SERIES: UPHILL HABITS #3

Romans 12:2 (MSG) Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

HABIT #2 CONTROL MY Thoughts.

YOU WILL NEVER Change your life UNTIL YOU Change the way you think.

Ecclesiastes 10:2 (MSG) Wise thinking leads to right living; Stupid thinking leads to wrong living.

A. EVERYTHING Begins WITH A THOUGHT.

Romans 12:2 (NLT) Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

B. WHAT WE THINK DETERMINES How we feel.

Philippians 4:8 (NIV) 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.

C. OUR THOUGHTS DETERMINE OUR Destiny.

v Sow a thought, reap an action.

v Sow an action, reap a habit.

v Sow a habit, reap a lifestyle.

v Sow a lifestyle, reap your destiny.

FIVE PRACTICAL WAYS TO PRACTICE GOOD THINKING.

FIND A PLAN TO Control my thoughts.
Hebrews 4:12 (NIV) 12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

FIND A Place TO Think MY THOUGHTS.
Colossians 3:2 (NIV) Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

FIND A Person TO Stretch MY THOUGHTS.
Hebrews 10:24-25 (NIV) 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

FIND A Power TO FUEL MY Thoughts.
Ephesians 3:20 (KJV) Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,