They say we are the sum of our thoughts. The average person has over 60,000 thoughts per day. If that wasn’t astonishing enough, of this vast number of thoughts, 75% are negative, and 95% are repetitive. It isn’t hard to understand that our thoughts are powerful and can even impact our health.
Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why God instructs us to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Another reason is because he loves us. He knows that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) and that our thoughts can harm us or help heal us.
Modern medicine has discovered the incredible power of our thoughts to alter our body’s chemicals. When we experience positive emotions such as joy, thankfulness, or love, our brain releases feel-good chemicals such as dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. These chemicals not only help lower blood pressure, reduce stress, and improve our immune function but also promote a sense well-being.
The reverse is also true. Allowing negative thoughts to percolate in our minds triggers the release of cortisol and adrenaline. If we remain in these states for too long, it can lead to a suppressed immune system, poor sleep, increased blood pressure, and chronic inflammation.
Let’s get practical about it. Long-term thought patterns like anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, jealousy, and fear will suppress our immune system and cause us to be unwell mentally, emotionally, and physically. If we remain in that state for an extended period, it may even lead to disease.
Think of your thoughts like water running down the side of a rock face. A few drops of water are imperceptible, but an endless flow of running water in the same manner, year after year, shapes the rock through erosion. The same is true of our thoughts and their impact on our brains and bodies. They create well-worn paths through our habitual patterns of thinking, which, in time, alter our being for better or for worse.
So, how do we stop these negative thoughts from flowing through our minds unchecked? How do we remove these unhealthy patterns of thinking?
A good place to start is to think about what you are thinking about. This requires us to pause, set aside time to be still, and become more aware of our thoughts. By doing what God says and “taking our thoughts captive” we can recognize them, repent, and ask God to renew our minds. This process forms new, life-giving thinking patterns that will not only impact ourselves but also others.
Keep a thought diary, write down some of the strong or repetitious feelings you may be experiencing, and examine if they align with how we asked to live in Christ. Another helpful practice is to keep a prayer journal. I have found that writing down my prayers highlights my worries and fears so I can more easily bring them to God.
Spend time reading and meditating on God’s word to renew your mind and align your thoughts with his. God says, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). When we calm our weary souls and quiet our restless minds to sit in God’s presence, we allow ourselves to listen and hear from him, be remade, and be transformed by his presence.
The message version of 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 says it well: “We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.”
As we begin this new year, one of the most helpful habits we can foster is the practice of taking our thoughts captive, sorting through them, and discarding the ones that don’t align with God’s truth. Then, we can ask for God’s help and strength to think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy (see Philippian 4:8). If this was the only habit we changed this year, it would change our lives.
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Award-winning author Melanie Stevenson
Born in England, Melanie has never lost her love of British tea and gardens. Her family immigrated to Canada when she was five years old and settled in southern Ontario. Years later, she entered the University of Waterloo as an English major and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
Growing up, Melanie was passionate about reading, writing, and drawing. She wrote her first novel at age twelve. Since becoming a Christian at age eighteen, she has filled countless journal pages with prayers which became the inspiration behind her devotionals.
One More Tomorrow (September 2019) is Melanie’s debut novel (the first line of which was conceived in an airport terminal) and won Best Romance at the 2020 Word Guild Awards. Her second book, Soul Focus – Trials (November 2019), is a selection of devotionals written over a span of ten years. Melanie was the winner of Best New Canadian Author at the 2020 Word Guild Awards, and received runner up for Best New Manuscript at the 2021 Word Guild Awards.
