Guard Your Thoughts Proverbs 4:23, NIV “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Today I would like to share the grace of God under the title “Guard Your Thoughts.” Whatever is presently taking shape, such as happiness or unhappiness, joy or sorrow was once in my heart in the form of thoughts. These present experiences were once invisible but might have sometimes been audibly expressed. What is stored in our hearts will one day come out therefore if we cannot control our thoughts we will be insecure about our circumstances. If I can control my thoughts, I have the power to control my circumstances and destiny. A Korean proverb says: “prepare the ground first then you can build a house.” This proverb implies that a firm house can only be built on a solid foundation. What is “the foundation of our life”? It is our “thoughts”. Throughout our lives our thoughts are forming the foundation of our lives. God wants us to make a large and solid foundation through our thoughts. He ministers among us on the basis of the foundation of our thoughts. Isaiah 54:2-3 says: “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.“ How can I enlarge the place of my tent? Let us replace ‘thought’ with the word ‘tent’. Do not reduce the place of your thought but enlarge it. Stretch the curtains of your thought wide do not hold back! Lengthen your cords of thought; strengthen your stakes of thought! What you see in your mind as if it is already achieved by God will actually happen. If we therefore want to live a successful life of faith; we should enlarge the place of our creative thoughts with a positive attitude. Let’s say you want to start something new but you say to yourself from the beginning: “I can’t do this. I’m inefficient. I’m a looser;” there is nothing God can give to me because I did not enlarge my thinking. The Lord will bless us abundantly in proportion to the expansion of our thoughts. This is very important to keep in mind. 1. Do not drag your past miseries into the present First, in order not to be dragged by our past miseries we need to start to think in a whole new way. In our past there are many memories of misfortunes. It may be that some of us grew up suffering poverty. Some people had to go to bed with hungry stomachs. Some were abused by their own parents. Or some had to scrape a living since they were left orphans at a young age. These painful memories took root deeply inside of these people and have held them back. The memories rooted these people down to thinking about their past. They continue to make tears flow down their cheeks. “Alas! What a fate!” Past wounds and miseries come back to haunt us so that we are not living in our present. “I was so unlucky when I was young and even now still I’m suffering a lot of hard knocks of life.” There is a reason why this is happening. It is not because of your fate but because of your thoughts. As long as you are unable to shake off your past which is residing in your thoughts; your past will never leave you but hold you captive even in your present. Let us stop to think about our past wounds and miseries so that they do not influence our present circumstances. Our present circumstances are rooted into what we have sown in our hearts before. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” We are not the same people of the past. Brothers and Sister! You are new people in Christ! Since we are created as new people in Jesus, we should think like new people do. New people do not think like old people. When you think as the new, a new history will happen in you. We are to cleanse miserable, sad and painful thoughts from the past with repentance and prayer. As we repent we shake off all our memories about our miserable past. Through prayer we are to cast all our miserable memories away. 1 John 1:9 says: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Jesus washed away not only our past sins but also our past painful miseries when we repented. Philippians 4:6 says: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” So many times we are anxious. But the Lord wants us not to be anxious about anything. God is always close to us and wants to carry our burdens for us. Thoughts that remind us of the past are stirred up by the devil and we are to cast them away. Satan keeps following us and whispering, “I know your past. You won’t have any good break. You are destined to live miserably. A dog’s lot is there for you. Don’t even think about change. You will live as you have lived.” He never stops to activate such negative thinking. If you answer him, “Right. Everything will turn out badly with me.” This is the time when a thief will come and steal your good attitude. He will leave only bad thinking behind him. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” The devil purposes to harm you in such a way. Let us all read a verse together from Isaiah 43:18. Isaiah 43:18 says: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” It does not mean that we are to stop thinking about our past history and events altogether. Rather this means that we are to quit dwelling on the place of past sorrow, pain, agony and misfortune which we have experienced. We can expect to change our life by changing our thinking. It doesn’t matter what a shaman or a fortune-teller has told about us. If we change our thinking we can shake off all those destructive words. “Above all else, guard your heart!” This is a most important key for us. A Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus claimed, “Our life is built by our thinking.” In the Bible we hear from Solomon, the wise king: “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” (Proverbs 17:22) In our daily life a merry heart does good, like medicine but a broken spirit dries the bones. We must most certainly take care of our heart. Our life is most affected by the state of our heart. Therefore let us quit dwelling on painful memories of our past but keep our heart most diligently. Let us not allow past wounds and miseries to come back to haunt us. We are not to return to the past. We should fill our heart with happiness at all times. We are living in the present