A lot of people don’t realize that we all have the ability of mind control. Did you know that you can actually, for real, control your own mind? You can tell your own mind what to do and why to do it.
We all say rash words, lose our tempers, lash out, and have dirty thoughts, but did you know that everything that you do or say all began as a thought in your mind? So if you can “nip it in the bud,” you can clean up a lot of problems before they even happen.
Much like a jar or a box, what you put into your brain is what you’re going to get back out of it. Whatever fills your mind will spill out of it. You can control what goes into your brain based on what you allow yourself to watch, look at, listen to, and the like. But by nature your mind cannot be empty. It must be filled with something, so if you do not fill it with good, godly things, it will fill up with everything else with which it comes into contact.
Much like walking and driving, what you look at and focus on will be the direction you start to go. When you focus on something you often have to look at it closely. If your focus is not purposely fixed on God, your mind’s focus will wander everywhere else, and because of our sin nature it will fix on something wrong.
Now there are times when you’re just going to have a thought you don’t want, merely because of human nature. But what you do with that thought determines a world of consequences, good or bad. Much like a round of quick shooting or swordplay, you can spot and shoot or cut down unwanted thoughts when they arise. You can even do that more accurately in your head than you can with an actual weapon.
But remember that none of this is done without God’s help. You can only do so much by yourself, and that isn’t much. When you take away bad thoughts you must replace them with good ones. When you take your focus off of something unhealthy, you must refocus on God. Read Philippians 4:8, Romans 12:2, Matthew 22:37, and Deuteronomy 6:5 & 10:12.