Monday, May 18, 2009

What's in Your Thought Closet?


A closet is created to store things. Some closets are neat and organized. Others a mess that you dare not open. Have you ever thought of your mind as a closet? It's created to store your thoughts. It harbours thoughts of yourself, your family, your surroundings,your hopes, your dreams, your God..... The list goes on and on. Our minds are constantly running thoughts through it. Rarely do we really sit and just think of nothing. Well, the women who are reading this anyway?:) John often times says he is thinking of nothing and over the last six years of marriage, I have really found it to be true.
I have really struggled with my thoughts. Thoughts of myself, my life, my marriage, my family, my relationships, God..... The list is endless. I dwell on things I know to be true but I can do nothing about it and I dwell on things that I think are true but are absolutely not true at all!
Words...even the ones we speak to ourselves in our thoughts have great influence. Our words either build up our life or speak death into our life.
Matthew 12:35 says "A good man produces good things from him storeroom of good, and an evil man produces evil things from his storeroom of evil." The greekword for storeroom is thesauros. The term thesaurus, used to describe a storeroom or collection of words is derived from this word. Thesauros also refers to the magi's chest of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matt. 2:11). A thesauros, like a storeroom or the magi's chests, is a container. Your heart and mind are also containers. They are full of words, many of which you've said to yourself over the years. When people used words in Scripture, it reflected what was in their thesauros.
Many people in God's word struggled with their words about themselves. Look at Moses for example. Moses identified himself by his studder (Exodus 4:10) We would never identify him with this quality. His I am statement may have been I am not an eloquent speaker and not capable of communicating Gods word to others.
When we look at God's word and what he says about us, we see ourselves in a different light that calls us to clean out our closets and rearrange our thoughts so that they line up with what God's words says about us and his thoughts towards us.
Psalm 40:5 ' Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which you have done, and Your thoughts toward us...'
Psalm 92:5 ' How precious also are you thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!"
Jeremiah 29:11 ' I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil , to give you a future and a hope.'
God's thoughts are not like our thoughts. While our thought closet can be crammed full of darkness, His can only be filled with light because He is LIGHT!
I have been praying that my closet doors will spring open to be aired out allowing the light to shine in.
Hebrews 4:12 says 'For the Word of God is alive and powerful. It's sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting between soul and marrow. It exposes our inner most thoughts and desires.'

No comments: