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And now, dear brothers and sister, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (Philippians 4:8 NLT)
I had this thought come to me as I was reading and praying this week, “Don’t make a god of it.” It can be most anything that comes up in our lives. It might be sickness. It might be finances. It might be bitterness or unforgiveness. It might be an injustice done to us. It might be something we did. It might be bad traffic or someone in the store offending us. It might be a family member or a total stranger. It might be a lot of things, but we decide what it accomplishes in our life. We control whether it controls us or we control it.
So, do you have any it in your life that has taken control? What is it? How often do we allow it to become god in our life. All we do is think about it. It wakes us up in the night. It comes up when we see a certain person or we hear a certain word. Everything reminds us of it. It might just hang back in the shadows for a time and then there it is.
Think about it! It is just not right. It makes me so mad. It is driving me crazy. It is not fair. It hurts so badly. It will never get better. I cannot forget it. This is just the way it is I guess. I don’t get it. The list grows and you consider how often it comes up. Think about it. No, don’t!
You see, that is the problem, we are always thinking about it. And when we do this, it becomes god. It places a curtain over our eyes and we do not recognize that it is keeping us from what God really has for us.
When it comes up, ask yourself, is this true? Even if it is true, there is truth that is better. Think about the one who loves you and has promised to protect and direct you. He is greater than it, and He has already overcome it. He has overcome everything; even death.
If we let it, it will win because it is driven by the powers that want to destroy us. Have you ever been told, or told someone else, “Don’t let it get to you?” Of course you have. You have even tried to convince yourself on occasion to just forget it. The sad truth is, we are not so good at just forgetting it, because it is very resilient. It just keeps coming up.
However, we can overcome it. We can be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We can fix our thoughts on other things so that when it comes up, it has nowhere to grow, and it must go.
So, what is it that you are about to put out and leave out of your life. Prayerfully, you have it all under control, but just in case, I pray that this will be something you keep in mind next time it tries to raise its’ head and become god in your life. You control what it can do. Take charge.