Cultivating good thoughts...

Just a thought - thoughts are such a powerful tool that God gave us, the mind rather, that I've come to realize influences me heaps. So God was talking to me about my thoughts. And He gave me a pretty good analogy which I thought might come in handy. Cultivating the mind is almost like cultivating a farm. Our mind is like the soil on which the seeds (our thoughts) grow in. Now good thoughts that have been sowed and watered down eventually grow to become a strong fortress of vegetation that makes up the farm. Likewise, bad thoughts can grow into a massive mess that will be hard to uproot. Imagine having to chop down a thousand year old tree that has a trunk so thick, it's gonna take so much time, effort and pain to get rid of it. And with a farm, we can choose to grow different crops in different areas in different seasons. If we only do grow cabbages and not yield crops with the other fertile ground, we only reap cabbages and possibly nothing else. But if we do grow carrots, turnips, fruits etc., cultivate it and protect it, we end up with a lavish orchard with much produce! Likewise with our minds, we have the option to grow in so many different areas, depending on what we do with it. So now, what kind of place do I want my mind to be? :) Not forgetting the promise that we have, to be continually renewed in our minds, to be transformed in the mind of Christ.

Another conversation which I do need to blog down because this always happens and I need to constantly remind myself - sometimes I get so caught up in the "doing", "trying" and even "being" that I forget to enjoy who God is for me in that point in my life! Now that's scary. If I'm seeking to understand the nature of God, I don't want to overlook the aspect of Him that He is revealing. Paul writes "it is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me."

Since I have no drawing today, I'm gonna end with this beautiful verse found in Acts 2:28 and Psalms 16:11;

"You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of gladness with Your presence."

Selah.