What Jesus Said About Controlling Your Thoughts - The Truth Few Practice (No Ads)

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the description. Have you ever wondered why you do the

things you do, why you react with anger when you

wanted to be patient, why you feel fear when you

know you should have faith, or why you fall into

the same sins over and over again despite promising God

that this time would be different. The answer does not

lie in your actions. It lies in a place that

no one sees but God. It lies in your thoughts.

There is a truth that Jesus taught about the mind

that is radically different from what the world teaches. The

world tells you that your thoughts are private and harmless.

The world tells you that as long as you do

not act on a bad thought, you are safe. But

Jesus revealed a terrifying and liberating secret. He revealed that

your thoughts are not just shadows passing through your head.

They are the seeds that create your future. They are

the steering wheel of your life. And most importantly, Jesus

taught that your thoughts are the primary place where the

enemy attacks you. If you look at the life of Jesus,

he did not just look at people's hands or their

outward behavior. He looked at their minds. He answered questions

that people had not even asked out loud. He knew

what was in the hearts of the Pharisees before they

spoke a word. Jesus understood that the physical world is

just a reflection of the spiritual world inside our heads.

Today we are going to walk through the deep teachings

of Jesus regarding the control of your thoughts. This is

not just about positive thinking. This is about spiritual survival.

There is a truth that few Christians practice, and because

they do not practice it, they live in defeat. But

if you can grasp what Jesus said about this invisible battlefield,

you can break chains that have held you for years.

You can find a peace that does not make sense

to the world. To understand how to control your thoughts,

you must first understand where they come from and what

they do in the Book of Matthew, Jesus had a

confrontation with the religious leaders. These leaders were obsessed with

washing their hands and keeping the outside of their cups clean.

They wanted to look holy, They wanted to look religious,

But Jesus called them hypocrites. He told them that they

were like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside,

but on the inside are full of dead men's bones.

Jesus then explained a principle that changes everything about how

we view our minds. He said, for out of the

heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness blasphemies.

Notice the order that Jesus uses in this verse. He

does not list the actions first. He lists the thoughts first.

He says that out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,

and then after the thoughts come the murders, the adulteries,

and the thefts. This means that every single sin you

have ever committed, and every mistake you have ever made,

started as a thought. Many people try to change their

lives by changing their habits. They try to stop yelling,

They try to stop looking at things they should not see.

They try to stop worrying. But they fail again and again.

Why do they fail because they are trying to kill

the fruit without killing the root. Jesus is teaching us

that the thought is the root. If you allow the

root to grow, the fruit is inevitable. You cannot have

an apple tree that produces oranges, and you cannot have

a mind filled with evil thoughts that produces a righteous life.

This is the first truth you must accept. You cannot

control your life until you control your thoughts. Your mind

is the factory where your actions are built. If you

want to change what comes out of the factory, you

must change what is happening inside the factory. Jesus took

this teaching even further in the Sermon on the Mount.

He wanted to show the people that God's standard was

not just about behavior modification, It was about heart transformation.

The religious law said that you should not murder. Everyone

agreed with that murder is bad. But Jesus raised the

standard to the level of thought. He said, you have

heard that it was said to those of old you

shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger

of the judgment. But then Jesus introduces a new standard.

He says, but I say to you that whoever is

angry with his brother without a cause shall be in

danger of the judgment. Jesus is equating the thought of

anger with the act of murder. This is shocking. How

can a thought be the same as an action. It

is because in the eyes of God, the condition of

your heart matters just as much as the work of

your hands. When you harbor hatred, bitterness, or unrighteous anger

against some one in your mind, you are killing them

in your heart. You are destroying the relationship in the

spiritual realm before you ever destroy it in the physical realm.

He does the same thing with the sin of adultery.

The law said, do not commit the physical act. But

Jesus said, but I say to you that whoever looks

at a woman to lust for her has already committed

adultery with her in his heart. This is the truth

few practice. Most people think they are doing well because

they have not physically cheated or physically killed. But Jesus

says that if you are replaying scenes of sin in

your mind, you are guilty. Why is Jesus so strict?

Is he trying to make it impossible for us? No,

he is trying to protect us. He knows that if

you let the thought of lust live in your mind,

it will eventually destroy your life. He knows that if

you let the thought of anger live in your mind,

it will eventually turn into words that you cannot take back.

Jesus is teaching us that we must treat our thoughts

with the same seriousness that we treat our actions. We

would never dream of walking up to a stranger and

punching them, but we might spend hours imagining in our

with them in our heads. Jesus is saying that the

imagination of the argument is just as dangerous to your soul.

