Cleaning Out the Excess-Part 2

Yesterday we looked at what bad thinking does to our hearts. If you missed that post you can read it here.

Today, we are going to look at how we can combat those negative, stinky thoughts with God's Word. 

This is the first step to cleaning out the excess in our hearts.

Do y'all know how many thoughts we think about on an average day? I don't either, but what I do know is it is a TON. 

From the time we wake up, to the time we finally fall asleep, our mind is full of thoughts and our hearts are absorbing a majority of them.

So how can we sort through all these thoughts and ensure only the good are going in.

1. We ask God to make us aware of every thought. Good and Displeasing thought.

     Here are a few passages that will help us. (These are great verses to memorize, write on a card and carry with you.)

•  "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life." 

•  "May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart, be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." Psalm 19:14        

2. We take every thought captive and place it under the obedience of God's Word

• "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (NIV)
• What exactly does this passage mean and how do we take our thoughts captive?
• 1. We literally grab a hold of the thought we are having. For example let's say we are having a critical thought. We take that critical thought, and place it under God's microscope, view it, dissect it, and find out the root of it. We then take the root of that thought and place it under the obedience of Christ, by casting it down and going through these next two steps below.

3. We acknowledge and confess it.

• "If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
• When we confess our sinful thoughts, we bring them out into the "Light" for Him to expose, examine, forgive and cover in His blood. We need to be doing this daily. This is a huge part of bringing our thoughts into captivity and placing them under the obedience of Christ. 
• Confession must always lead to repentance. 

4. Then we remove it and replace it with God's truth.

• Once confession and repentance takes place. The second most important and crucial part to getting rid of the excess and sinful thoughts, is removing it-by nailing it to the Cross. (This means you literally get rid of it. Once you do, it is no longer yours. It's not available, it's not accessible. It has to be destroyed.) Then you have to replace the empty with God's Word. (God's Word is clutter free, stress free, beautiful, enjoyable, and doesn't leave a mess.)
• To Remove it
• We have to be willing and we have to choose to LET IT GO! This can be a huge stronghold for many. Especially if it is something that has been apart of our life for a long time. Hoarding negative and sinful thoughts has become a bigger issue than we are truly aware of.
• "Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit." Romans 8:5
• Are you dominated or are you controlled?
• If you are dominated removing the stronghold will be hard, but can be done.
• If you are controlled, letting go will be easy.
• We have to remove all the things that fill our thoughts with darkness.
• "Your eyes is a lamp for your body, A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul. But an evil eye shuts out the light and plunges you into darkness. If the light you think you have is really darkness, how deep that darkness will be!" Matthew 6:22-23
• Where does a majority of your sinful thoughts stem?
• TV
• Music
• Friends
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• Self
• Co-workers
• Internet
• Books
• Magazines
• It's important to be aware of how your thoughts get started, for then it will be easier to remove them. 
• "Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth." Colossians 3:2
• "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." Romans 12:2
• Do you know the best way to remove the sinful clutter of thoughts? Is by crowding them out. Don't allow there to be any room for them in your heart. We do this by doing this final step.
• Replacing the empty spaces the clutter left behind.
• This is so very important, let me tell you why.
• "When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ' I will return to the person I came from.' So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and clean. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before." Matthew 12:43-45
• Sweet one we can clean up all this clutter within our thoughts and hearts, but if we don't fill it up with God's Word, we too will be worse off than before. 
• Now, we have an entire Bible full of amazing things to fill our thoughts with. But to break it down, I have one that I believe is very powerful, helpful, enriching and fulfilling.
• Philippians 4:8-9-"Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you." 
• How exactly does this all work?
• Let's take that critical thought we were having and see how all this ties together and works for His glory and our good.
• We have the critical thought. It is placed under the microscope, we are aware of the root of it, we know begin the process of elimination.
• God gives us 8 steps in Philippians 4:8-9
• 1. Is this critical thought true?
• 2. Is this critical thought honorable?
• 3. Is this critical thought right?
• 4. Is this critical thought pure?
• 5. Is this critical thought lovely?
• 6. Is this critical thought admirable?
• 7. Is this critical thought excellent?
• 8. Is this critical thought worthy of praise?

Brethren when you focus on these 8 steps in your thought life, before you even get to number 3 God will have already revealed to you that thought is either good or no good. Then, it is up to you to acknowledge it, confess, repent from it, remove it and replace it. 

All of this takes action and obedience. Without either of those taking place, the work you are doing to clean out the excess will be done in vain. 

So as you can see, there is work to be done. Keep your eyes on the prize and don't give up. You will have a few set backs, you will probably have a few interruptions, but just keep your eyes on Jesus and the end result.

Happy cleaning day!

"We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish." Hebrews 12:2