Max Lucado

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (GNT) reads, “The weapons we use in our fight are not the world’s weapons but God’s powerful weapons, which we use to destroy strongholds. We destroy false arguments; we pull down every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey Christ.”

The image is that of a warrior, a soldier, a fighter. Our enemy is the unsolicited, unhealthy, and unwelcome idea. Rather than indulge such thoughts, we take a wrecking ball to them. We “take every thought captive and make it obey Christ.” We poke a spear against the spine of toxic thoughts, march them outside, and toss them on their derrieres. Discipleship, at its core, is Christlike thinking.

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The space between your ears occupies about six inches. It buzzes with nonstop activity—processing data, issuing commands, making selections, and determining the course of your life. It exists to filter facts and make decisions, and it was designed and built by God. One rule matters above all others: truth. Good decisions depend upon reliable information.

Where did we get the idea that every thought needs to be thought? We don’t do this with food. Just because you see chocolate doesn’t mean you have to eat chocolate. Common sense dictates that we practice discretionary eating. Thoughts do not deserve free rein, either. They do not warrant unlimited access. Just because you have a thought, you don’t have to think it. Practice picky thinking.

Read more Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

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Paul invites us to “embrace the power of salvation’s full deliverance, like a helmet to protect your thoughts from lies” (Ephesians 6:17 TPT). It’s dangerous to go through life without the helmet of salvation. Yet, most people do exactly that. They wear no supernatural protection. And when they slip and stumble, they get hurt. Please don’t be among them.

How does one acquire this helmet? Simple: Ask for it. The gift of salvation is yours to receive. Turn your heart toward Jesus in prayer. Tell him you are a sinner in need of a Savior, and he will gladly and immediately receive you into his family. It really is that simple—and marvelous. And once he saves you, God enrolls you in his mental training course. Stinking thinking is a spiritual problem. It requires a spiritual solution, and God provides it!

Read more Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Thoughts. We cannot see them. We cannot always predict them. But we cannot deny this about them: They define our lives. Think well, live well. Think poorly, live poorly. It’s no wonder that God urges us to “be careful how you think” (Proverbs 4:23). God loves us too much to let us lead a life marked by poor thinking. He made our brains. He can retrain our brains.

I embrace and cherish a Christian worldview. Namely, God made us, saves us, pastors us, and is coming back for us. The promise of heaven thrills me, and the assurance of God’s love sustains me.

The secret sauce for thought management is a genuine faith in the God of the Bible. Invite Jesus to change you by changing your thoughts.

Read more Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Satan aims to derail our thinking with unruly and ungodly thoughts. Hence Paul’s challenge from Romans 12:2: “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold.” By the power of Jesus, you can avoid being conformed and, instead, be “transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

What a choice word!  The process of turning a caterpillar into a butterfly is called metamorphosis. God promises you a metamorphosis…an even greater transformation.

Are you stuck in your head? Are you ticked off at the world? Are you on edge like DEFCON I?  There is hope! The thoughts that have characterized your past need not characterize the rest of your life. God will move you from worm to butterfly. He will transform you by the renewal of your mind.

Read more Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Culture prompts us to value money over people; grade people by looks, awards, and bank balances; and place our value in what we wear, drive, own, or achieve. The mastermind behind these attacks? The devil. Satan has one primary aim—to entangle us in a web of unhealthy thoughts. He wants to corrupt, contaminate, and confuse our minds with a false system.

The classic example of the devil’s influence occurred in the garden of Eden. In 2 Corinthians 11:3 (ESV), Paul stated, “I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” There it is. Satan commandeered Eve’s mind by infecting her thoughts. He uses the same playbook today.

Read more Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

Thoughts have consequences, which prompts this question: Can we manage our lives by managing our thoughts?

Those who study the brain talk about neuroplasticity, the mutability of the brain. It is less like a chunk of concrete and more like a ball of putty. Adaptable. The brain is an editable manuscript. You can, quite literally, change your mind. Just as a sculptor shapes a ball of putty, it’s possible to sculpt your brain.

The apostle Paul said our attitudes and thoughts can be “constantly changing for the better” (Ephesians 4:23 TLB).

Victims of our inner voices? Not necessarily. Indeed, harnessed and helpful thoughts can change our lives. Perpetually anxious? Hounded by inner critics?  You can tame your thoughts!  A new “you” will appear as new thoughts begin to emerge.

Read more Tame Your Thoughts: Three Tools to Renew Your Mind and Transform Your Life

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.

There is something unique about your story. Would you be willing to share it? Become well versed in your “only God” moments. Those precious events in your life that only God could have orchestrated.

There was an occasion when Jesus healed a deranged man. The fellow had made his home in a cemetery and cut himself with rocks. When Jesus delivered him from the affliction, the man wanted to go with Jesus. Christ, however, said, “Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you…” (Mark 5:19 NKJV).

In other words, speak up! Do you feel ill equipped to do so? That’s okay. You have God’s Spirit to help you, and God’s plan is reduced to one strategy: ordinary folks telling the extraordinary story of Jesus with the extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit.

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“Do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say… For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you’” (Matthew 10:19-20 ESV). Best I can tell, this promise of Jesus has not been rescinded.

On the day Brenda Jones went to see the plastic surgeon, she was in a battle with breast cancer. She asked if she could share a story, and Dr. Pete politely said “yes.” He listened to the story about the God who became a baby, then a man, and then a sacrifice for humanity. “He died for you, Dr. Pete,” she told him. The fifteen-minute conversation changed Dr. Pete forever!

The promise of Pentecost. The Spirit turns common folk into uncommon forces, and turns those who are lost into those who are saved. Might the Spirit do the same with us? With you?

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“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place” (Acts 2:1 NIV).

Pentecost was one of the three feast days on which all the Jewish men were required to appear in Jerusalem at least once in their lifetime. The divine timing was precise. Now, with the apostles gathered in one place, awaiting the power of the Spirit. Now, with representatives of at least fifteen nations gathered in one city…it was time. The Spirit came suddenly and from heaven! Because of the Holy Spirit, each prayerful follower could speak with such power that people from all over the world heard the story of Jesus in “their own language” (Acts 2:6 NIV).

Compelling communication was the first fruit of the Holy Spirit.  He empowered and empowers Christ followers to declare the wonders of God in the heart languages of the world.

Read more Help Is Here

For more inspirational messages please visit Max Lucado.