Today was the day I decided the inside of my car was far too messy to function in. Months of traveling to and from school with three teenagers had taken its toll on the interior. On sharp turns empty energy drink cans and half full water bottles clanked together under the seat. Door cubbies were overflowing with crumpled tissues, food wrappers and sticky gum. Hairbrushes and hair accessories occupied the rear center console along with crumbled make-up, cold medicine, half eaten food bars and a teen magazine. Tucked away in other orifices were, CD’s, lost sunglasses, broken umbrellas and business brochures. The outside, however, was clean because I’ve learned to spend the extra six dollars and six minutes at the gas station to go on the amusement ride through the car wash.
The realization hit me that Christian’s are sometimes like my car. We look good on the outside, attend church regularly, tithe and even do some volunteering but what’s going on inside is a different story. Upon close examination of our minds, we find a lot of clutter. We hold onto a lot of things we need to get rid of. We have useful but unused items that we’ve been searching for but forgot we had. We have friends that visit and deposit their trash in our minds, leaving us to clean up the mess.
In Philippians 4:8, Paul tells us what our minds should be focused on when he says, “Finally brothers, 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” and he goes on to say, “and the God of peace will be with you”. As Christian’s, this is our daily challenge. If we truly examine our thoughts, we will realize any thought not falling into the category of Philippians 4:8 is from the enemy.
We have to capture the seed of every thought and decide if it should be planted in our minds. The enemy wants us to worry and to be fearful, jealous, discouraged, hateful, doubtful, suspicious, and troubled. As long as we submit to those thoughts, we are submitting to the enemy.
The next time you experience a thought falling into the enemy’s category, replace it with the thought that faith and ______ cannot exist in the same body. It’s our choice to dwell on faith or fear, faith or jealousy, faith or discouragement, faith or hate, faith or worry. It will be a struggle, especially in the beginning but in the end we will receive peace.
There is incredible peace of mind when all that we do on the outside, is a true reflection of all that is happening inside. Let’s face it, when your car is clean on the outside AND the inside don’t you feel a lot better?
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