How to Refresh and Renew Your Thoughts
I hope you’ll join me this month as we refresh our thoughts and focus on what is good and true!
Before sharing my favorite Scripture verses for refreshing and refocusing our thoughts, I’d like to share the importance of refreshing and renewing our minds. Thought and brain studies show,
- An average of 60,000 thoughts per day run through our minds
- Approximately 80% of our thoughts are negative
- Approximately 95% of our thoughts are repetitive
Now, of course, the estimates above are from research, and with all research, there are variables. What alarms me the most is not the sheer volume of thoughts running through our minds, but rather the high percentage of negative and repetitive thoughts. So, if we have negative thoughts running through our mind like a ticker tape, the same ticker tape is running through our mind with the same undesirable thoughts day after day. This is reason enough to convince me to spend time each day refreshing and renewing my mind! How about you? What are your thoughts?
This practice is a huge benefit to our health since our thoughts directly impact our wellness – physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Our thoughts impact our feelings, which in turn influence our actions. If we fail to renew and direct our thoughts, they will control us and influence our actions. And, those actions are influenced by negative thoughts the majority of the time!
How Do I Refresh My Thoughts?
How can I refresh and renew my thoughts daily? I redirect my thoughts. I meditate and fill my mind with what is good, true, and worthy. Remember the old cliché – garbage in, garbage out? Take a moment and write down your last 5 thoughts. What are you filling your mind with, and is it worthy of your time?
A Life Coach who studies the brain shared, “Better thoughts, better feelings. If you’re constantly feeling upset, anxious, or angry, pay attention to your thoughts. Your thoughts are habitual, so pay attention to what you are feeding your mind. And, ask yourself, ‘How does this thought serve me? Does it serve me well?’”
I love this quote from Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind: “Your mind plays an important role in your victory.” And I want to be victorious!
If we are our thoughts, take a moment to consider where they are leading us. Who are you becoming? I encourage you to read through the five Scripture verses below and spend time on one verse each morning as you begin your day. Restate the verse throughout the day and pay attention to any negative thoughts that you may have, and replace those thoughts with the verse. At the end of the five days, reflect on your progress. Did you see a change? Are you filled with more peace? Do you have a better attitude? I’d love to hear back from you, so let me know if redirecting your thoughts on what is good and true has made a difference.
5 Scripture Verses to Refresh and Renew Your Thoughts
Set Your Mind on What Matters
“People with their minds set on you, you keep completely whole, steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don’t quit.”
Renewing our thoughts and setting our minds on Christ strengthens us and keeps us steady. Let’s not focus on the undesirable messages and influences; instead, let’s set our minds on the things that are above – let’s rise up and continue to move forward, achieving all we have set out to do! What will you set your mind on today?
Renew Your Thoughts Each Day
“Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God.”
It’s easy to become distracted and forget to spend time in God’s Word, but the reality is that the more time we spend away from it, the more we find our thoughts drifting. As our thoughts wander, our attitudes and actions follow, and we may no longer reflect what is good and true. As we direct our thoughts and remain focused, we are less likely to be swayed by the negative influences of the world. We strengthen our resolve as we dwell on the positive. There’s power in our thoughts and our words, and they determine our direction. What direction are your thoughts leading you today?
Transform Your Mind
“So, here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating,
going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Here, Paul explains the importance of setting our minds on Christ rather than allowing our thoughts to be shaped by culture and society. When our minds are shaped by God’s Word, we can discern what is right and what is not, and our actions will reflect these values. Meditating on God’s Word allows us to renew our minds with wisdom and understanding and to reject the negative influences of the world. What have you fixed your attention on today?
Mediate on What is True
“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.”
Whether you spend time each morning reading a devotional or your Bible, or you listen to Sirius or a podcast throughout the day, it is essential to direct your thoughts because what you choose to dwell on, you will become. Knowing this and understanding the influence our mind has over our actions motivates me to take action daily as I focus on the positives and give thanks. What are you putting into practice?
Reflect on God’s Unconditional Love
“My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.”
How do we shut down debilitating self-criticism and condemnation? By directing our thoughts to God. When we fill our thoughts with worthy and valuable thoughts, we are transforming our minds. We are shutting down the negative thoughts and setting our minds on the things above. We are choosing to take our thoughts captive, as in 2 Corinthians, and we are no longer allowing the things of this world to influence our minds and thoughts! What will you do today to shut down the negativity and redirect your thoughts?
Every day is a new day!
All through the Bible, there are stories of people who meditated on God’s Word and filled their thoughts with His promises. Every day is a new day where we can renew our thoughts and let go of what is not serving us so that we, too, can experience victory and live life in the fullness of Christ.
I hope you’ll join me this month as we set our minds on what is true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, and gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse – Philippians 4. Let’s choose victory!
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7 NKJV
See you at the finish line!
Image Credit by Parinaz Wadia Illustration & Design
