Philippians 4:8 (The Message)
“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized.
Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.”
My question is always what does it mean by things ‘true’? Some true things I would rather not think on? It must not mean just true things but true with the other adjectives added, like noble, gracious, etc. What do you think?
thedailylily.com 
A friend of mind sent this story. The true to me is the feeding of the second wolf.
TWO WOLVES
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.
One is Evil – It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
“The other is Good – It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
I know that I have often fed the wrong one by looking back at the past. Thinking I wasn’t smart enough. You know that down and out feeling. At my age I also think time is short, have I done what I was called to do. Of course the concentrating on what is true gets shaded. Yes there is some truth of course, I am aging and have I don’t what God called me to do – but, but in God’s eye their is hope, joy in knowing that He has everything under control. He has a plan and each of us fit into this plan. If I concentrate on the negative that the world sees as negatives, or listen to the voice inside that says you are a failure your going no where, I would throw in the towel and give up. Don’t think I haven’t thought about it. I surely have heard the devil laugh at my folly sometimes. He always does! Wish I could bop him in the noise but Jesus will do that someday.
It seems to me that God is standing there like a swim coach. He is waiting for us to take part in his race. He’s saying “Get in now, I’ll not let you drown and don’t think I don’t know what you can and can not do. I can do all things through a willing vessel so just get in and think on me – hope pouring through you – joy in doing the job – love I extend to you.
Somehow Satan seems to convince us that we can’t move out of his clutches.
The answer is “Forget it Satan, I choose JESUS, so get out of my MIND, GET OUT OF MY way in the name of Jesus!’
After you get rid of Satan fill yourself up with the word listening to it or reading it. Also listen to some good Christian music. If you sing along it is like praying twice so sing out into the Lord. Another thing which I tried prior to choosing the door was prayer. Praying and praying for God to intervene and stop it for hours. I found out today in a study by Joel Osteen that God has done everything at that point and that it is up to us to walk out of Satan’s trap. We can choose to keep walking in circles forever trapped in Satan web or we can choose to walk out in victory with Jesus. Walk out! Be free!
Both of Rena’s comments says to me…be aggressive with your thoughts. When you think on things in the light of Philippians there is NO Room in the thought pattern brain pathway for negative thoughts. If our minds have been programed by negative thoughts for whatever reason, there is good news. You might be asking what is it? According to the experts…”thought patterns can be changed! New behaviors create new though patterns which can eventually become the dominant pathway.”
Yes, thought is practice and exercise. This helps me to understand what our scripture is instructing us to do. Now think on what I instruct you to do and if you have the wrong patterns established in mind they will flee and what you want to think on will be your pathway.
Sara you asked , “My question is always what does it mean by things ‘true’?
I think it means true with the other adjectives added. I read the passage in another translation NKJ also and it uses a few different adjectives and says, “… whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy..”
Reading different tranlations and taking the passage as a whole, it says to me to think on uplifting things that edify and help build good character.
I think this song says much about this dilemma:
Set your heart upon the living GOD
TRAIN YOUR MIND to follow after HIM
Day after day, take every thought captive
Set your heart upon the living GOD (2Cor. 10:5)
It says, ‘YOU DO IT. YOU SET IT YOU TRAIN IT
YOU TAKE IT CAPTIVE. Every day, every day..
Satan takes no vacations, neither mini nor extended. So every day we have to thougtfully take unholy thoughts captive to JESUS CHRIST and the WORD of GOD>
Sara, I think you are right. Listen to the footnotes for the verse you have quoted, in Philippians. Read with me: “What we put into our mind determines what comes out in our words and actions. Paul tells us to program our mind with thoughts that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and worthy of praise. Do you have problems with impure thoughts and daydreams? Examine what you are putting into your mind through television, Internet, books, conversations, movies, and magazines. Replace harmful input with wholesome material. Above all, read God’s Word and pray. Ask God to help you focus your mind on what is good and pure. It takes practice, but it can be done.”
Yep, the other adjectives are listed with truth.
Needles, as always thanks for your footnotes. I think what stands out to me the most in the list of what not to fill your mind with is conversations. We might recognized things like certain TV shows and magazines but hard to cut the fluff of conversations. Endless needless words remind me of dust bunnies running around my hardwood floors. Online dictionary says, “Dust bunnies are harmful to electronics, as they can seriously obstruct air flow through heat sinks, severely raising temperatures and shortening the life of electronic components.”
Imagine what dust bunnies do to our minds from each others words called conversation?
Sara what you shared in an above comment is really good news and provides much hope: ‘According to the experts…”thought patterns can be changed! New behaviors create new though patterns which can eventually become the dominant pathway.”
Then Needles gave some great guidleines on how to build new roads (pathways) in our minds.
And I agree about conversations…they use up valuable time and energy and deplete the oxygen in the air.
Debi, just want to clarify conversations..I believe with all my heart conversations can and should be a part of our health regime. Just as eating and exercise. I can’t think of anything better than good communication.
I hope I made myself clear about fluff in conversations, ie, perceived as trivial or superficial. Or, I said like dust bunnies. I took my thoughts from Needles footnotes, “Examine what you are putting into your mind through television, Internet, books, conversations, movies, and magazines. Replace harmful input with wholesome material.”
Examine is the key to our conversations as well as the other named items above. I wanted to say that sometimes we seemly do example the other items like TV, etc. but not always monitoring our conversations and communications with ourself and others.
Thank you Sara. I believe you were and are clear about conversations.
I agree with you.
When I re-read the sentence I wrote above ‘I agree about conversations’ it sounded like I was referring to conversations in general…which I was not thinking when I wrote. Thanks again for clarifying. Good communication is so important.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. …….Eleanor Roosevelt
Or maybe we could say the fGREATEST minds discuss the Word of God and His revelation to the Body of Christ.
I think ideas would fall in the category of The BIBLE! The workings of the Holy Spirit could challenge any mind and give very creative ideas. Would you call Sunday church an event, if so, everybody should be able to understand where the hot spot in town is.
I would call OUR Sunday Church (and some others) an “EVENT of Ideas”.
Where the Word of God goes forth in revelatory teachings and discussions.
There is nothing new under the sun EXCEPT for the revelations that keep emerging from the Word of God. That’s where it’s at.
And to borrow a ‘borrowed’ title of Michael Jackson’s last endeavor,
THIS IS IT!!!
From the scripture Sara shared with us in the above blog, “…I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true…” and then Needles footnotes, “…“What we put into our mind determines what comes out in our words and actions. ” We see that what you meditate on makes a difference in what you do.
David, the Psalmist and great King stayed focused by: meditating on God and His wonderful works (Ps 119:27); meditating and delighting in His precepts (Ps 119:15, 16); meditating and getting counsel from His testimonies ans statutes (Ps 119:23, 24); and meditating ion and loving His law and commandments (Ps 119:97, 98). He filled his mind and meditated on these truths and then he “inclined his heart to perform them”. (Ps 119:112)