We all have thoughts that we wish we could turn off.
Sometimes it’s worry about something that hasn't happened
yet. Sometimes it’s replaying something that happened yesterday. Sometimes it
is fear, discouragement, anger, or simply wondering, “what if?”
Our minds can be a noisy place.
That is what makes Max Lucado’s book Tame Your Thoughts so
timely. Lucado deals with something every one of us faces, the battle that
takes place in our minds.
The basic message of the book is simply that we don't have
to allow every thought that enters our minds to control us.
That is an important distinction. We cannot always control
what thoughts come into our minds. A troubling thought may suddenly appear. A
memory may come back. Fear may creep in. But just because a thought enters our
mind doesn't mean we have to believe it, dwell on it, or allow it to determine
how we live.
The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to “take every
thought captive to obey Christ.”
That is really at the heart of Lucado's message.
We need to learn to recognize our thoughts and ask, “Is this
true? Does this agree with God's Word? Is this helping me trust God, or is it
pulling me away from Him?”
One thing I appreciate about this book is that Lucado
doesn't pretend that Christians will never struggle with negative thoughts. We
all do. Living in a fallen world means we will have struggles, worries and, at
times, become discouraged.
It means we don't have to face those thoughts alone.
When worry says, “what if everything goes wrong?” faith
reminds us that God is still in control.
When fear says, “you can't handle this,” Scripture reminds
us that God is with us.
When discouragement says, “there is no hope,” God's Word
reminds us that our hope is found in Him.
That is where this book becomes very practical.
Lucado encourages us to replace unhealthy thinking with
biblical thinking. Philippians 4:8 tells us to think about things that are
true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of
praise.
That doesn't mean we ignore the problems around us. It means
we don't allow our problems to become bigger in our minds than our God is.
I also appreciated the author’s emphasis on prayer.
Philippians 4:6–7 tells us not to be anxious, but to bring
our concerns to God through prayer and thanksgiving. God's answer isn't always
to immediately change the situation. Sometimes He changes us in the middle of
the situation by giving us His peace.
That is a lesson for all of us.
Sometimes we spend so much time thinking about a problem
that we forget to pray about it.
We replay the problem over and over in our head.
We think about it constantly.
We imagine every possible outcome.
And then we wonder why we are anxious.
Lucado reminds us to take those thoughts to God.
Like previous Lucado books, one of the strengths of Tame
Your Thoughts is that it is easy to understand. Lucado writes in a
conversational way, and his illustrations make the subject relatable. You don't
have to be a theologian or a psychologist to understand what he is saying.
At the same time, I don't think this book is intended to be
a deep academic study of the human mind. It is much more practical than that.
Lucado's goal is to help Christians understand that our thought life matters
and to give us biblical tools for dealing with the thoughts that can control
us.
And that is probably what I appreciate most about the book.
It reminds us that our thoughts are important, but they
don't have to be in charge.
We will have thoughts of fear.
We will have moments of doubt.
We will have days when discouragement gets the better of us.
But we can bring those thoughts to Christ, compare them to Scripture,
and replace the lies with God’s truth.
And we can choose to focus our minds on the One who is
greater than whatever we are facing.
One of my favorite examples is the chapter where Lucado imagines
receiving a letter from Moses that deals with complaining.
Overall, I found Tame Your Thoughts to be an encouraging and
practical reminder of the importance of our thought life.
The book doesn't promise that we will never have another
negative thought. Instead, it points us toward something more realistic and biblical:
learning what to do with those thoughts when they come.
We may not always be able to control the first thought that
enters our minds.
But with God's help, we can control what we do with it.
And sometimes, the battle we need to win today isn't
happening around us.
It's happening between our ears.
