The Word For Today

Recent research suggests that we have at least 6,000 thoughts a day. Let's observe four important things about our thoughts:

(1) Psychologists say that nearly all our thoughts are habitual. In other words, they're basically the same thoughts we had yesterday, and the day before that, etc. Your mind must be renewed (see Romans 12:2). You can't keep thinking the same things and expect a different outcome or a different outlook. So, take on a learning mindset! 'In all your getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you' (Proverbs 4:7-8 NKJV). (2) Very few of our thoughts are focused on the future. But faith is future oriented. 'Faith shows the reality of what we hope for' (Hebrews 11:1 NLT). (3) A Harvard University study found that the average person spends half of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they're presently doing. And psychologists say, 'A wandering mind is an unhappy mind.' Of course, the most obvious culprits are the digital devices that keep us disengaged. Nothing dumbs down our ability to dream like our so-called smartphones! (4) The Cleveland Clinic estimates that 80 per cent of our thoughts are negative. And verbalising those thoughts compounds the problem.

What's the answer to overcoming unhelpful thoughts? 'Whatever things are...noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things' (Philippians 4:8 NKJV).

Author Max Lucado wrote: 'Some time back, a mother asked me to pray for her eight-year-old son. He was troubled by a constant barrage of images and scary visions that left him withdrawn and timid. They even took his sleep at night. On the day we met, his eyes filled with tears, and he clung to his mother. She had taken him to doctors, but nothing had helped. I told him that the devil had no authority over his life. That the real battles are fought in the mind. That God will help us take every thought captive. I urged him to memorise a Bible verse and quote it each time the fearful thoughts came to his mind. "Reach up with your hand," I urged, "and grab the thought and throw it in the trash. And as quickly as you do that, replace it with a verse of Scripture." We then anointed him with oil and prayed for him. Five days later, his mother reported great progress. "Since last week, the images are gone; he is no longer seeing them. He recites this Scripture from Psalm 25:5 NKJV nightly: 'Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation.' I believe this has brought him closer to Christ." He uses the strategy of throwing the fearful thoughts away in the trash can. He said when he tried to throw them away, his head would hurt. I asked, "What made them go away?" He smiled and said, "I know God made them go away."'

So the word for today is - throw your fearful thoughts in the trash.

Christian cardiologist Dr Randolph Byrd had a great interest in knowing if prayer had a 'scientifically measurable' impact on healing. He has said, 'After much prayer, the idea of what to do came to me.' Over a ten-month period, a computer assigned 393 patients in the coronary care unit at San Francisco General Hospital to one of two groups. The first group was prayed for by home prayer groups. The second group was not remembered in prayer. The home prayer groups were from various Christian denominations. They were given only the first names of the patients and brief descriptions of their diagnoses and conditions.

The prayed-for patients differed from those not prayed for in these ways: (1) They were five times less likely to need antibiotics. (2) They were three times less likely to develop fluid in the lungs. (3) None required an artificial airway attached to a ventilator. (4) Fewer died. If the technique being studied had been a new drug or procedure, it would have been heralded as a breakthrough. Even Dr William Nolan, the author of a book denouncing faith healing, said, 'It sounds like this study will stand up to scrutiny...Maybe we doctors ought to be writing on our order sheets, "Pray three times a day."'

In the Old Testament, we read: '"For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds," says the Lord' (Jeremiah 30:17 NKJV). In the New Testament, James wrote: 'The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up...Pray for one another, that you may be healed' (James 5:15-16 NKJV).

It's no secret that the majority of marriages fail because of financial issues. Other relationships can also be threatened when financial expectations are unmet.

The following three strategies will go a long way in mitigating these pitfalls:

(1) Discuss with your spouse the maximum amount each of you may spend without getting the other's permission. Any amount above this limit will be considered 'major' and will require complete agreement. Every couple defines a 'major' purchase differently, so stick to what has been agreed on. This is important. If you do not agree on a transaction, when the deal goes bad, the tendency is to point fingers. (2) Advise your family that personal loans are against your 'house policy'. Should you decide to make an exception to the policy, make sure your spouse is in complete agreement. If you are wise, you will put the terms and the due dates in writing. (3) Don't enable your child, spouse or anyone else to remain irresponsible by bailing him or her out or always being their safety net. Just say no. By not saying no, you interrupt one of God's most effective principles - sowing and reaping the consequences of individual behaviour. Real maturity occurs when this lesson is learned. Love must be tough! If you are an enabler, ask God right now to give you the strength to stop being so. For example, insist on that rent payment from your still stay-at-home adult child who is able to contribute to household funds. This demonstrates character-building love, which is genuine love. If you need to set financial boundaries, do it!

Jesus changed the world. These were the last instructions to his disciples: 'All authority has been given to me in Heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you' (Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV). Jesus' followers took this seriously: 'Daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ' (Acts 5:42 NKJV). They remembered that they followed a man who taught everyone, and who commanded them to teach all peoples. So they did. They began to teach both men and women, both slaves and free.

Some of the world's greatest teaching institutions were founded by followers of Jesus, like Oxford and Cambridge universities. George Marsden noted: 'One of the remarkable facts about American history is that within six years of landing in Massachusetts wilderness, Puritans established what would soon become a reputable college.' These words are from a student handbook: 'Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life (John 17:3), and therefore to lay Christ...as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.' That was Harvard University!

Jesus' words not only inform us; they also transform us.

Here's Paul's prayer for the Ephesian church: 'That...God...may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation' (Ephesians 1:17 NKJV). For the Colossian church, he asked that God would fill them with 'the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding' (Colossians 1:9 NKJV). James wrote: 'If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God...and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting' (James 1:5-6 NKJV).

Godly wisdom also comes to us through reading the Bible. This is why Paul, in his last letter before being beheaded for the gospel, wrote to his successor Timothy and said, 'From childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation' (2 Timothy 3:15 NKJV).

How would you know that the wisdom you're walking in comes from God? 'The wisdom that comes from above is first of all pure. Then it is peaceful, gentle, obedient, filled with mercy and good deeds, impartial and sincere' (James 3:17 GWT). As young Solomon took the throne of Israel, God asked him, 'What shall I give you' (1 Kings 3:5 NKJV)? Solomon answered: '"Give to your servant an understanding heart."...The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing' (1 Kings 3:9-10 NKJV). As a result, Solomon became known as one of the wisest men who ever lived, and he wrote three of the books of the Bible. And the God who gave him wisdom will give it to you too. All you have to do is pray for it and open your heart and mind to his word.