When left alone to ponder, the untrained mind is like a moving from thought to thought being driven with every wind that comes along. The idea that we can control what we think about is foreign to most people, but we absolutely can control our thoughts.
The key to controlling our thoughts are the words that we allow to come out of our mouths. Words are containers for images. We think in pictures, not in words. When you hear the word “dog”, you don’t think D-O-G. When you hear the word dog, your mind grabs a mental image of a dog. And if I add descriptors such as big, brown dog with long curly hair, the picture in your mind changes to reflect the words you hear.
You cannot think one thing while speaking something different. Your mind will always defer to the words that are coming out of your mouth. Take a moment to try this exercise…
Grab someone and ask them to close their eyes and begin to count backward silently in their head from 10-1. Once they begin counting, wait a few seconds then interrupt their counting by asking them to say their name. After they say their name, ask them what happened to their counting.
What you will find is that their counting stopped the moment they said their name. Your words have the ability to stop your thoughts in their tracks.
If you find it hard to keep your mind set on your chosen scriptures, begin to speak the verses out loud. Speaking the verses out loud is like tugging on a leash and bringing your mind back to where it should be. You might find this exercise tough to do in the beginning, but with daily practice you will find that meditation on various subjects from the bible becomes easier and easier.
As you spend time in meditation on the scriptures you will find that the picture of the scriptures that you spend your time meditating on will become larger than life. God’s Word regarding those scriptures will become vivid in a way that it never has before. What’s happening is that God’s Word is now moving down out of your mind and into your heart.
When the Word of God moves from your mind into your heart, it will come to pass in your life, for as a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7).
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