How Do I Stop Thinking Bad Thoughts?
“Help me stop, Pastor,” he pleaded through tears. “I don’t want these thoughts and I never asked for these thoughts! Why can’t I get control of my thoughts?” Have you ever been there? Have you ever had a friend plead to you in tearful exclamation or have you yourself suffered from an inability to take control over your thoughts?
2 Corinthians 10:5 gives us the mandate to “take every thought captive” but how often do we suffer from being “taken captive by every thought” instead? Maybe it is a deeply embedded root of bitterness from a spoiled friendship. Maybe it is a lustful thought that seems to never go away. Maybe it is a certain negative outlook on life that controls your every action and word. Maybe it is an overwhelming anxiety and panic that replays in your mind, keeping you captive with its lies. The battlefield is in the mind, is it not? The answers are found in God's Word. Let's go there together.
Examine Yourself
Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and see my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” Self-awareness is such a valuable and fleeting skill in our culture. The Christian walk is a self-honest one. Where are you struggling in this battle of the mind? Passages like 1 Thessalonians 4:4, Job 31:1 and Matthew 5:28 all speak of lust and the believers need to know themselves and their struggles well.
Submit Yourself
Great. You know yourself, and you're probably disgusted with yourself. That’s good—that’s the point. Accepting and walking in the Gospel with fear and reverence is the goal (Colossians 2:6) because it causes a deep dependence on God. The Lord loves desperation in our voice. The sort of desperation that leads us to passages like John 15 where Jesus calls us panic-laden, lust-filled or fear-controlled people right back to Himself. “Abide in me”, Jesus calls, “for apart from me you can do nothing” (v5). In times of intrusive thoughts of panic, a losing battle to lust or a worst-case scenario replay, we must admit - “I may feel out of control right now, but I know the one who controls everything.” It is to His strength I run (Proverbs 18:10) and it is in His strength that I continue (Philippians 3:12-14).
Prepare Yourself
“Prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given to you when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:13). What an incredible verse right? It is not a matter of “if”, but “when” we might fail, forget or flounder in our thought life. So, when we do, we put our minds back on Jesus and focus on Him, because when you focus on His return it is difficult to replay fears and stay in the bondage of negativity - We’re going home! In light of the joy that awaits us, we look at our imperfect mind in the process of sanctification, and we commit ourselves afresh daily to the Lord. “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - THINK about such things” (Philippians 4:8, emphasis added).
Simple? Yes. Easy? No. Annoying in its oversimplification that knows nothing of your current struggle? Maybe. Comforting in its simplicity that basks in the glory and grace of the Gospel? Yep! The same power of Christ that first opened your mind to see your sin and accept the grace of the Savior is the same power that is continuing to refine you, shape you, and use you. So, hang in there. You are doing better than you think. You are more loved than you know!
Pastor Ed Boness