I have written in a previous post that we cannot control what thoughts come into our minds but we can control what we do with them once they are. All of us are tempted and those temptations always start out as thoughts. We all have had thoughts come into our head that we did not like.
While we cannot control what thoughts come in to our minds we can impact the frequency and severity of both positive and negative thoughts coming into our minds.  The material we read, the programs and things we watch on TV and the internet, the conversations we participate in all will increase the frequency of thoughts similar to them entering our heads. This can work both positive and negative. Â
From the negative side of things we will also have more difficulty dealing with and ridding our minds of such thoughts. They have found a resting place and a playground. They are on familiar turf and are far more difficult to convince to leave.
On the positive side of things we can apply the lesson that Philippians 4:8 teaches us. Paul is not only telling us to not think about bad or negative things, but rather he is much more telling us to think about good or positive things.Â
This passage of scripture admonishes us to be proactive in this type of thinking. We aren’t just being encouraged to think about good things when we find ourselves struggling under the force of temptation. We should think about the good, the holy, the noble, the pure things at all times, training our minds in this form of thinking. This mental exercise is a part of the “renewing of our minds”. Â
A proactive approach to this will help reduce the frequency of bad and negative thoughts coming in to our minds. It will reduce the severity of their impact and it will prepare us to deal with them more effectively.