"Our Thoughts"


CAROLYN LEAF
          Dr. Carolyn Leaf states, “75% to 95% of the illnesses that plague us today are a direct result of our thought life. What we think about affects us physically and emotionally. It's an epidemic of toxic emotions.” [Although I am not able to recommend Dr. Leaf’s writings because I do not know much about her nor do I agree with everything I have read, she does make some good points for consideration.]
          She continues, “Through an uncontrolled thought life, we create the conditions for illness; we make ourselves sick! Research shows that fear, all on its own, triggers more than 1,400 known physical and chemical responses and activates more than 30 different hormones” (drleaf.com). We can relate to this. We know that fear, anger, passion, excitement, worry, joy, and so many more emotions stimulate chemical reactions in our bodies. Some of these responses are right and godly or simply safe. Others are evil and destructive.
          Dr. Leaf encourages us to ask several questions about our thought life (although these are not all word-for-word, they are based upon her set of questions):
  1. How many "could-have", "would-have", "should-have" statements have you made recently?
  2. Do you make a lot of "if only" statements?
  3. How many times have you replayed in your head a conversation or situation that pained you, or one that has not happened yet?
  4. How many pessimistic, ungodly, or destructive scenarios have you created about the unpredictable future?
  5. How honest are you with yourself about your thoughts, actions, and identity?
  6. Do you often “say one thing but mean or do another?”
  7. Do you ever make comments like "nothing ever goes right for me"; "everything I touch fails"; "I always mess up"?
If you answered “yes” to any of the above, then Dr. Leaf would claim you need to “de-tox” your mind. And this verse from Philippians (among others) gives us the Scriptural justification to do just that! We need to de-tox our minds, hearts, and emotions. We need to rid our minds of destructive thoughts and put on the mind of Christ!
 
OUR THOUGHTS
          As I researched numerous articles on the internet about the mind and such, I discovered there are no definitive findings regarding the number of thoughts an average person has each day. Would you venture a guess? Estimates from numerous studies range from about 12,000 thoughts per day to as many at 100,000! The National Science Foundation published an article in 2005 concluding that the average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. The brain is working overtime every day.
          So if it is true that “we are what we think”…if it is likewise true that the Scriptures verify the fact that we can control our thought life, then we need to begin by considering the type of thoughts that fill our brains each and every day. Why do we allow trash and debris to be dumped into them? Why then do subsequently play with the trash, tossing it around day after day inside our minds rather than simply dumping it?
 
NEGATIVE
          The National Science Foundation also claims that out of those
12,000-60,000 thoughts per day, 80% are negative and 95% are exactly
the same repetitive thoughts as the day before. An article on
faithhopeandpsychology.wordpress.com states this in response to the
findings:
          If 80% of our thoughts are negative and 95% of them are repetitive, then we  have a built in spiritual problem…we must identify this spiritual problem as a pervasive problem that infects our mind, will, emotions, physical body. It’s like a negative default programming that is hard wired into our entire being. It is not just a tendency to be negative or do a bad thing once in a while, it is a sinful nature that we are born with, a nature that is totally at odds with God. And it is our sin that separates us from a relationship with God.
          God has provided the only cure for “stinkin’ thinkin’.” It is called salvation. We must be “born again.” Then, once we do this and receive the spirit/mind of Christ, we begin the continual process of transformation. We begin, with God’s help, to master our thinking and emotions and lifestyles and such.
          The same article continues, “Going to God first renews our spirit. By fixing our attention on God and learning His Word we create new blueprints for our minds. If we do not captivate our thinking process, then the old blueprints become our default programming and we are back to the same old destructive patterns of the past.”
          In his book, Misbelief Therapy, Dr. William Backus, a Christian psychologist and ordained minister, recommends a simple, three-step process: (faithhopeandpsychology.wordpress.com)
  1. Locate your misbeliefs
  2. Remove them, and
  3. Replace your misbeliefs with God’s thoughts about you