Thinking The Right Things Gives You Greater HOPE

We’ve mentioned it previously, if you think the wrong things, or negative things, you’re not going to have much hope. It’s not the doom and gloom message that uplifts and encourages you. Let’s be reminded of what Paul tells us of our new life in Christ. In Colossians 3:1-2 NLT, he says, “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of Heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.”

Several things catch my attention. We have a new life in Christ when we receive Him and all that He’s done for us. It’s a new life. Not our old life with some new life mixed in. No, we’re new people. It’s what 2 Corinthians 5:17, Amplified speaks of: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].”  New people ought to act and talk like new people. Of course, it takes time to assimilate all that Jesus has done for us and to form new thinking. We’re all in that process, learning and growing in God’s grace through Jesus.

So, this new life will enable us to live differently because the old us has been transformed. We continue learning how to walk it out through the Word each day. That’s where we set our sights, our thoughts, on the realities of Heaven. It’s focusing on everything Jesus has done. It’s recognizing we can walk in everything He purchased for us. Don’t settle for the world’s ways of thinking. Renew your mind. Fill your mind with New Testament promises (Paul gives those to us). We’re in a continual renewal process–renewing our thinking, our minds to our new life in Jesus. Therefore, we will think more about Heaven and not so much of the things of earth. Granted, we live in this world with its myriad of problems. But we can rise above the problems when we factor Jesus into our thinking.

Here’s where we renew our thinking so we can think the right things of God’s kingdom in us, of His power operating in our lives, and His love and grace manifested in our lives. As we continue doing that, we’ll find God’s promises and provisions through Jesus give and continue to build a deep HOPE within us. We know we’ll make it no matter what. We know we’re loved even when people hate us. We know we’re blessed in all we do. We know because we have the confident expectation of God’s good operating in our life. Let Hope arise as you continue walking in His truth.