So how do we stop these thoughts. Many people think

the answer is to simply empty their minds. They think

they just need to stop thinking bad things. But Jesus

gave a warning about this as well. He told a

parable about an unclean spirit that goes out of a man.

Jesus said, when an unclean spirit goes out of a man,

he goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none.

The spirit then decides to return to the house it

came from. The house represents the man's life or his mind.

When the spirit returns, he finds the house empty, swept

and put in order. This sounds good, right. The man

has cleaned up his life, he has stopped doing the

bad things. His mind is swept clean. But notice that

the house is empty. Jesus continues. Then he goes and

takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself,

and they enter and dwell there. And the last state

of that man is worse than the first. This is

a profound lesson about controlling your thoughts. You cannot simply

empty your mind. You cannot just remove a bad thought

and leave a vacuum. If you try to just stop

thinking about sin without replacing it with something else, the

sin will come back stronger. It will bring seven other

spirits with it. Nature hates a vacuum. Your mind must

be filled with something. If you do not fill it

with the truth of God, the enemy will fill it

with lies. This is why so many Christians struggle with

recurring sins. They spend all their energy trying to push

the bad thoughts out, but they do not spend any

energy inviting the presence of God in the truth. Few

practice is the principle of replacement. You do not fight

a thought with nothing. You fight a thought with a

better thought. You replace the lie with the truth. You

replace the fear with a promise from God. You cannot

walk in darkness and light at the same time. If

you turn on the light, the darkness has to flee.

In the same way, if you fill your mind with

the words of Jesus, the evil thoughts simply have no

room to stay. How do you know what is really

going on in your mind? Sometimes we deceive ourselves. We

think we are trusting God, but deep down we are

full of fear. We think we have forgiven someone, but

deep down we are bitter. Jesus gave us a litmus

test to diagnose the true condition of our thoughts. He

told us to listen to our words. Jesus said, for

out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

This means that your words are the overflow of your mind.

If you want to know so what you have been

thinking about, listen to what you have been talking about.

If you are constantly complaining, it is because your mind

is dwelling on the negative. If you are constantly criticizing others,

it is because your mind is judgmental. If you speak

words of fear and doubt, it is because you have

been meditating on fear and doubt. You cannot have a

positive life and a negative mouth, And you cannot have

a negative mouth without having a negative mind. They are

all connected. Jesus warned us that we will have to

give an account for every idle word we speak. This

is sobering, but it is also helpful. It gives us

a way to monitor our thought life. When you catch

yourself saying something negative, stop, Do not just apologize for

the word. Trace the word back to the thought. Ask

yourself why you said that, What were you thinking five

minutes before you said it? What have you been dwelling

on all day? Use your words as an alarm system.

When the words become bitter, it is a signal that

your thoughts have become bitter, and that is the moment

you need to go to war in your mind. One

of the most common sinful thoughts that Christians tolerate is worry.

We often do not even look at worry as a sin.

We think it is just being responsible. We think it

shows that we care. But Jesus spoke more about worry

than almost any other thought pattern. He commanded us not

to do it. In the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus

spends a long time telling us not to worry about

our lives. He says, therefore, I say to you, do

not worry about your life, what you will eat or

what you will drink, nor about your body what you

will put on. Why is worry so dangerous? When you worry,

you are thinking thoughts that say God is not in control.

You are thinking thoughts that say God is not good

enough or powerful enough to take care of you. Worry

is a meditation on the lies of the enemy. Jesus

asks a very practical question, which of you, by worrying,

can add one cubit to his stature. He is appealing

to our logic. He is asking us what our anxious

thoughts are actually producing. Are they solving the problem? No?

Are they making us healthier? No? They are stealing our

joy and our strength. Jesus gives us the solution to

anxious thoughts. He tells us to look at the birds

of the air and the lilies of the field. He

tells us to shift our focus from our lack to

God's abundance. This is the key. Controlling your thoughts is

about focus. Whatever you focus on will get bigger in

your eyes. If you focus on your problems, your problems

will seem giant and God will seem small. But if

you focus on God, God will seem big and your

problems will seem small. Jesus concludes this teaching with a command,

but seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,

and all these things shall be added to you. This

is a thought control strategy. Instead of thinking about what

you need, think about God's kingdom. Instead of obsessing over tomorrow,

focus on obeying God today. When you align your thoughts

with God's priorities, the peace of God enters your mind.

