If you're new here, welcome! Please adjust quickly to the fact that we apparently have devotional sequels. 🤣 Completely unplanned.
Yesterday, we said that intrusive thoughts are unwelcome, uninvited thoughts that desire to settle into the seat of your mind. The remedy is not to entertain them, but to bring them into obedience to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Today, let's go a little deeper into the renewing of the mind through meditation.
Biblical meditation is not the emptying of the mind, as seen in some worldly practices.
Rather, it is the filling of the mind with God's truth. It is the intentional replacement of lies with truth, fear with faith, and old patterns of thinking with the mind of Christ.
One of the fascinating things about the brain is that it forms neural pathways. Every repeated thought strengthens a particular pathway. The more often you think a thought, the easier it becomes for your brain to travel that route. It's like walking through a grassy field. The first walk leaves barely a trace, but repeated walks eventually create a well worn path.
This is why what you meditate on matters. The thoughts you repeatedly dwell on become the paths your mind naturally follows.
When Scripture calls us to renew our minds (Romans 12:2) it isn't merely asking us to think positive thoughts. It is inviting us to consistently dwell on God's truth until our thinking is reshaped by it. As you repeatedly meditate on God's Word, your brain strengthens new pathways that make His truth easier to recall and live from even when an intrusive thought comes knocking.
On the other hand, if we continually rehearse fear, shame, lust, anxiety, or lies, those thought patterns also become familiar routes. The brain naturally follows the paths that have been travelled most often.
So when an intrusive thought comes, don't panic simply because it showed up. Instead, ask yourself, "Does this agree with the Word of God?" If the answer is no, then it does not deserve a seat of meditation in your mind.
Feed the truth, not the lie.
The more you meditate on God's Word, the more familiar His truth becomes not only to your spirit, but also to your patterns of thinking. Over time, what once required intentional effort begins to become your natural response.
"His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night." — Psalm 1:2
The mind follows what it meditates on. So choose wisely what you give a permanent seat in your thoughts.
DailyWell-Peace ✨
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