You are the vigilant guard over your mind.
Your focus should be a lifetime journey, filled with true fulfilment and prosperity and characterized by healthy spiritual growth. Your mind needs to be constantly renewed and fed, which in turn nourishes your Spirit.
Imagine guards at the gate of an ancient fortified city who momentarily hold captive, at the point of a spear, every traveler, tradesman, or foreigner who tries to enter. These guards carefully inspect all baggage and motives before allowing entry through the gate. If left unguarded, the mind will be filled with whatever is readily passing through your life at any given moment.
Entertainment and social media can be great sources of information and inspiration, but they can also be a waste of precious time—or worse, they can give place to negative thoughts, fears, greed, and the like.
Stray thoughts will, at best, keep you from peace of mind and may even lead to losing focus on your passions for the future.
The process of taking every thought captive is to actively choose what to focus on, and also to actively decide what sources are not worth your time. I have found it especially helpful not to over-think or wrongly interpret correspondence. I am convinced that the way to fill a healthy mind and in turn positively charge your spirit is to undertake an active process of filling it with good things—satiating it purpose-fully and actively.
This active mind process is a curriculum designed by you under the authority and inspiration of God. In this active process, negative aspects become diluted and you receive amazing positive benefits. Take active authority over the condition of your spirit. Make a plan daily for active meditation. Active meditation fills your mind with the good, pure, and honorable things, such as thinking about the loving aspects of God, imagining your future accomplishments, or believing for a life that benefits others. When we rehearse these and imprint them, positive thoughts become second nature, even when you are met by negative challenges. This, in turn, produces an abundant soul, or inner spiritual connection to God. God Bless, Dave Yarnes
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