Perhaps the greatest example of how to control your thoughts

comes from the moment Jesus himself was tempted. Before Jesus

began his ministry, he was led into the wilderness to

be tempted by the devil. This was a battle of thoughts.

The devil did not come with a sword. He came

with suggestions. He came with ideas. The first thing the

devil attacked was jesus identity and his physical needs. He

said to Jesus, if you are the son of God,

command the these stones become bred. Notice the word. If

the enemy loves to plant doubt in your mind. He

wants you to question who you are and who God is.

He wanted Jesus to think that his father had abandoned

him because he was hungry. He wanted Jesus to use

his power for his own comfort instead of trusting God.

How did Jesus respond. Did he argue with the devil?

Did he get into a debate? No? He responded with scripture.

Jesus said, it is written man shall not live by

bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the

mouth of God. This is the weapon that few people

practice using. Jesus did not fight the thought with his

own logic. He fought it with the written word of God.

This is crucial. When a negative thought enters your mind,

you cannot fight it with your feelings. Your feelings are

often the problem. You must fight it with an external truth.

The devil tried again. He took Jesus to the pinnacle

of the temple and told him to throw himself down.

He even quoted a Bible verse out of context to

try to trick Jesus. The enemy knows the Bible, and

he will twist it in your thoughts to make you

do foolish things. Jesus responded again, it is written again,

you shall not tempt the Lord your God. The devil

showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and offered

them to him if Jesus would just worship him. This

was a short cut. It was a thought that said,

you can have the glory without the suffering. You can

have the crown without the cross. Jesus commanded him away

with you, satan, for it is written, you shall worship

the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve.

There are three things we can learn from this encounter. First,

Jesus answered immediately. He did not let the thought linger.

He did not entertain the idea. Second, Jesus spoke out loud.

Sometimes you need to speak the truth out loud to

silence the thoughts in your head. Third, Jesus used the

specific truth for the specific lie. He did not just

quote a random verse. He quoted a verse that directly

contradicted what the enemy was suggesting. This is how you

must fight. When a thought comes that says you are worthless,

you must say it is written, I am fearfully and

wonderfully made. When a thought comes that says you are alone,

you must say it is written. He will never leave

me nor forsake me. When a thought comes that says

you should take revenge, you must say it is written.

Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. You must have the

word of God stored in your heart so that you

can draw it out like a sword when the battle begins.

If your mind is empty of scripture, you are a

soldier without a weapon. You might be thinking that this

sounds very hard. It sounds like a lot of work

to monitor every thought and fight every lie, And you

are right in your own strength. It is impossible. The

human mind is too broken and too fast for us

to control on our own. That is why Jesus promised

us a helper. Before Jesus left the earth, he told

his disciples about the Holy Spirit. He said, but the helper,

the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,

He will teach you all things and bring to your

remembrance all things that I said to you. This is

a promise for your thought life. One of the jobs

of the Holy Spirit is to remind you of the

truth when you are in the middle of a mental panic.

The Holy Spirit will whisper averse to you when you

are about to make a bad decision. The Holy Spirit

will prick your conscience. He is the internal alarm system.

But the Holy Spirit also gives us the power to

say no. You represent a new creation. You are not

a slave to your old way of thinking. Jesus said

that whoever the sun sets free is free. Indeed, this

includes freedom from mental strongholds. You have the authority in

the name of Jesus to tell a thought to leave.

Many people treat their thoughts like guests that they have

to entertain. If a thought knocks on the door, they

let it in, offer it coffee, and sit down to

talk with it. But you need to treat sinful thoughts

like intruders. If a thief breaks into your house, you

do not make him dinner. You command him to leave.

You call the police. In the spiritual realm, you call

on the name of Jesus. You have the right to

evict thoughts that do not belong in a temple of

the Holy Spirit. The ultimate secret to controlling your thoughts

is not just fighting the bad way ones, but living

in a state of connection with Jesus. Jesus gave us

the image of the vine and the branches. He said,

I am the vine. You are the branches. He who

abides in me and I in him, bears much fruit,

For without me you can do nothing. What does it

mean to abide? It means to stay. It means to

remain connected. When a branch is connected to the vine,

the life of the vine flows into the branch. The sap,

the nutrients, and the water flow naturally. The branch does

not have to struggle to produce fruit. It just has

to hold on to the vine. When you abide in Christ,

his thoughts begin to flow into your mind. You begin

to think like he thinks because you are connected to him.

This happens through prayer. It happens through reading the Bible.

It happens through worship, It happens through spending time in

his presence. The more time you spend with Jesus, the

less taste you will have for the things of the world.

