You are what you think

Proverbs 23:7 (NASB)

For as he thinks within himself, so he is. 

You can find a lot of information about your thought life, especially from a Christian perspective.  In my perusal of Christian literature on the mind and its thoughts, it is incredible how often this one-half of one verse is referenced.  There are so many possibilities for writing about our thought life, but let’s start with the context of this proverbial verse. 

This verse starts with the word “For….” So it is concluding what was written in verse 6.  Verse 6 reads, “Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, or desire his delicacies”.  Then verse 7 reads, “For as he thinks within himself, so he is.  He says to you, eat and drink, but his heart is not with you.”  The context of this verse is that selfishness starts from within, from what a person thinks about, and in this passage the selfish man is thinking only about himself.  The selfish man may say that he cares about you and wants you to eat and drink, but because of his selfish thinking, his heart---what he really cares about—is not you, but himself.

Your thought life will dictate who you are.  What you think about will determine your character.  What your mind dwells on will determine your actions and attitudes.  If you think about God and His Word, your character and actions will reflect Him in your life.  If you think about worldly things, then your life will reflect worldly things and worldly things are not from the Father (I John 2:15-16).  I heard somewhere that 90%+ of the thoughts of people are repetitive and mostly negative.  No wonder people are worry-warts and generally unhappy.     

If you think about yourself all the time, your life will be filled with selfishness and you will have little, if any, positive influence on others.  If you worry and think about negative things all the time, then your life will be filled with stress and unhappiness and, again, you won’t have much, if any, positive influence on others.  We all want our lives to have purpose and meaning, but if all you think about is yourself, if you worry all the time, you are usurping and losing opportunities to give your life purpose and meaning.

In II Corinthians 10:5, there is a very interesting command---“…….take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ”.  If you practiced this command, selfishness, worry, and any other negative thought would not occupy your mind.  This ties in with Romans 12:2 that tells you “to be transformed by a renewing of your mind…”.  You might need to re-program your mind by aggressively telling it to stop dwelling on the negative, stop worrying so much, and give these negative, anxious, yes….evil, thoughts over to Christ.

What you think about dictates your attitudes and, consequently, your attitudes dictate your character and actions.  You have seen/read this before, but it’s a wonderful reminder of the power of attitude on your life by Pastor Charles Swindoll:

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.  Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.  The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.  And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.”

If any of this touches your heart and you truly desire to change your thought life, then pray this prayer from Psalm 139:23-24:  “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”  God is faithful.  He will answer your prayer and will help you change your thought life.