You Are What You Think

"You Are What You Think"
Proverbs 23:7
Philippians 4:8-9

There have been a number of attempts at reducing human beings to one little, simple phrase.  Such as:

You are what you eat.

You are what you wear.

You are what you own.

Or as Popeye says, "I am what I am; I'm Popeye the sailor man."  Then he'd toot his corn cob pipe.

James Allen had another idea.  He wrote a little book that has been called "one of the greatest books of the past century."  He took his title from the verse in Proverbs that was read by Dani, titling his book, As A Man Thinketh.  His main, and fairly convincing idea was that we are what we think.  When you think about it, there does seem to be something about our human nature that if I were to think of something often enough and long enough, it will become part of me.

It seems to be one of the basic characteristics that separates us from animals--we as humans are shaped by what we think.  What we do and what we become is not a simple matter of inbred instincts that animals obey.  We may have certain instincts and drives like animals.  But isn't it amazing that our thoughts can have sway over even our instincts.  By our thinking, we can have a hand in shaping ourselves, our destinies, and even our instincts.

I think that's what Paul was hoping when he told the Philippian Christians to think about whatever was true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable; to think about those things that are excellent and praiseworthy.  If I were to think about those things often enough and long enough, they would become a part of me.  I would become what I think about. As I think in my heart, so I am--or, so I will become.

Sometimes we like to think that circumstances in our lives are what make us who we are.  But what if it isn't the situations themselves, but how we think about those situations?  Isn't it more how we react in our minds and hearts to those events that matters most--that shapes us most?  Long before something happens to us, we have developed ways and patterns of thinking.

What if it is more that experiences only reveal what kind of person you are, rather than making you the person you are?  If the kind of person you are is already shaped by how you have learned to think, then certain episodes in your life only serve to help you see the quality of person those thoughts have created.  Or, the shallowness of who you are as a person.

Two people face the same kind of life experience, but react very differently.  It wasn't the event they faced that shaped their reaction.  It was the difference in what kinds of people they were, that had been shaped by long years of a certain way and kind of thinking.

It's an intriguing question, isn't it?  Is your character simply the complete sum of all your thoughts?  Let's think about this question together and see what becomes of it.

First, let's think about this question using the imagery of the garden.  A plant grows out of a seed.  Let’s pretend, then, that we grow out of a seed as well--the seed of our thoughts.  The blossoms on each of our different plants are the actions that we do that springs from our thoughts.  We cannot act unless we have a thought first.

And there is fruit on some kinds of plants and trees.  These fruits and vegetables are of two kinds:  sweet and bitter.  The sweetness and bitterness of our fruit depends on how we cultivate our thoughts.

Anyone who gardens and does yard work knows that it takes a lot of work.  You either plan it and work it thoughtfully and intelligently so that it thrives, or you let it run wild, or become overrun by weeds.  The same is true with our lives.  We either cultivate our lives thoughtfully, or we, by our thinking, neglect them.  Either way, something will grow.  But what the quality of what is grown is a direct result of our thoughtFULness or our thoughtLESSness.

Another way to look at this question is the idea of growth.  You and I are living beings that grow and change and become.  We aren't an instant and static work, like a piece of art or statue.  Once the artist is done, the painting or sculpture never changes after that.  But not with we humans.  We grow and change all through the length of our existence.

The question, then, is, What influences those changes the most as we grow?  Could it be what we think?  Is thought how that growth takes place?  Is thinking and the sum of our thoughts the artists hands that mold us and constantly remold us?  It seems Paul's teaching that Godly thoughts will mold a Godly person.  Although he doesn't say it, the flip side has to be true:  Unruly and immoral thoughts will mold an unGodly person.

Are you beginning to see the power of all those little thoughts that flit through your minds, day in and day out?

I think another image that comes to mind as I ponder Paul's words is that thoughts are like weapons.  By our thinking, by what we choose to think about, we can forge weapons, with which we do battle against the world.  The world is full of people who have let immoral and unGodly thoughts rule their lives.