The things that used to tempt you will start to

look disgusting. The worries that used to consume you will

start to look silly. This is because your mind is

being renewed by the presence of God. Jesus said, if

you abide in Me and my words abide in you,

you will ask what you desire and it shall be

done for you notice the condition his words must abide

in you. This means his words must live in your mind.

They must be at home there. When the word of

God is at home in your mind, there is no

room for the lies of the enemy. One of the

reasons we struggle is that we try to serve two masters.

We want to think like the world on Monday through Saturday,

and then think like Jesus on Sunday. But Jesus said

that a house divided against itself cannot stand. James, the

brother of Jesus, wrote that a double minded man is

unstable in all his ways. You cannot fill your mind

with the garbage of the world, violent entertainment, gossip, lustful images,

and greedy philosophies, and then expect to have the mind

of Christ. You have to make a choice. You have

to guard the gates of your mind. Jesus warned us

to take heed what we hear. We must be careful

about what we allow to enter our eyes and ears.

If you watch things that make you stumble, you are

inviting the enemy into your mind. Jesus used very strong

language about this. He said, if your eye causes you

to sin, pluck it out He was using hyperbole to

show us how serious we must be. We must be

willing to cut off the sources of our bad thoughts.

If social media is causing you to compare yourself and

feel depressed, cut it off. If a certain group of

friends is causing you to gossip, step away. If certain

movies are causing you to lust, stop watching them. You

cannot win the war for your mind. If you are

constantly handing ammunition to the enemy. What is the result

of practicing this truth? What happens when you actually start

to control your thoughts and bring them into submission to Christ.

The result is peace, not just the absence of conflict,

but a deep, supernatural wholeness. Jesus promised his disciples peace.

I leave with you my peace. I give to you,

not as the world gives. Do I give to you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

This peace is a guard for your mind. When you

trust in Jesus and keep your mind stayed on him,

he keeps you in perfect peace. This does not mean

you will not have problems. It means the problems will

not have you. It means that in the middle of

the storm, your mind will be anchored. Imagine waking up

in the morning and not being immediately hit with anxiety.

Imagine someone insulting you and not having your mind race

with revenge. Imagine facing a financial crisis and having a

mind that is full of faith instead of panic. This

is the life that is available to you. This is

the life Jesus died to give you. But you have

to fight for it. You have to take up the

weapons of your warfare. So where do you start today?

You start with one thought. The next time a negative,

sinful or fearful thought comes into your head, catch it,

stop it in its tracks, do not let it finish

its sentence. Say to yourself, this thought is not from God.

Then invite Jesus into that moment. Talk to him about it.

Say Lord, I am feeling afraid right now, but I

choose to trust you. Quote a scripture that you know.

If you do not know any, go find one, write

it down, carry it with you. This is a daily practice.

It is a moment by moment discipline. It is the

truth few practice because it requires effort. It is easier

to be lazy and let our minds drift. But the

lazy mind is the devil's playground. The disciplined mind is

the temple of God. You are not a victim of

your biology. You are not a victim of your past.

You are not a victim of your circumstances. You are

a child of God, and you have been given the

mind of Christ. It is time to use it. It

is time to take back the territory that the enemy

has stolen. Remember that this is a journey. You will

not be perfect tomorrow. You will mess up. You will

have days where your thoughts get the better of you.

But the grace of God is sufficient. When you fall,

get back up, Confess it to God, receive his forgiveness,

and get back in the fight. Jesus knows your frame.

He knows you are dust. He is patient with you.

He is not standing over you with a stick, waiting

for you to think a wrong thought so he can

punish you. He is standing beside you, offering you his

strength to help you think right thoughts so you can

be blessed. The battle for your life is one or

lost in your mind. Decide today that you will not

let the enemy occupy your thoughts any longer. Fill your

mind with what is true, noble, just, pure, lovely and

of good report. If there is any virtue, and if

there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. As you

change your thoughts, you will change your words. As you

change your words, you will change your actions. And as

you change your actions, you will see the destiny that

God has prepared for you unfold. The truth is simple,

but the practice is powerful. Can control your thoughts and

you will see the salvation of the Lord. The scripture says,

if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed,

and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall

make you free. Let the truth of Jesus set your

mind free today. To truly master this area of your life,

you need to understand that you have an active enemy.

Jesus called Satan, the father of lies. This is his

primary nature. He lies, And where does he place those lies?

He places them in the stream of your consciousness. Many

people think that spiritual warfare is like a horror movie

with spinning heads and strange voices, but true spiritual warfare

is usually much more subtle. It is a thought that

sounds like your own voice. It is a suggestion that

seems logical but leads to death. For example, the enemy

will whisper you are always going to be like this.