not in the past. We are to cast away from us all personal misfortune, sorrow and pain of the past. Christians should especially wash away their past through repentance and prayer so that they can step into a new day. The busy season for farmers is not far off now. As spring comes it will begin to rain. It is time for spring rice-planting. The farmers will sow seeds into fields. Spring initiates the farming of the land for that whole year. In due time, the farmers will also fertilize their crop anticipating a good harvest. This will keep their seedlings from being damaged by blight and insects. Crops are regularly sprayed with pesticide. Farmers labor hard from morning until evening. Sometimes their labor is too much. But despite all their toils and sacrifices; despite their efforts to fertilize and crop-dust against blight and insects; there is still one variable we haven’t yet mentioned. Above all the seeds need rich soil. First the farmers should plow his fields. Clumps of earth must be broken. Stones must be picked out. We are too as well make good soil. If the soil of our heart is not plowed and the stones removed; even good seed will not grow. If we want a happy tomorrow we should plow our present heart field. Why do we to pray loudly sometimes during our worship time? When we pray we shake off all our negative thinking. The church is good for us. When we sing hymns together and pray together in church we are plowing the fields of our heart. We are then able to sow seeds of new thinking: positive, creative, and productive, hopeful thinking. We can then expect nothing but a good harvest. Seeds on good soil will produce a thirty, sixty or a hundred fold harvest. We will then be able to lend not borrow. We may enjoy good health and that all may go well with us, even as our souls are getting along well. 2. Plant good seeds into your thoughts for the present Second, we can expect a good harvest if we plant good seeds into the thoughts of our present. Let us then sow good seeds in our present! Seeds of good thoughts will become a reality of joy, happiness, and blessings. From the top to the bottom we should wear good thoughts. I wear good thoughts in my reality. This is wonderful! God has made our human heart especially to hold a God heart. The bible says: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Either good or bad can flow from our heart. Romans 8:5-6 says: “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;” Both sins begin from thoughts and all goodness starts from thoughts. History can attest to the fact that people who sow good seed for a hopeful tomorrow by having a dream in due season will reap a harvest of joy and blessing. Therefore no matter what circumstances we face now we have the power to sow good seeds of hope expecting a bright tomorrow. We must stay positive. Even if we are hungry, ragged or distressed in our present circumstances; we can keep from getting irritated or stop complaining and turn with hope to a better future. Then our destiny will be changed. But this is not easy. Only by believing in Jesus can we do it. Without Jesus where can we find hope? Man can rarely through human efforts change attitudes. When we believe in Jesus we can trust in God. We can have hope no matter what our circumstances by trusting in God. We can have joy in our present and we can expect good things tomorrow. Therefore it is a wonderful thing to trust and rely upon God. We should firmly plant the five-fold gospel and the three-fold blessings into our heart during our waiting season. 2000 years ago Jesus died on the cross, having his body torn and blood shed for us. Jesus paid all cost for our sins, our unrighteousness, and our diseases. He settled the entire debt of our poverty and death. Jesus took the eternal debt we owed and in its place granted us forgiveness, sanctification, health, blessing and eternal life. We can then freely receive the five-fold Gospel. “For it is by grace we have been saved, through faith - and this not from ourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.” We only need to believe that this is the gift of God for us to freely receive. You can do it! When important tasks or missions are committed to you, do not say: “Oh, I can’t do it!” The Spirit of God is with you! You can do it if you only begin. John 14:26 says: “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” We are all people who have received the Holy Spirit. You are special. You can ask the Holy Spirit which is within you for help and through His empowering you can do everything. James 1:5 says: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” God gives you wisdom. Isaiah 55:8-9 says: “‘for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” Therefore if we heard God saying ‘you can do it’, we know that we really can do it. Even if God’s thoughts are different than our thoughts we are not to be negative about this. Our thoughts are really important. We can expect a successful life in God if we decide to think in a positive and creative way. 3. Plant your future dreams into your present thoughts. Third, plant your future dreams into your present thoughts. Do you have a dream? Then from this time forward sow the dream of your future into your heart. What kind of dream should Christians have? What dream do we need to sow continually for our future? Please repeat after me. “Dream a dream wherein you may enjoy good health and all going well with you; even as your soul is getting along well.” This is really important. In the future you should live happily. This is meaningful. We are to hope to live happily even in our future. We are to dream a dream in our present which we expect to realize in our future. Brothers and sisters! Dream a dream for your happiness. Do not dream that ‘I may not enjoy good health and all may not go well with me, even as my soul is getting along worse.’ On the contrary if you get sick think about the verse, “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24) Again I say - dream a dream wherein your dreams come true. Recently many people asked me, “You look well. What happened?” I was very sick and you might have noticed this. I lived holding on to “by his wounds you have been healed.” This is the word of God. “Until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” No matter how I feel my thoughts are God’s thoughts. He thinks of me as being healthy. I have thought, slept, woken up and now I am healthy again with thoughts of God seeing me healthy. The word of God has power which enables us to stand up. We must all always live with a dream. Isn’t this true? Let us think about our dream. What is a dream? Brothers and Sisters! You may have a desire. When you dream you can see that it is already accomplished. Everybody has a dream. Write down your dreams: first, second, third, fourth… Then imagine each of your dreams as reality. I visualize the reality of: my first dream, second dream, third dream, forth dream and so on. According to the visualization of our faith we will see our dreams come true. Look at your dreams every day. “This is my dream…” We see the things that are not as if they already are. We see into the invisible by faith. You will one day be amazed by the result of your visualization. “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.” The principle of visualization by faith is also applied to our mouth. By faith we can open wide our mouth. Even if the things we desire to do or to have looks impossible we can visualize them until all things are accomplished. Then what we want will indeed come true. Psalm 37:4 says: “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” The desire of your heart is your dream. God will make your dream come true. Romans 4:17 says: “the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” Having a dream is the key to our abundant life. If you have a dream you can see things that are not as though they were. Ephesians 3:20 says: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,” God is able to do immeasurably more than all we have ever dreamed of. Therefore at all times imagine in your heart that your dream will come to pass. Think of yourself going to heaven where you will live in overflowing happiness and joy. Isaiah 65:17-19 says: “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.” Negative thoughts make us waste our life. Negative thoughts absorb your energy. Negative thoughts are like a moth eating your happiness away. We should have a healthy dream that is fed by positive thoughts that all may always go well with us. Our face will be brighter and we can continually dream that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” when we have a positive attitude with faith. When your dream is young you are young! When your dream is old you are equally old. When your dream is confident you are confident. When you dream that you are inadequate you will become inadequate. The dream you have in your heart sculptures you! According to Dale B. Carnegie, an American writer, there are three sentences which successful people never say: “I am poor!” “I am lost” and “I have reached my limits.” Brothers and Sisters! If we want to be successful, as D.B. Carnegie said, we should never say: “I am poor. I am lost. I’ve reached my limits.” We are to always dream with positive and active thoughts that our soul and body would enjoy good health and that all may go well with us. We sow seeds of a bright future of living a happy life into our present circumstances. Until now I have continually lived nurturing two dreams. I have had two wishes. My first dream was to build a world famous church. That was my wish and dream. I have looked up to this dream without ceasing. The second dream was to travel preaching the Gospel to the different people groups of the world. In my heart there was a burning desire of going into the entire world and preaching the good news to all of creation.” Both these dreams have been fulfilled after 50 years of dreaming. When you dream, believe and pray it will be done to you. Focus on your dream by faith. Look at your dream which is deep down in your heart all the time. It will be accomplished regardless whether it is a small or a big dream. Remember! Ephesians 3:20 says: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,…” We need to do our part. What we ask of God we should see it accomplished. Nothing will happen to us if we do not expect anything from God. I pray that in your lifetime you are able to visualize your thoughts and dreams as already being fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Conclusion Our thoughts constantly become a reality in our lives even though they are invisible. Our past has become the reality of our present and what we think right now will become reality in the future. Therefore, our past, present and future become realized through our thoughts. People read the Bible but they are unable to apply the word of God to their lives so they do not realize their desires. This is what I have learned. There is a way to apply the Bible to our lives. Drink and eat, wear and take the word of God into your life. The most important part is to let God’s words take root in your thoughts. From now on think well! To think rightly we need to change our words since our words affect almost 98 % of our thoughts. Let us pray together! Father God! Thank you for allowing us to know the truth. You said: “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” I pray earnestly that all the saints will receive this fulfilled freedom as much as possible. Set them free so that they may live a blessed life before God. Make all of them have a better tomorrow. Let them enjoy good health in body and soul. Let everything go well with them. Let the next month be better than this month. Let the next year be better than this year. Please allow them a bright, fresh, and brilliant tomorrow. Help our country. Father God! Allow our nation to have a bright, promising history in the future. Protect us from threatening forces of communism. Prevent war. Let a war never take place in our country. May we conquer our land only with peace! Please make all of church members be happy in the Lord. May we live, move, live happily and boldly stand before the Lord by faith. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. 1