This is the evil that infects our world.  We must defend ourselves against it.  The best way to do that is by out-thinking evil.  It is by focusing our mind's thoughts, and fashioning those thoughts into powerful weapons that do battle against the vast army of evil ways of thinking.

Verse 7, the verse that preceded those that were read this morning, in part says, "The peace of God...will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."  Paul knew that we needed our hearts and minds guarded.  Then he goes on to write that the best way to attain that sense of peace is to guard your hearts and minds by thinking about whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy.  Those kinds of thoughts are our weapons that Christ has given us, so that our hearts and minds will be enveloped in peace.

Think about the alternative.  If our thoughts can be like weapons, the dangerous alternative is that those weapons, if not forged correctly, can be turned on ourselves to our own destruction.  If we can gain peace by our Godly thinking, we can also come to self-destruction simply by the weapons our unGodly thoughts have been allowed to become.

Jesus defined the kinds of weapons of self-mutilation that are created by a heart that does not let God shape its thoughts.  Isn't it interesting that the first thing on Jesus' list in Mark 7 is "evil thoughts."  What follows from that in Jesus' list?  All kinds of self-destructive actions:  sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.  All that comes about by first thinking it.  Then doing it.

Paul wrote in the 2nd chapter of First Corinthians, “But you have the mind of Christ.”  Or, as the Contemporary English Version has it, “We think as Christ does” (2:16).  What Paul is saying is that the more we shape our thoughts with the right, the pure, the lovely, the true, the noble, the excellent, the praiseworthy, the more we think as Christ does.  The more we have minds like Christ’s mind.

Or, as Paul says in Galatians 5:19, we can let the thoughts of a sinful nature take us over, and we will end up having the mind of the evil one.  It all depends on what we think about, and who it is that we allow to shape our thoughts—Christ, or the evil one.

Another point I see in Paul’s words is that our hearts and minds are attracted to that which is already in our hearts and minds.  In this case, like attracts like.  The more we allow our hearts and minds to dwell on thoughts of truth, goodness, the lovely, the noble, we will want those things even more.  We will develop, more and more an appetite for the kinds of thoughts we are already digesting.  The more we think Godly thoughts, the more we will aspire to the unending heights of Godliness.

Sadly, the converse is also true.  The more we think evil thoughts, the more we will be attracted to, and therefore sink into, the unending depths of Godlessness.  We are attracted, more and more, to the kinds of thoughts we harbor in our hearts.

So, Paul wants us attracted to the right kinds of thoughts.  And the only way to develop that attraction is to think about what is lovely, true, pure, admirable, noble, and so on.

And finally, from both Paul’s and Jesus’ words, it is clear that any attempt to change a person’s behavior, without changing a person’s thinking, will be fruitless.  If behavior is to be changed, you must first begin with the ways you think and what you think about.  If you want to make fundamental changes in your life it has to begin in your mind and heart where thoughts are developed.  As Paul wrote in his letter to the Christians at Rome, “Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him” (12:2).

Maybe you would like to make that happen in your life.  Maybe you recognize something has to change.  Have you been realizing, more and more, that you need a transformation from the inside out?  Have you been desiring a renewing of your mind—of the way you think?  You can do that right now, by making that commitment to Christ.  Let Christ transform you and your thoughts, so that what comes out of your heart becomes the basis of your actions:  all that is true, noble, right, purge, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.  If that’s what you’d like to do, bow with me in prayer, and in some way, make this prayer your own:

Lord Jesus, my thoughts have become corrupted.  They aren’t what they should be, and they aren’t leading me in the direction I should, or deeply want to go.  Come into my heart and mind.  Clean house.  Transform me from the inside out.  Give me thought weapons with which I can defeat the world’s way of thinking and it’s infectious ugliness.  I turn my thoughts, and therefore my very heart of who I am, over to you.  I am yours.  Amen.