I have the choice this year…this day…this minute…the choice of where to put my mind. Where to dwell, linger, what to meditate on. (It is a choice. It’s my choice. It’s an action, a putting or setting of my mind.)

It’s real easy to go negative, to allow my mind to dwell on someone else’s faults and my wants and my don’t haves and my anger. On the wrongs done to me and the things I think I deserve. It’s easy to let bitterness grow. Those weeds, they don’t need much tending. They can grow good in hard, untended, dry soil.

Healthy growth, on the other hand, needs tending. Unhealthy growth needs to be pulled from the roots and destroyed. Those weeds will choke the plants. They’ll wrap right around it and keep it from growing, (I saw it happen with my hydrangeas. Weeds wrapped around in a death grip, keeping it from growing. Stealing life.) Soil needs to be healthy and soft for growth to occur, the plant needs to be watered and tended to.

Healthy takes work. Focus. It takes destruction of unhealthy, it takes intentional focus on these things…

True things.

Honorable (respectable) things.

Just (righteous) things.

Pure (clean) things.

Lovely (pleasing) things.

Commendable (prosperous) things.

Morally excellent things.

Praiseworthy things.

Philippians 4:8

It sounds easy, but when our minds get down in the mud, they tend to get stuck in it. Stuck in dark and murky places. It’s like sinking sand, once we step in, it pulls us down, down, sucking the life out of us. It’s hard to get out of a negative train of thought.

Yet, we must.

We start with that first one, the Truth. Dwelling…lingering…on the Truth. When we crack open the Truth (the Word of God), our dark thoughts get exposed to the Light. Truth IS Light. Our dark places get exposed and we get to repent…or…we get to TURN (that’s repentance, it’s turning away) from the path we’ve been on and get back on the Truth path. The dark places can’t be overpowered by the Light of Christ.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

John 1:5, NLT

That’s truth. So when we dwell on the Light, when we linger in the light, the dark can’t overpower us. When we are dwelling (abiding) in Christ who is Light, dark can’t win. When we…

use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments...

2 Corinthians 10:4, NLT

When we…

destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture the rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ...

2 Corinthians 10:5, NLT

Light wins. (But see, we have to take action…knocking down and destroying those false, muddy thoughts…those deadly weeds. It’s a fierce and real battle for our thought-life.)

So as for that dark, muddy place that our head has been lingering in, it’s time to get up and out of it. It’s time to look up at Jesus…

the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

Hebrews 12:2, NLT

Even the Psalmist knew it, experienced it,

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

Psalm 40:2

We can look up and step out in confidence, knowing that He will lift us up and give us a firm place to stand.

That’s what I long for when things get shaky and slippery…and Jesus, He never fails. He always has solid ground for us when we take the action of looking at Him and stepping out of the mud. Jesus, He even makes solid ground out of stormy waves.

Finally, brothers and sisters, 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.

Philippians 4:8

Here’s to a New Year filled with Truth and Light and solid ground…a year of dwelling closely with Jesus.💕

~Nicole
Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!

Psalm 105:4