DWELL ON THESE

Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable ​— ​if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy ​— ​dwell on these things.  -- Philippians 4:8

Try as we might to only ever think of right or good things, our mind is a complicated thing.  It plays tricks on us and we play tricks back.  We have all fallen into the trap of thinking about wrong or less than positive things.  If we allow those negative thoughts to hang out in our minds, before long, they can lead us to become upset, discouraged, and something less than God has in mind for us as His children.

We encouraged here in this passage to think on good things.  In fact, the Apostle Paul is very specific.  He gives us a list:  whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, or otherwise has moral excellence and is praiseworthy.  We are not only to think about them.  We are instructed to dwell on these.

What we think about can have a powerful influence over our lives and can lead to a change in our habits and actions.  Neuroscientists have discovered that repetitive thoughts form neural pathways as neurons that fire together, get wired together.  Can I just tell ya something?  This is already way too sciency and above my paygrade.  But this means that the more a particular thought is allowed to stew in our minds, the stronger those neural pathways become.  As those neural pathways become stronger, they become our "go to" pattern of thinking.  So Paul says, do not think about those things.  Think about these other things instead.

Can I just tell ya something?  This is already way too sciency and above my paygrade. 

The challenge for us as true disciples and followers of Jesus, is to redirect negative thoughts when we begin to sense them creeping into our minds.  We need to replace them with thoughts which have moral excellence and then dwell on them.  Purposing in our hearts to only allow positive thoughts to hang out is a setup for success.