How to Unstick Your Thoughts
We all talk nonstop in our heads, but few of us think well. Our nonstop thoughts are typically negative or downright nasty. And sticky!
“You’re so stupid.”
“I just cannot take one more sleepless night.”
“Things are never going to change. I’m stuck.”
“No one loves me.”
Thoughts are powerful, aren’t they? What we think directly affects our emotions and actions. Consider this Scripture on thought power: “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7, NLT).
It is wise, then, that we become aware of what we think, root out the lies we believe, and replace them with the truth that sets us free. When we learn to think well, our emotions and actions will line up with God’s Word, and we will become increasingly free of anxiety, worry, anger, despair, and enslavement to everything from pizza and Chardonnay to social media and erotica.
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What we believe in, we will inevitably act on.
What is “thinking well”?
To think well, you need to continually believe God’s truth. “Continual,” a present participle in the biblical Greek, basically means, now that you believe Christ for your salvation, keep on continually believing Him all day, every day. “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him” (Col. 2:6, ESV).
When you continually believe God, you are thinking well, and your emotions and actions fall in line.
Continual belief is a faith walk. It’s not easy. Consider folks in the Bible who harbored the sin of unbelief; that is, rejecting what God says is true. Among them:
Abraham. He lied. He passed Sarah off as his sister to protect himself against Egypt’s pharaoh. Moses. He murdered. David. He bedded another man’s wife. Yes, adultery. Naomi. She pity-partied. And Eve. She and her husband ate the forbidden fruit. You know the rest of the sordid story.
CHALLENGE: Imagine how your emotions would soar if you continually believed God and grasped how to think well. Do you want to see a huge drop in fear, anger, depression, or crippling worry?
But how do you “think well”?
To think well is to choose thoughts that agree with God’s truth and follow through with action steps. Here are the four parts:
Clue into your current emotions.
Watch what actions follow these emotions.
Begin to identify the lies you believe.
Replace the lies with God’s truth.
And, lastly, take a specific action step that aligns your life with God’s truth. As we overcome the toxic, ungodly thinking that distorts our emotions, we’ll discover the contentment in Christ. Who doesn’t desire that?!
Question: What is one thing that you will do to think well?