That sounds like a simple observation, but it is a

lie from the pit of hell. It denies the power

of God to change you, or he will whisper God

is tired of forgiving you. That plays on your guilt.

But it contradicts the Bible, which says God's mercies are

new every morning. Jesus exposed this strategy when he spoke

to the Pharisees. He told them that they were of

their father, the devil. Why because they believed lies and

they spoke lies. When you agree with a negative thought,

you are essentially agreeing with the enemy. You are making

a covenant with a lie. This is why Jesus was

so aggressive with Peter. Peter had just tried to tell

Jesus that he should not go to the cross. Peter

thought he was being a good friend. He was trying

to protect Jesus. But Jesus turned and said, get behind me, satan.

Jesus was not calling Peter the devil. He was addressing

the source of the thought. Peter had allowed a thought

into his mind that was contrary to the will of God.

It was a thought that sought comfort over obedience. Jesus

recognized it immediately as a weapon of the enemy. We

need this same discernment. We need to be able to

look at a thought and say, that does not sound

like Jesus, that sounds like the enemy. If a thought

brings confusion, condemnation, or chaos, it is not from God.

God is not the author of confusion. His sheep know

his voice, and his voice leads to peace and life.

Another major area where we lose control of our thoughts

is in the area of offense. We live in a

world that loves to be offended. People are constantly looking

for reasons to be angry, and when someone hurts us,

our minds naturally want to replay the tape. We watch

the movie of their betrayal over and over again. We

think of what we should have said. We think of

how we are going to get even. We hope that

something bad happens to them so they learn their lesson.

These thoughts feel good to our flesh, they make us

feel justified, but they are poisoned to our spirits. Jesus

gave us a very hard teaching on this. He said,

for if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father

will also forgive you, but then he gives the warning.

But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither

will your father forgive your trespasses. This means that holding

on to an unforgiving thought is physically dangerous to your

spiritual standing. You cannot afford to hold a grudge. The

grudge is too expensive. It costs you the flow of

God's grace in your life. When Peter asked Jesus how

many times he should forgive, Peter thought he was being

generous by jesting seven times. Jesus said to him, I

do not say to you up to seven times, but

up to seventy times seven. This is not a math problem.

It is a lifestyle. It means that you must keep

your mind clear of offense constantly. When the thought of

the hurt comes up, you must actively choose to release it.

You have to say, Lord, I forgive them. I release

them to you. I will not dwell on this. This

is the only way to keep your heart clean. If

you let the root of bitterness grow, it will defile you.

It will make you cynical and hard. Jesus wants you

to have a soft heart, and that requires a disciplined

mind that refuses to hold on to trash. There is

a final aspect of Jesus teaching on thoughts that we

must cover. It is the concept of the secret place.

In Matthew six, Jesus talks about praying in secret, fasting

in secret, and giving in secret. He says that the

Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. Your

mind is the ultimate secret place. It is the only

place where just you and God exist. No one else

can come in there unless you invite them. You can

be in a crowded room, but in your mind you

can be worshiping at the throne of God. You can

be in a prison cell like the apostle Paul, but

in your mind you can be free in the spirit.

This is the power that the world cannot touch. They

can take your money, they can take your reputation, They

can even take your body, but they cannot take your mind.

If your mind is stayed on Jesus, you are untouchable.

Jesus wants you to cultivate this secret life. He wants

you to have a conversation with Him that never ends.

He wants your first thought in the morning to be

of Him, and your last thought at night to be

of him. This is what it means to love the

Lord your God with all your mind. It is one

of the greatest commandments. It says you shall love the

Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,

and with all your mind. Loving God with your mind

means using your intellect, your imagination, and your memory to

glorify him. It means refusing to let your mind become

a dumpster for the world's filth. It means dedicating your

thought life as an act of worship. The truth few

practice is that the battle is already won or lost

before you ever lift a finger. The battle is in

the mind. Jesus came to save you completely, and that

includes saving your mind from the tyranny of sin and fear.

He has given you his word, he has given you

his spirit, He has given you his name. You have

everything you need to take control, but you must do

the work. You must be vigilant. You must be the

gatekeeper of your own soul. Do not let another day

go by where you live as a slave to your thoughts.

Stand up on the inside, take every thought captive to

the obedience of Christ, and walk in the glorious freedom

of the children of God. May the Lord bless you

and keep your mind in his perfect peace. Amen. Thank

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