A STATE OF MIND A woman summoned her waiter and requested that he turn the air-conditioning down. Minutes later, she summoned the waiter again, asking that the air-conditioning be turned up. As her complaints continued, a man seated at the next table said to the waiter, “She must be driving you crazy, making you turn the air-conditioning up and down like that.” “Not at all,” the waiter replied. “We don’t have air-conditioning.” I have observed a lot of people like that woman. Some of them keep their thermostats on eighty in the winter and seventy-two in the summer. Still, their houses are too cold in January and too warm in July. It’s all a state of mind. The Bible conveys a similar message. Solomon wrote of man, “as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). We are what we think. The apostle Paul admonished, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8). Whatever we allow to fill our minds will control our lives. Jesus taught that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34). Words and deeds are the expressions of thoughts. It is no wonder that Solomon also wrote: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Those concerned with living right will also be concerned with thinking right. The mind is a battlefield. To win the war we must keep the battlefield cleared of all those things which make for defeat. That is why Christians oppose pornography, filthy and vulgar language, indecent movies and TV programs, and vulgar and suggestive books and magazines. The battle is difficult enough without filling the mind with that kind of garbage. In order to succeed in the struggle we must fill our minds with God’s word. The Psalmist exclaimed, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11). We must do the same! ---Roger A. Rush
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