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Why do we need our thoughts to be established or to stand stable and sure during our life?

We only have to watch the news, or be on social media for a short time, to witness the high levels of stress that everyone seems to be functioning under in their work and day to day life. We have been all told the myth, that in order to get everything done in our busy lives we must be ‘multi-tasking’. In fact, research has shown that the human brain cannot focus on more than one task at any one time and what we are really doing is constantly switching between tasks. This is not an efficient way to work and results in increased distress. When we become too stressed our thoughts are unruly and jump all over the place. We can be anxious about the future, worry about the past, fret, or at best, just daydream.

New research on meditation and mindfulness is teaching people to control their thoughts by focusing their attention on the Here and Now. This mindfulness is shown to then have a positive effect on our well-being. The nature of our thinking affects how we feel. That is what Solomon, in his wisdom said; if we focus our work and commit it to the Lord then our thoughts will be established or stable. In addition, the cognitive process of choosing our thoughts and then our actions can help with controlling our emotions. When we think negative thoughts and put them into negative words, they can take hold of us and cause us to feel negative. If we think and say things like, “I can’t take it anymore” or “I feel like giving up” we are not helping our emotions to be positive.

It is not easy to control our thoughts when feeling down which is why we need a conscious choice and a process to work through before we go down too far. Apostle Paul wrote (2 Corinthians 10:5) that we battle internally a war to bring ‘into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.’ Jesus desires us to be positive and joyful in life. He said He came to earth so that we might ‘have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10)’ with His peace and joy available by submitting, in faith, to Him.  The works that aids this submission and then the ability to control our thoughts is to ‘seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness’. Praying, reading the Holy Bible, helping others.

In practice, this can also be by changing negative thoughts and words to positive. Rather than saying, “I feel like giving up” we could say, “Jesus has overcome the world and He can help me to overcome this too”. Instead of, “I can’t take it anymore” try, “The Holy Spirit in me is strong enough to keep me going”. This is what the Bible is telling us in Romans 12:2. “And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the  renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

To renew our mind requires the Holy Spirit as the Comforter to be in control because He is greater within us than that which is in the world (1 John 4:4). The Holy Spirit allows us to have the Mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:12-16) and become stable in our thoughts. We all have the free will to choose.