Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Don't let the trash pile up!


We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we 
take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV)
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, 
and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of 
praise. (Philippians 4:8 NLT)
 

So I must confess that at times I can be a tad lazy when it comes to cleaning my home. This past holiday weekend
was filled with days of sleeping in and hanging with friends, so cleaning was NOT at the top of my list. 
By Monday, my kitchen sink and trash was piling high with leftovers. When I walked in my home, I was 
overwhelmed by the smell; something was in the trash with a strong scent. Ugh, “Gotta remember to take the trash
out”, I thought. However, the trash bag really wasn’t full and I have this thing where I feel like I'm wasting a trash 
bag if I throw it out and it's only half full. I'd rather it get to the "almost spilling over" top before taking it out so I 
know I got full use of the trash bag. Crazy, I know. Either way instead of immediately taking out the trash, even though 
it was a slight smell, I let 2 more days pile up, yep to the tip top, and then I finally took it out.
 
That same night, God spoke to me in my dreams. "That's how your mind works. You fill it with negative, ungodly and 
unpure thoughts which are like garbage, and just like the trash can, the more you pile on the stronger the smell. 
Pretty soon the scent can overpower your home, get in your clothes, then wherever you go the smell goes and you 
become a walking, talking garbage can. You put garbage in your mind then garbage will come out of you" 
 
After those two days of walking around with the trash smell, I almost got used to it; I knew it was in there smelling
 but my senses became numb to it. That’s the scary thing, when we allow ungodly, dirty and negative thoughts to pile 
up in the receptacle of our mind, we become numb to the effect they have on our life and others. Our mindset, attitude and 
even our talk can become filthy. Negativity and Ungodliness just becomes a way of life. Not good.
 
Through this revelation, I knew God was telling me to stop letting so many negative, ungodly and unpure thoughts pile 
up in my brain.  Instead he wanted me to immediately throw them out as soon as I recognized them to be wrong. Just like 
the trash.
2 Cor 10:5 directs us to take "captive" every thought and make it obedient to Christ. 
Captive means: to take under control or restrain.  
When these thoughts come on us we should take them under control to MAKE them more like Christ. 
 
If we think too long and hard about anything it can and will overtake us. So if it's anything we are going to focus on, it needs
to be on GOD and his promises.  "Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and 
admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." (Philippians 4:8 NLT)

We may feel like we can’t control the thoughts that enter our mind, but we can overcome them by studying the word and 
committing his promises to memory. Read your bible daily, listen to worship music often and keep note cards with scriptures 
nearby. As soon as a negative thought comes quickly throw it out and replace it with a fresh thought from God. 
 
Whatever you do, just don't let the trash pile up :-)

12 comments:

  1. I love this! What a great reminder. It is so true how we can sometimes accept worldy views, opinions, etc and forget to say, "Hey, wait a minute. This isn't how God is telling us to live, act, etc." His Word comes first above ALL things. Thanks Toya!

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    1. Thanks Dawn! I agree, we have to constantly renew our mind and be mindful of what God says and act accordingly.

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  2. This is so true!!! Thanks for a really great post.

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  3. WOW!!! Toya this post spoke to my life. Thank you!

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    1. Glory to God! So glad you were blessed by it!

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  4. Thanks ladies! This was straight from God! He spoke so clearly and vividly to me in that dream Tuesday. I'm very guilty of letting the wrong thoughts stick around for way too long. I'll be taking the trash out more often now too:-)

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  5. Toya, this is great!! I laughed because I'm the same way with wasting trash bags, but I usually fold when it comes to the smell....I try to clean the fridge out so it makes me feel a bit better.

    Our lives are so like this, or least mine is. I tend to find myself fixated on thoughts I shouldn't be thinking about and instead of just letting them go or replacing them with good things I let them fester and rot.

    Thanks for the wonderful reminder of how we need to immediately throw them out. I've been working on that a lot lately and I'm gradualy learning to do that.

    Great post Toya.

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  6. Great post Toya, thanks so much for sharing such a great way of seeing our negative ungodly thoughts :)

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  7. As always lady you speak to my heart. Thanks for telling the truth sister. I must confess I'm glad I am not the only one in this world who does not want to waste a trash bag.

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  8. Thanks Ladies!

    Ok I'm glad I'm not the only one with the weirdness about trash bags. haha. So glad God was able to speak to all of us through this post. Blessings BIG sisters:-)

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  9. Toya, great, great post. I know exactly what you mean and God is speaking directly to me through your post. Garbage in my mind is beginning to come out of my mouth and infiltrate my thoughts with negative thinking. What a daily battle. This ties in with the Hitchhikers that I recently wrote about. It didn't speak to me the way your post does because I was the one that wrote it I guess. You know how we don't really take our own advice? That is very much the case with me so I thank God for using my sisters in Christ in only a way that he can. Thank you, your story was also very funny and I can relate in so many ways.

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