From The Crucible (by Pastor Linda Pugsley)

© Bill McCown | www.myghcf.com

Practice, practice, practice…that’s what it takes. When the Lord tells you to “put on the mind of Christ”, that denotes an action on your part. We have all been practicing all right, but for far too long we’ve been practicing the wrong things. God doesn’t hold us accountable for what we don’t know but what we do know. We all have unconscious or semiconscious thoughts buried in us somewhere, but God is not addressing those (at least not yet, but in due time). It is the conscious thought patterns we need to change and keep changing. How can we ever learn to trust God and thank God and enter into that “peace that surpasses all understanding” that He promises if we don’t change our “stinkin’ thinkin’"? Controlling your thoughts is something only you can do. 

When a negative or sinful thought comes into your skull—reject it then and there. Don’t dwell on it, talk to it or argue with it, because when you do that it means it’s still there! Throw the little sucker out, don’t play with it. You won’t end up void or blank, because when you crucify the fleshy thought and it dies, guess what takes its place if God’s nature dwells within you? You got it, a God thought will take its place; the unrighteous switches to the righteous, and you will be guided out of that darkness into His marvelous light. Let God live in your mind and make the world, the flesh and the devil “homeless” thoughts. (Psalm 20:7, 1 John 1:9, Luke 1:79) Endure the fire…it’s producing pure gold!

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