YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK

 

Proverbs 2:1&5 (ESV)
¹  My son, if you receive my wordsand treasure up my commandments with you,

⁵  then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

 

Sowing and Reaping; Cause and Effect; If/Then; You Find what you Look For…

This foundational Principle of life has far reaching implications, extending even to the way your brain works.

 

In Proverbs chapter two, God tells us in the first four verses what our part is:

“If” you seek, search, study, value, receive His words, incline your heart, treasure His commandments…

 

Then in the rest of the chapter He tells us what we can expect, what we will reap, what we will find, what treasure we will garner, and who we will become.

 

Today it’s called “neuroplasticity”, your brain’s ability to change. Your neuropathways are constantly changing in your brain to adapt to whatever your life is like. The more you think about a subject, the more you will learn about it and come to understand it. You will also recognize it more easily and see it in your world more often (thanks to the “reticular activating system” in a part of your brain). Your brain will design a screening system to make you more aware of your favorite subject’s appearances in your world, and as your mind becomes conformed or skewed toward that subject, that subject continues to grow in importance, impact on your life, and affects and directs the very person you become.

 

Know anyone who is obsessed with a hobby? The more they think about it, the more they pursue it, learn more about it, talk about it, decorate their house with it, and the more they take on the identity associated with that hobby.

 

Remember that these Principles are as unavoidable as gravity, and that they are “amoral”, neither intrinsically good nor evil, but can be used for either.

 

Remember also that you choose every day the direction these principles will take you.

 

So choose to seek, search, and obsess over that which is good, godly, positive, beneficial, optimistic, filled with faith, hope, love, and joy. Choose to saturate your life with the things of your good and great God. Let the thoughts of your Lord change your neural pathways so that your brain becomes a thinking machine that excels in the beliefs and worldview held by the Almighty Himself. Turn your brain into a “God Detection and Recognition System” so that you see Him everywhere and in every situation. Cultivate the mind of Christ; the benefits are endless.

 

Eventually this becomes who you are, your Identity. In verses twelve through twenty-two, God says the results your Christian thought life not only deliver you from people who do bad things, but actually turns you into a person who is characterized as “good” and “righteous”.

 

Notice again the “personification” of Proverbs’ cast of characters.

 

The forbidden woman (16-19), isn’t just someone who commits adultery, she is identified as “The Adulteress”. (She is the personification of the anti-wisdom of the world system and stands in stark contrast to the Lady Wisdom in these first nine chapters of Proverbs.) Also in verse 22 those who have studied and sought after wickedness are now identified as “The Wicked” and “The Treacherous”.

 

But you are not like that. You love the Lord. You identify yourself as “Christian”, and so God’s promise still stands for you as well. As you study, think, and search for the Lord God Almighty and His ways, your brain adapts to your focus, your lifestyle and to what you choose to tell it is important. You get to become someone who IS blessed, godly, and wise. You get to become a person whom God calls “Good”, “Righteous”, and “Upright” (verse 20-21).

 

This is God’s promise: you WILL find what you look for, reap what you sow, and become what you think about all the time.

 

So, choose wisely my friend; you are what you think.

 

~Johnny

8-21-17

 

Blog: www.johnnydtaylor.com

Email: johnny@johnnydtaylor.com

Facebook: johnnydtaylormin

 

Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

King James Version, public domain.