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While listening to a sermon yesterday I was reminded of something from a sermon years ago, a phrase about “stinkin’ thinkin’.” The point was that what you regularly think about, what you put into your mind, and the thoughts you entertain are all things that go into your spiritual and mental health, and into your eventual actions. If you have stinkin’ thinkin’, it will affect your life negatively.

What you put into your brain is what you’re going to think about. Whatever you’re regularly exposed to will more readily and more easily be on your mind. It’s like having a container to put things in; what you put in is what you get out. You’re not going to put worms in it and then get cherries out of it later. You’re not going to put fabric in it and then get seaweed out of it later.

Your brain wires itself to be faster and more efficient at whatever you regularly do, so if you’re constantly thinking a specific type of thought or doing a specific thing in your mind, your brain will wear a rut into your neural pathways to make it easier and faster to do so. If you want to change that, it’s going to take some time for that first rut to fill in and some time for the new one to wear in, but it can be done.

But this all applies not just to the negative, it also applies to the positive. Stinkin’ thinkin’ will negatively impact you, but godly thinking will positively impact you. Seeking the truth from its source in God, studying it, and dwelling on it will make it easier to do it. Focusing your thoughts on goodness will make it easier for you to continue focusing there. Focusing your mind on God will make it easier to keep looking to Him.

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Helmet of Salvation
One Whole Being