Two-minute read.
God hears every word we say and think; He knows the meditation of our hearts. And I must confess, I’m not proud of some of the words, thoughts, and meditations I’ve had in the past. However, I have immense gratitude to the Lord for showing me the error of my ways and for helping me capture my thoughts and make them obedient to Christ.
“You demonize people,” Ron told me early in our marriage. Working through a conflict with a friend, I could see nothing good about them, only focusing on the bad. Using confirmation bias, I searched for things they did or said that would affirm my belief that I disliked them. Because they had hurt me, the pain closed my eyes to anything good. Ron helped me understand that people have both good and bad. I have both; we all do. And when we look for the bad, we will find it, but if we look for the good, we will see it as well.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
Meditating on God’s word will help us not demonize people, but instead, accept them as imperfect people. Only Jesus lived a perfect life; for the rest of us, we fall short of the mark and require grace. Choosing to meditate on scripture allows us to please God with the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts. Now, when I get hurt, instead of meditating on the pain, I give it to the Lord and let Him heal my heart. By doing so, I can look below the surface and see the person’s own hurt that caused the action, or maybe they didn’t mean to hurt me at all, completely unintentional. Either way, the Creator reveals the truth to me, helping me extend grace and love as Jesus did.
Center your thoughts on the Savior, meditate on His teachings. The more we focus on God, the more pleasing our words and meditations will become. As we allow the Lord to search our hearts, revealing iniquities, the purer it will become. Only when we shed light in the darkness can we become bearers of the light. Jesus leads us in the way of righteousness; the better we follow, the more we will become like Him.
Journal Questions:
When have you said, thought, or meditated on the wrong thing?
In what ways can you focus your thoughts on Jesus?
How do you think meditating on God’s word will help you live more abundantly?
Friendship Application:
Focus your heart and mind on Jesus and let Him lead you in His ways.
