓Everything begins with a thought.

(Romans 12:2 NLT) Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

✓What we think determines how we feel.

(Philippians 4:8-9) 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... and the God of peace will be with you.

✓Our thoughts determine our destiny.

(Romans 8:5-6 NLT) Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. If your sinful nature controls your mind, there is death. But if the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life and peace.

Sow a thought.  Reap an action.  Sow an action. Reap a habit.  Sow a habit.  Reap a lifestyle.  Sow a lifestyle.  Reap your destiny. 

Mastering the Habit

1.Find a plan to control your thoughts.

Replace your thoughts with what God says about you and your world in the Bible.  

(Hebrews 4:12) For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

2.Find a place to think your thoughts.

  

Turn down the world's volume to hear from God. Have a daily conversation with God.

(Isaiah 26:3 NLT) You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!

(Colossians 3:2 NLT) Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

3.Find a person to stretch your thoughts. 

Join a small discussion group with other believers to challenge your thinking. 

(Hebrews 10:24-25 NLT) Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

4.Find a purpose to build your thoughts upon.

Think about why you're on this planet. 

(Romans 12:2) Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

5.Find a power to fuel your thoughts.

God wants to settle your past and talk to you about your future.

  

(Ephesians 3:20 NKJV) Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

Lord, I open my life to the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Isaiah 55:9 (NIV)

9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways

    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Chris Hodges, Church of the Highlands 

Video

https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/media/message/habit-2

Discussion Guide

https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/files/groups/guides/1-15-2017.pdf

All scripture is from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.

Self Talk

Have you ever thought about what you are thinking about?

It's called self talk.

What's in our minds comes out in our lives.

Many of us have a negative dialogue with ourselves.

We let any negative thought drive on the highways of our minds.

Every time you think a thought.  It creates a pathway.

Every time you think about it.

It becomes deeper. 

Every time you think a thought.  

It's harder to think something else.

Proverbs 23:7  (NKJV)

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

Your life will always go in the pattern of your strongest thoughts.

If you think you can't, you won't.

We've got to renew our minds.

Romans 12:2  (NKJV)

... be transformed by the renewing of your mind...

We have the power to change everyone of our thoughts.

My mind used to be my enemy.

You will be set free to the degree that you renew your mind.

God's attracted to those who are fully committed to Him.

2 Chronicles 16:9  (NKJV)

9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.

We make a habit.  

Then, the habit makes us.  

Here's a new habit to make...

Philippians 4:4-9 (NKJV)

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!

Step 1. Pre-decide to rejoice in your relationship with the Lord and not in your circumstances.

Delight in God.  Stop questioning God, and believe in God's goodness.

5 Let your gentleness (reasonableness) be known to all men. 

We are to process all of our circumstances through our belief that God loves us and is at work in our lives. 

The Lord is at hand (nearby).

6 Be anxious for nothing, 

Step 2.  We must discern the lies of the devil in our thoughts. 

Romans 12:2 (ESV)

2 ...testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

You see the lie by comparing your thoughts to God's Word in regards to the lie. 

Everything that the devil says is a lie.  There are three areas of the devil's lies. 

It's about...

A. Self- your identity.

B. God- who He is.

C. Others- your relationship with others breeding disunity.  

If you do the opposite to what the devil is saying, you're probably going in the right direction.  

Lord, show us the devil's lies.

but in everything by prayer and supplication (petition),

A petition is a formal request to a higher authority to reverse a decision of a lower authority. Read Psalms 91:1. 

with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 

Step 3. Pray and speak the truth of Scripture in regards to your thoughts that contradict Scripture.  

God's word is truth.  God's word demolishes the devil's lies.  

(John 17:17, Hebrews 4:12, 2 Cor. 10:3-5, Eph. 6:17)

Pray out loud.  It seals the promise.  

Romans 10:17  (NKJV)

17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.   

When you pray out loud God's Word, you are hearing it, and it is increasing your faith.

When it doesn't work immediately, a lot of us want to give up.  

Don't try something else!

Repeat steps 1, 2, and 3. 

That re-enforces it in your thoughts.

We are not to walk in fear.

2 Timothy 1:7  (NKJV)

7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

We are not to walk in shame.

Romans 8:1 (NKJV)

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 

We don't see facts.

We see feelings.

What has the enemy infiltrated in your mind?

That's what prayer and fasting is all about...

7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things arelovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. 

9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.  

Hamp Greene, Church of the Highlands 
https://www.churchofthehighlands.com/media/series/holy-habits