Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. - Philippians 4: 8-9
Sometimes it must seem as if our mind is trying to kill us. No matter how much we try sometimes, our thought patterns seemingly work against us. We proclaim a desire to be happy but then choose to focus on that which makes us miserable. I say choose because it is always a choice beloved. The world will sell you on the victimization mentality. Nearly every type of once normal behavior is now being classified for you to feel better about whatever quirks we may have. The very things that make us different as human beings are now classified into disorders and medicated. The end result of this is to take the locus of control off of ourselves and onto something outside of our control. That makes us feel better about the things we are actually choosing, including sin.
Yet why then do we choose it? Why do we choose to keep our focus on that which makes us miserable? Human nature. We are bombarded with negativity within this world 24-7. Good news is always relegated to the back pages while the sensationally depressing grip us on page one. But beyond human nature it is the limitations we have as humans that truly dictate these destructive patterns. We also rely upon our emotions. The world sells us on the "if it feels good, do it" mentality. Our thought patterns become corrupt and there we can find ourselves, depressed or in defeat. Simply put, we do not have sufficient information to make the life decisions we have to make. We rely on our own strength, wisdom and knowledge and then are woefully disappointed. Who does have sufficient information?
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. -- Revelation 22:13
God is the beginning and the end. He sees all that was, that is, and that will ever be. How beneficial would it be to know the outcome of every decision we could ever be faced with? Our God knows and His spirit lives within us!
Let's take an hypothetical example most of us can relate to; a failed relationship. We can invest a serious amount of time with someone only to see it fail. How many failed relationships have led to depression, anxiety, or a host of physical and mental issues? The devil gets a hold of us and starts to whisper that the failed relationship somehow speaks to our value as a person. This despite the truths we already know:
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. -- Psalm 139: 14
Yet as believers we know that God has seen the beginning and end of every situation. Thus, God has seen the outcome of that relationship and it either would not be beneficial for us or would not have brought Him glory. We know that God is not working against us:
