Daily Devotionals

Mix Tape Week 6 Saturday

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

One thing that becomes very clear as we study and learn from Scripture is that we often face a battle of the mind. What we think and fill our minds with often determines our actions. As a result, if we want to live lives that honor God that He has called us to live, we must understand the importance of protecting and guarding our minds.

Paul wrote about the battle of our minds in Scripture. Particularly, he understood the importance of dwelling on good things, including God’s blessings. He writes about this in Philippians 4. This is what he said: “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” (verse 8). This call in Philippians 4 is a call to focus on honorable things to Him and His kingdom. It also means abandoning the ways of the world and the things that take us away from Him. The promise we have is that when we do these things, we have peace (verse 9).

The question is, what are we focusing our minds on today? Are we focusing on Christ and the things of Him, or are you focusing on things that are pulling you away from Him? So let’s set our minds on Christ and the things of Him, teach our children to do the same, and experience God’s peace that comes from focusing on the things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable.

Moving Toward Action

One of the ways we can protect our minds and focus on the things of Christ is by memorizing Scripture. The more Scripture we memorize, the more it will come to mind as we go about our days. Start today by memorizing Philippians 4:8. Encourage the children in your life to memorize it along with you, talking to them about the importance of memorizing Scripture and focusing on the things of Christ.

Going Deeper

Philippians 4:1-9 (NLT)

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stay true to the Lord. I love you and long to see you, dear friends, for you are my joy and the crown I receive for my work.

Now I appeal to Euodia and Syntyche. Please, because you belong to the Lord, settle your disagreement. And I ask you, my true partner, to help these two women, for they worked hard with me in telling others the Good News. They worked along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are written in the Book of Life.

Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

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. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.