‘Whatsoever things are true … honest … just … pure … lovely … of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Phil 4 v 8

We often hear in education that rather than teach people what to think, we should teach them how to think. The Apostle Paul would disagree. While the verse above is inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is also very much a product of Paul’s own experience. We’ve been exhorted in the previous devotions to be steadfast and to live in a state of joy and peace, but how was Paul himself able to practice this when he suffered so much: beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned, left for dead? [2 Corinthians 11:23-27] He had discovered that it was important to be selective about what he thought about.

We live in the Information Age: a 24 hr news cycle, constant social media notifications, music and film on demand etc etc. If we allow anything and everything that we come across into our minds (I don’t mean the fleeting thought, but those that linger) we will become saturated by, and conformed to worldly thinking. In Romans 12:2, Paul exhorts us to not be ‘conformed to this world’, but to be ‘transformed by the renewing of your mind’. To do this, we need to begin to build habits of disciplined thinking, and in our verse above, we are given a framework to help us make appropriate choices.

Each of the virtues listed contrast very vividly with much that characterises society and culture. On the other hand, they characterise Christ perfectly, and we should ask ourselves whether our thinking is more like Christ or the culture around us. It is true that ‘we are what we think’, so let us commit today to guard our minds, ‘bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ’ [2 Cor 10:5].