We have a choice: We can follow the wisdom of the world or the wisdom of the Word. One produces failure, the other success.
Easy choice. I know which one I want! But wanting it and having it are two different things. I had to want God’s wisdom enough to pursue it and study it, to find out what was mine.
It wasn’t until I stopped resigning myself to a life of consuming carrot sticks and lettuce leaves, a life of working 60-hour weeks and being overdrawn, that it occurred to me I had a head full of misinformation that was driving me to overeat, overwork and overspend. Only then did I see the necessity of calling in the Roto-Rooter man to flush the garbage out of my head and replace it with truth.
Truth Prescription
Take out a sheet of paper and list your areas of failure. Create two columns. Label one column “The Lie” and the second “The Truth.” Under each failure area, write down all the lies that the High Priestess tells you.
Then run, don’t walk, to a Christian bookstore and invest in a concordance, a rich storehouse of truth that will help you understand the Bible. Look up words that pertain to your area of weakness (such as lack, bondage and discipline) and write down the scriptural truth about that weakness.
Select a few Scriptures to write opposite each lie. Confess the truth daily. Over time, the truth will transform your mind and push out the lies.
I promise you, this procedure works. I followed it, and I’m out of debt, with a savings program under way. My weight is stabilized at size 10. The cigarettes are gone. And, oh yes, I work 40—count them—only 40 hours a week.
You see, I finally figured out how to use the owner’s manual. OK, so I’m a late bloomer. How about you?
What’s Your Source?
Most of us give far too much attention to the television set. The morning local news is a festival of fires, stabbings, drug busts and city council scams. The evening national news is a celebration of Ebola virus outbreaks, terrorism threats, economic deficits and the whining of special-interest groups. It’s enough to make you want to lock yourself in a room filled with nothing but Archie and Jughead comic books.
Like it or not, we all define reality based on those things we give our attention to. Recent research indicates that the average American watches 6.5 hours of TV a day, a horrifying thought. Think what’s on television these days!
So What?
What’s wrong with this stuff? We believe it! Faith comes by hearing.
Hitler knew that. Quotes From Thinkers on the World Wide Web credits his minister of “disinformation,” Joseph Goebbels, with saying: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” At the other end of the spectrum, the Bible says, “Faith comes by hearing” (Rom. 10:17).
If you define happiness based on input from friends, co-workers and the entertainment industry, you’ll live your entire life feeling trapped and hopeless. I know. I took every test in Cosmopolitan for a decade.
I flunked every one. I never could get the hang of decorating rooms so they looked like the ones in Better Homes and Gardens, dinners that tasted as if Martha Stewart prepared them or closets that didn’t look like a habitat for small animals.
My friends told me things would never change. Television told me things would never change. And my own experience, aided and abetted by the High Priestess, cemented the pattern. But when I got sick and tired of the pattern, I was ready to do anything to break the mold.
Silencing the High Priestess
Here’s a foolproof way to replace the lies told by that negative voice in your head with life-changing, positive thoughts.
1. Turn off the TV. Ask yourself, “Is what I’m watching building me up spiritually, mentally, emotionally or physically?” If not, pull the plug.
2. Read. Thousands of new books are published every year, books on every conceivable subject. In our age of ever-increasing knowledge, performance experts tell us that if we do not choose to read two books a week, we choose to fall behind.
3. Listen. Most of us spend more time in the car than we’d like. Why not turn your car into a traveling library? Audiotapes on every subject are available. You can put lots of good stuff into your head if you’re willing to turn off the traffic report. Isn’t it worth it?
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