My diet consists of hamburgers, French fries, pizza, tootsie rolls, and Reese’s Peanut Butter cups.  As you can imagine my weight is a little high, along with my cholesterol, and my blood pressure.  But I think I can manage it since I don’t really exercise and sit around watching television binge-watching the John Wick movies and any of the recent comedy movies.  My health will be ok.  Or will it?  Even though what I said above is partially true, I do enjoy those foods, I am keeping active and spend time in my Bible, but I don’t watch as much TV as I stated above. 

I try to exercise, keep my home clean and maintained, and make sure I eat well and watch what I am reading or watching on television. 

In the same way, the food we ingest can affect our health, the information we intake can affect how we think and our moods. 

Jesus used the example that the foods we eat pass thru our systems and must exit.  In the same way, what passes thru our minds can defile us as is written in Matthew 15:17 – 19 which says “Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?  But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”  We might not think that looking at a magazine or watching a movie with questionable content does not affect us, but it is placing a seed that can affect our thoughts.  The thoughts that go into our minds can manifest in our minds causing us to have unrealistic expectations or fester to create a behavior that is contrary to the good or holiness that our Lord wants us to have.  Some people say having thoughts is nothing unless we act on them.  That is not true.  Negative thoughts can affect us in ways that can come out as negative behavior, affect our health, and temperament, or affect our mental health.  In taking care of what we feed our minds we can help ourselves be better prepared and have a positive outcome.

We need to control our thoughts.  According to the writer Paul, formerly Saul of Tarsus, we should take our thoughts captive and beat them into submission.  He wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:5 “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”.  By controlling our thoughts we can control our passions and redirect them to Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Backing up to the fourth verse he reminds us “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”  These strongholds can be our temperament or our health – mental and/or physical.  The weapons and the fight for our soul start in the Spiritual Realm where Angels and Demons are fighting the battles.  That battle is raging as we speak and is now taking place in our world.  Satan is trying to control our thoughts by telling us that there is no such thing as Hell, the ungodly actions occurring today are ok to do because everyone is doing it, anything wrong is ok if it feels right, there are no genders, pre-marital sex is ok, homosexuality is not a sin, and that there is no God or that there are many paths to Heaven.  These things are lies that are originating from the Satanic realm and must be fought with the truth and destroyed.  Any lie that is contrary to the Word of God must be taken as it is, a lie, and replaced with the truth from the Word of God – The Bible.  Unfortunately, the Word of God is unpopular today, and in some places is considered Hate Speech.   Even though they are unpopular they are still true based on the Moral Compass of the Word of God.

The truth is the Word of God is the most loving thing we have.  Only the Word of God encourages our Brothers and Sisters to tell us the truth in Love.  It tells us to be united in Love so we can live in Peace with each other.  The Word of God also provides instructions on how to be a good husband, good wife, good child, good friend, good employer and employee, good with finances, and to be good neighbors to those around us.  I don’t know of any other book that offers instructions on all parts of life and is relevant today.  The Word of God even tells us how to have a relationship with our God and assures us of Salvation and our Eternity.  I don’t know of any other book that tells us how to have a relationship with a Loving God that wants to spend Eternity with us. 

The truth is that any argument in our minds that goes against the commands of Our Lord Jesus should be destroyed and replaced with the truth from God.  “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”  (Luke 6:44)

Thru our own words and actions will we create our future.  It all falls with the saying “We reap what we sow” As written in Galatians 6:7 “For whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”  All actions come from the heart and manifest into the resulting words or deeds.  If the conversation or the action is an ill-advised action, meaning it should not have been said or done, nothing will change the fact the words were said or the action was taken.  And if the words were hurtful or the actions caused damage to property, then the consequences of those actions will be felt by the person who took the action or made the statement.  The recipient will not be able to change their feelings or turn back the clock to before the act. 

That is the reason we need to control what is coming into our thoughts and verify the appropriateness of those thoughts.  We need to be careful what we allow into our minds and be careful what is coming into our minds.  Our minds empower how we think.  Our thoughts build a habit, habits build character, character builds our reputation, and our reputation shapes our destiny.  Our destiny is the legacy we leave behind for our Children, and it also leaves the way others remember us. 

I will leave you with one final thought from Proverbs 22:1 “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches.”  Let us leave a good name behind. 

If any of this has touched your heart and you want to have a relationship with Our Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ, and you want to spend eternity in Heaven and Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, or you feel you have backslidden and want to repent then please pray this prayer:

DEAR LORD, I KNOW I AM A SINNER.  I KNOW I HAVE HOPE IN JESUS.  I WANT TO REPENT OF MY SINS AND COME TO YOU TO ASK FORGIVENESS.  I WANT TO ASK YOU TO FORGIVE MY SINS, CLEANSE ME OF MY SINS, GIVE ME THE HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE WITH JESUS, AND I WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE JESUS IS MY LORD AND SAVIOR AND HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR ME.  I ASK THE HOLY SPIRIT TO COME INTO ME AS THE GUARANTEE OF MY SALVATION AND WANT TO REPENT OF MY SINS.  ALL THIS I ASK IN JESUS HOLY AND PRECIOUS NAME, AMEN

If you prayed that prayer then I want to say CONGRATULATIONS AND WELCOME TO THE FAMILY OF BELIEVERS.  The Angels, The Saints, The Lord Jesus, and all who have gone before us are having a party in Heaven because you chose Jesus.  And I want to welcome you to the family.  Find a good Bible-based church and continue to learn about Jesus.  We are all on this Journey together.  And in the end we will hear God say “Well Done my good and faithful servant!”