YOU ARE WHAT YOU SEEK

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, because they become actions. Watch your actions, because they become habits. Watch your habits, because they become your character.” – Margaret Thatcher

So true!  You become what you think about.  Your reality is shaped by what you look for, what you see and how you see it.  And in a world where the news media and social media barrage us with doom, controversy and fear, we need to become exceptional at leading our thoughts and our feelings.  After all, you are what you seek.

Paul encouraged the church in Corinth to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor 10:4-5).  His letter explained the subtle progression from thought to stronghold, and the power we must exercise over it all.

The Message Translation puts it so well.

“We use our powerful God-tools for fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.”

Imagine if we all ran our thinking through the filters found in Philippians 4: 8:

“Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”

Every thought you choose to hold on to should pass through this filter.  Ask yourself:

• Is it true – God’s truth, not man’s truth.  You may be sick, but He’s a healer.  You may be lacking, but He’s a provider.  There are facts and then there’s the truth.  Meditate on God’s truth.
• Is it noble - having or showing fine personal qualities or high moral principles?  Our generation needs an injection of nobility.
• Is it just - based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair?  Be clear thinking.  Is it fair, or is it exaggerated, distorted, and opportunistic?
• Is it pure - not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material?  Purity is a well-spring of freedom.  It is uncomplicated and potent.  Purity shaves away compromise and distraction. 
• Is it lovely - very beautiful or attractive?  How great is this?  Not just attractive externally, but that our lives would be attractive to others.
• Is it the good report?  Because you might have received a bad report, but Jesus would have you focus on the good report – you choose.
• Is it virtuous - having or showing high moral standards?
• Is it praiseworthy - deserving approval and admiration?

I wonder what my daughter (or any other person) would think if she spent a day inside my head.  Would she be inspired, encouraged and compelled to live a faith-filled, hope-filled, overcoming life?  Would she walk away thinking that mum was amazing, or would her confidence be knocked and her heart broken? 

As Christians our lives should be the most positive and hope-filled lives anyone could encounter in their day.  Not because we’re fake or keeping up appearances, but because we believe in a Heavenly Father who says we are bigger than our circumstance and greater than our past. 

When we lead our thoughts through Godly filers, the next challenge comes through our emotions.  We need to lead our feelings well too.

We are called to serve Jesus and His ways, not our feelings.  He has called us to live beyond our emotions into the faith-realm.  We have to remind our hearts often about who is who and which way is up. 

Three times in Ezekiel 20, God reminds Himself of Who He is, and responds accordingly:

“I acted out of who I was not how I felt.” – God
(Ezekiel 20: 8-10, 13-14, 44 MSG)

This is powerful! 
If God has to remind Himself to act out of his character rather than his emotions, how much more should we also do the same thing? 

The question is then:

Who are you? 

Often I remind my children of who they are.  I tuck them in each night, one-by-one (this can take a while), and retell them the story of how awesome they are, how proud I am of them, how well they conduct themselves and how much I love them.  I remind them that they are accepted and perfect just as they are.  Life can knock it out of us, so we need to be reminded.

We can easily beat ourselves up and sentence our identities to our actions.  But the truth is, you’re not what you do. 

First and foremost you are who God says you are, and then you can act accordingly. 

So who are you?  Meditate on who Christ says you are and act accordingly.  Every opposing thought or emotion is in your power to silence, bind up, and render ineffective. 

If we are to live the powerful and faith-filled lives of victory that Christ purchased for us, we must master the arts of leading our thoughts and leading our feelings.

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Knowing Who I Am in Christ
by Joyce Meyer
joycemeyer.org

I am complete in Him Who is the Head of all principality and power (Colossians 2:10).

I am alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:5).

I am free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).

I am far from oppression, and fear does not come near me (Isaiah 54:14).

I am born of God, and the evil one does not touch me (1 John 5:18).

I am holy and without blame before Him in love (Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:16).

I have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16; Philippians 2:5).

I have the peace of God that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7).

I have the Greater One living in me; greater is He Who is in me than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).

I have received the gift of righteousness and reign as a king in life by Jesus Christ (Romans 5:17).

I have received the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus, the eyes of my understanding being enlightened (Ephesians 1:17-18).

I have received the power of the Holy Spirit to lay hands on the sick and see them recover, to cast out demons, to speak with new tongues.  I have power over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm me (Mark 16:17-18; Luke 10:17-19).

I have put off the old man and have put on the new man, which is renewed in the knowledge after the image of Him Who created me (Colossians 3:9-10).

I have given, and it is given to me; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, men give into my bosom (Luke 6:38).

I have no lack for my God supplies all of my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

I can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one with my shield of faith (Ephesians 6:16).

I can do all things through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:13).

I show forth the praises of God Who has called me out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

I am God’s child for I am born again of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, which lives and abides forever (1 Peter 1:23).

I am God’s workmanship, created in Christ unto good works (Ephesians 2:10).

I am a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

I am a spirit being alive to God (Romans 6:11;1 Thessalonians 5:23).

I am a believer, and the light of the Gospel shines in my mind (2 Corinthians 4:4).

I am a doer of the Word and blessed in my actions (James 1:22,25).

I am a joint-heir with Christ (Romans 8:17).

I am more than a conqueror through Him Who loves me (Romans 8:37).

I am an overcomer by the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony (Revelation 12:11).

I am a partaker of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:3-4).

I am an ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20).

I am part of a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people (1 Peter 2:9).

I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

I am the temple of the Holy Spirit; I am not my own (1 Corinthians 6:19).

I am the head and not the tail; I am above only and not beneath (Deuteronomy 28:13).

I am the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).

I am His elect, full of mercy, kindness, humility, and longsuffering (Romans 8:33; Colossians 3:12).

I am forgiven of all my sins and washed in the Blood (Ephesians 1:7).

I am delivered from the power of darkness and translated into God’s kingdom (Colossians 1:13).

I am redeemed from the curse of sin, sickness, and poverty (Deuteronomy 28:15-68; Galatians 3:13).

I am firmly rooted, built up, established in my faith and overflowing with gratitude (Colossians 2:7).

I am called of God to be the voice of His praise (Psalm 66:8; 2 Timothy 1:9).

I am healed by the stripes of Jesus (Isaiah 53:5; 1 Peter 2:24).

I am raised up with Christ and seated in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 2:12).

I am greatly loved by God (Romans 1:7; Ephesians 2:4; Colossians 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:4).

I am strengthened with all might according to His glorious power (Colossians 1:11).

I am submitted to God, and the devil flees from me because I resist him in the Name of Jesus (James 4:7).

I press on toward the goal to win the prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward (Philippians 3:14).

For God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).

It is not I who live, but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20).