23 Other Benefits of Right Thinking

wrong with them. They have issues in their mind that are making their bodies sick. If they could have emotional and spiritual healing, it might transform their physical health.

Isaiah 26:3 shares a beautiful promise with us from God on how to have peace regardless of the circumstances: “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” The original Hebrew here literally says, “You will keep him in peace peace. . .” You read this right. In other words, it is double peace! He will bring this level of peace when our mind is focused on Him.

The Christian who develops the discipline of meditating day and night on God’s Word will be “like a tree planted by streams of water” (Psalm 1:2). Our thinking and acting then reveal that we are either a deeply rooted tree, or the wind-blown, wavy foam on an ever-changing sea! Look also at Philippians 4:4–7:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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So you see, there are two alternatives. Keep your mind on God or don’t. If you don’t, there may be psychosomatic sickness because God has created us in such a way that the body is dependent upon the soul. When man is spiritually sick, it leads to physical sickness. Keeping your mind on God brings transformation and peace.

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Next, keeping your mind on God leads to a dispelling of fear. First John 4:18 says, “Perfect love drives out fear.” Why is this true? Because fear has to do with punishment. When are my children “afraid” of me? When they’ve been disobedient and know that discipline is soon going to be applied. So, they get scarce and hide like Adam and Eve. They don’t want to find Daddy or want Daddy to find them because they know what’s going to happen. They are afraid because punishment is coming.

The punishment has been removed from followers of Christ: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Just as the sting of death has been removed, condemnation, which is the sentence of judgment that made us afraid, has also been removed. Jesus crucified this on the cross, so there is no fear, but perfect love.

There is nothing to be afraid of when we realize the perfection of God’s absolute love for us. It’s a basic fact that either love will cancel out fear or fear will cancel

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out love. They’re mutually exclusive. We are not capable of more than one emotional focus at a time. We cannot be appropriating God’s love for us and at the same time be listening to all the adversary’s fear barrage. Either love will cast out fear or fear will cast out love.

There is not only love, but rest also. Look at Hebrews 4:2–3, which says, “The message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. Now we who have believed enter that rest.” Why did the Jewish people of that day not enter that rest? Because they were disobedient. But there is a rest for God’s people.

Go to Bed

Insomnia is one of the great problems of our day. People take all kinds of sleeping pills to get to sleep, then pills to get awake, and then more sleeping pills to get back to sleep again. It’s a beautiful thing to realize that God gives His people sleep. You can lay down and sleep in absolute peace and tranquility (unless there is an underlying medical problem, of course).

The greatest way to assure sleep is to take God’s Word as your sleeping pill. Take some of God’s principles and meditate on them before you go to sleep. Give this a try! It may very well transform your sleep. There are many Bible verses that deal with sleep. Read on your own examples like Psalm 3:5, Psalm 4:8, Psalm

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119:148, Psalm 127:2, Proverbs 3:21–24, and Proverbs 6:20–22.

Another thing this will do is take care of bad dreams. When you were a young child or have had young children, you know that from time to time they will see things on TV or somewhere else that frighten them. Then they will wake up in the night after a nightmare. One night, one of our two sons had a bad dream. He was crying, and so we had prayer with him and told him to go back to bed.

About 15 minutes later, he came back to our bedroom, unable to go back to sleep. Finally, he asked me to come sleep with him. So, Daddy went in and laid down with him for a few moments and everything was fine. No more bad dreams. Do you know why? I was there with him, and my presence automatically made everything okay. Whatever might come along again to scare him, Daddy could handle it.

Do you see the point here? When we absorb God’s Word in our mind with our last conscious thoughts before sleep, then our subconscious mind dwells on these things. It’s like the Lord Jesus is laying down with us, so that we have true rest.

If you have problems sleeping or with bad or fearful thoughts at night, take some of God’s spiritual truth into your mind. Then, pray and go to bed, talking to the Lord, and go to sleep while meditating on His Word. He will give you rest and peace.

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In Joshua 1:8, God made a conditional promise: “Meditate on [God’s Word] day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” God will bring spiritual prosperity. Why? Because you will be living in accordance with the flow of history. You will be living in the stream of the Spirit rather than constantly trying to swim against the current of God moving in history. Therefore, there will be a prosperity and a wholeness to your life.

Spirit Walking

Lastly, when we think with the new mind of Christ, we are no longer victimized by the old, carnal mind, which leads to the works of the flesh. Instead, we can walk by the Spirit. Therefore, more and more the fruit of the Spirit will abound in our lives: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” This is the character of Jesus.

What does the Holy Spirit come to do as Jesus said in John 15:26 (nasb)? “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, namely, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, He will testify about Me.” Therefore, when we walk by the Spirit, then more and more the life of Jesus Christ will be manifest in us. After all, isn’t this what life is all about?

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