Week 3 | Where Are Your Thoughts Leading | Mike Santiago

It is your decisions, not your desires, that determine your destiny.

Proverbs 4:26
Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.

There’s a mean myth about you that lives in your mind.

Our lives are always moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts.

The Bible is powerful, not just to inform you, but to transform you.

2 Corinthians 10:3-4

3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Proverbs 23:7
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

What we think determines who we become.

“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.”
– Henry Ford

1. Audit your thoughts

We cannot defeat what we do not define.

Are my thoughts negative?

Are my thoughts worldly?

Are my thoughts critical?

Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

2. Argue with your thoughts

Romans 12:21
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

You can’t argue with the bad thought if you don’t know the God thought.

John 8:32
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

The greatest weapon to overcome your negative thoughts is to know what God thinks about you.

Jeremiah 29:11
For 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.

Negative thought – This is going to fail.

1 Corinthians 15:57
Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Negative thought – I am a mistake.

Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Negative thought – I hate how I look.

Psalm 139:14
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Negative thought – Nothing is going to turn out right.

Matthew 6:25-26
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Negative thought – God is far away.

Ephesians 2:13
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Negative thought – It is no use trying.

Galatians 6:7
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

3. Ask God to purify our thoughts.

Romans 12:1-2
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Prayer invites God to defeat the thoughts that are defeating you.

1 Peter 5:6-7
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.