“Therefore consider (the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being (renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him…”
(Colossians 3:5-10).
Thinking God’s way does not come easily to us because it is often contrary to the world’s perspective. The world says, “Fight for your rights – don’t let anyone push you around.” But Jesus teaches that it is the merciful, the meek and the peacemakers who are successful in God’s kingdom. (Matthew 5:5-9) The world holds material prosperity and personal comfort as measures of success. Scripture says we are successful when we become more like Jesus and follow God’s plan.
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As we learned yesterday, success starts with our thinking. Picture your mind as a mini-computer with the role of “command central.” It regulates your attitudes and actions, directing how to respond in different situations and indicating whether you should persist or give up – the mind identifies what is important based on the values and priorities stored in it.
Our responsibility as Christ-followers is to feed our minds with a steady diet of God’s Word. Only scriptural truth can counter the continuous stream of ungodly data that enters our thinking. Another responsibility is to screen what we allow to enter our minds. The Bible gives us the standard by which to evaluate the acceptability of ideas and attitudes we encounter. (Philippians 4:8)
By choosing to meditate on Scripture, applying it to our lives, and following God’s standard for our thinking, we will live in a way that pleases the Father. We will become the people He planned us to be and accomplish His purposes for us. Now that is real success!
About the Author
This article was written by Charles Stanley. You can read more about this author by clicking this link:
http://www.talk.thelife.com/charles-stanley/
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