What Are You Feeding Your Mind? | Daily Devotional 1648

You're listening to the My Morning Devotional Podcast, episode 1648. Today's Devo is called What Are You Feeding Your Mind? Hey there, we're the Alessis, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy, the to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why every weekday we share a five-minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast. Well, welcome back, everybody, to the My Morning Devotional Podcast. I'm your host for the week, Gabby, and I'm so excited to get into this word today because we are smack dab in the middle of Philippians chapter four. And this is gonna be a good one because you maybe have heard this verse a million times over. Um, our church actually created, took this verse and we created a song from this. So in my head, even as I'm reading it, I'm starting to sing it in my mind. If you are musical at all, you know what I mean. But this is a very famous verse. If you go to Hobby Lobby, it's on a frame somewhere that you could take home. And it's Philippians 4, chat verse 8 through 9. And it says this. By the way, I'm reading from ESV, if you if you want to know. It says this finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. First of all, I love how like Paul kind of throws himself in there of like, hey, everything that you've learned and you've seen and you've received from me, like, think about the things that I've done. I love that. I love that confidence of Paul. But you see, what we're what we're seeing here and the takeaway from Paul is this that your perspective is changed and shaped by what you constantly think about. What we think about life, what we think about other people, the opinions and the assumptions that we create, all of those things are shaped by our perspective or what we think on, what we believe about something. Man, I the more I'm thinking about this, I'm like, man, how do I even know what people or who people are? Do I even know what they're like? Because I have used my own opinion and my own assumptions based on what I think about all the time to shape that person, to shape my perspective about that person. And so what Paul does is, and this is a almost a good formula for us, he gives us a filter for our thoughts. And he's saying, Finally, brothers, basically, he's he's closing out this chapter. He's he's getting ready to close out the letter and finish it out. And I love that he ends on this, almost saying how a pastor would say at the end of the message if you didn't listen to anything else, listen to this. And he gives us a filter for our thoughts by saying this when you're thinking something, ask yourself, is it true? Is it honorable? Is it right? Is it pure? Is it lovely? Is it admirable? This is great for us when you're thinking about your husband, and there are many thoughts that are running through your brain. Ask yourself, is it true? Is it honorable to think that of your husband? I'm speaking to somebody today, right, Solange? Is it right? Is it lovely? Is it pure? Is it admirable? The decision that you want to make next week about your kids. Go through this checklist and ask yourself these questions. You know, we spend so much time thinking about things that we can't control. We think about the conversation from yesterday, we think about a mistake that we made years ago, or we think about somebody and what they might think of us. And whatever we repeatedly give our attention to, honestly, it'll eventually start to shape us. So if we start focusing more on the anxiety, then the anxiety will shape us. If we start to think a certain way about our spouse, then that's what's going to shape our opinion of our spouse. If we start to think something about our children or about our job, if we start to think something about ourselves, and most importantly, if we start to think something about God, it'll start to shape our opinion of who God is. And so what Paul is teaching us is this He's telling us to direct our minds towards what is true and what is life giving. So today, the challenge is this. Let's start paying attention to our internal conversation. Not just the words that we're speaking, not the things that are coming out of our mouth, but the things that are in our mind. Is it actually true? Is it actually lovely, the things that I'm thinking? Is it admirable? Do I want people to know what my brain is saying? And for the majority of us, we would all probably say no. So ask yourself, is it true? Is it lovely? And if it isn't, then let's replace it with what God says is true. And this is the part where you're gonna have to do some deep diving into the word of God. If you want, go back into all of the different devotionals that we have put out because we talk so much, we only talk about the word of God and what God says about situations. Because if you're so full, if you're so backed up, if you will, in your mind with things that aren't true, we're believing lies about our spouse, about ourselves, or we're believing lies about God, we're thinking wrongly about ourselves, we're thinking wrongly about who God is, we're thinking wrongly about our situation. And as believers, we have to replace it. We can't think wrong because it starts with our thoughts and then it continues with our words and then our actions. We have to think in an honorable, admirable way. So, the question for you is what thought pattern do you need to stop feeding? Because whatever we feed will grow. Let's pray. Lord, help us just take control of the thoughts that are inside of our head. I pray that you would help us take control of it instead of allowing the thoughts to control us, Lord. Father, I ask that you would teach us to recognize what is true. I pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would help give us the discernment when a thought comes into our mind, that we can submit that thought and go, is it true? Is it lovely? Is it right? Is it honorable? Let us go through the checklist and the filter of our thoughts, Lord, and fill us with things that honor you. I pray that you would fill us with thoughts that are honorable and lovely and true and right. Because, Lord, not only do we want our actions or our words to please you, but Lord, we want our thoughts to do the same. So we thank you for it all in Jesus' name. Amen. So there you have it, your five minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. 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