How to Control Your Thoughts: 4 Things That Influence Your Soul
There are things all around us that will influence our thinking if we allow them.
Some people know how to use certain methods and words to manipulate our thinking and cause our thoughts to go in certain directions. Our mind constantly gathers information through our five physical senses, which form ideas and viewpoints in our mind by which we live our lives. If we are able to recognize the things that will potentially influence our thought life, then we can put safeguards in place and minimize the harmful influences around us and also receive godly, positive, supportive information that will affect us in a positive safe way.
Identify What Influences Our Soul
Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity (Romans 12:2 PNT).
Things that influence our thought life in a negative, harmful way can limit what we will be, what we do, and where we live. Likewise, the things that affect our thoughts in a positive safe way can release us into the full potential of what we can be and enable us to move up in life. We must learn to use these influences for our benefit so we can break into new realms of living and achievement. These things may seem superficial, but they have the ability to affect our thoughts and shape the very core of our soul.
The influences in this world that affect our thought life can mostly be put in four categories. They consist of 1) our diet, 2) our friends, 3) our environment, and 4) our words. These four categories influence our five physical senses, which in turn feed information to our soul. As we learn how to control the influence of each of these areas, we will grow in our Christian walk and be more successful in doing what God wants us to do. We will be able to focus better on moving forward into the level of life that God has promised to us. Let’s look at each one of these categories to see how they impact our thinking.
#1: Our Diet!
Nobody likes to go on a diet, but people do it for the benefit it brings them. They do it to be physically fit, become healthy, or improve their appearance. Just as we eat the right kind of physical food, we must also maintain a diet of the right kind of spiritual and mental material if we want to move ahead in life. This is possibly the greatest influence upon our soul. We can’t rise higher than the level of information that is put in our minds. The books we read will make the person we are even more than the food we eat.
We can also control our spiritual and mental intake by choosing who we watch and listen to on television, radio, or the Internet. We should ask questions like:
“Does this have the same beliefs and values I have?”
“Is this promoting the goals and performance level I want to achieve?”
“Will this help me move up where God wants me to be in life?”
Having a spiritual and mental diet of books, audio and video products, and things that we can control will empower us to rise to new levels in life.
There is great value in listening to the sermons and teachings of men and women of God who have achieved great things. We can also be inspired as we read biographies of great achievers. Knowing what others have achieved will lift us up to a new level of thinking, vision, and living. It will also help us believe that it is possible for us to achieve our God-given dreams.
Choose the Voices You Listen To
First Corinthians 14:10 (KJV) tells us, “There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.” The apostle Paul talks specifically of the need to understand the different languages of the world in order to benefit from them. In a broader sense, this verse shows that every voice, no matter what language it speaks, contends for people’s attention to influence their thoughts. Before we embrace what someone tells us, we must ask ourselves, “Is this a positive, helpful message that is in agreement with the Word of God, and does its message reflect where we know God wants us to be?”
Today we can listen to many ministers on Christian radio, television, the Internet, and in local congregations. Each one emphasizes something specifically in their preaching. Collectively they say many different things, some even opposing others. If we continually listen to every minister we have access to, we’ll hear and see many different things. This creates potential for confusion in our thinking. This is why we should attend a Bible-believing church on a regular and consistent basis that has a minister who feeds us a well-balanced diet from the Word of God and cares for our soul.
Maintain a Steady Diet
A steady diet of God’s Word causes new thoughts to gain prominence in our thinking. We must continually read, hear, and look at materials that help us think the right thoughts so we can believe our needs will be met, overcome temptations and problems, and accomplish our goals in life.
Overcoming great needs or difficulties involves our thought life to be continually focused on the possibilities and solutions available to us. Sometimes we must narrow or intensify our focus—looking and listening consistently to the right material for a period of time, which can accelerate change in our soul, eliminate confusion, and influence our thought life positively so we can receive what we need and accomplish certain things in life.
#2: Our Friends
Some people don’t realize how much influence their friends have on them. People usually decide who their friends are by whoever is friendly to them. Most people don’t ask or pay any attention to the beliefs and values of the people they have for friends. But the Word of God tells us to choose our friends carefully because they will either help or hinder us in following God’s will for our lives, in reaching our goals, and living our dreams. Look at these verses:
The righteous should choose his friends carefully, for the way of the wicked leads them astray (Proverbs 12:26 NKJV).
Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn away from it and pass on. For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall (Proverbs 4:14-16 NKJV).
Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits” (1 Corinthians 15:33 NKJV).
Decide Who to Spend Time With
Someone pointed out that all relationships can be put in four categories—those who add to and multiply into our life, or those who subtract or divide from our life. We must identify each relationship truthfully and honestly. Most people form their relationships with those who have similar negative issues or with those who have common interests. When we choose friends based on shared problems, we’re building on a negative foundation that can lead to more problems and unhealthy, unsafe relationships. These relationships are usually temporary. But relationships built on common interests can help us form lasting, healthy relationships that enable us to reach our full potential and live the life God planned for us.
The people we closely associate with on a regular basis will have great influence on the outcome of our life. We must learn not to spend time with people who put down our dreams and ambitions. Those who think small thoughts tend to pull us down to their level. Those with great thoughts often have a positive effect on us, making us feel we can do something great too. So we must decide who we will include in our inner circle and who will be in our outer circle of acquaintances.
Identify Our Inner and Outer Circles
Most of us have both an inner circle of friends and an outer circle of acquaintances. Our inner circle of friends should consist of those who hold the same beliefs and values that we do. They should be those who are able to help each other climb higher in life, support each other, believe in one another, and are loyal to one another. Our outer circle of friends will be those who are friendly toward us, but they do not necessarily hold the same values and beliefs that we do. In other words, if we followed them, they would not lead in the direction we want to go.
Jesus illustrated this in His earthly ministry. There were seventy people who were acquainted with Jesus well enough to help Him in His ministry, but they weren’t named in Scripture. Jesus also had twelve disciples, or followers, who were associated with Him so closely that they became His ministry team, and they were mentioned by name in Scripture. Also, within the twelve disciples Jesus chose only three disciples, Peter, James, and John, with whom He shared His special moments. These moments included the time when Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead (Mark 5:37), the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain (Mark 9:2), and when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32-33). Even beyond that, Jesus entrusted His mother only to John and not to the rest of His disciples.
Jesus Chose the Ones Closest to Him
Jesus loved everyone equally, and He willingly helped everyone who wanted His help. As Jesus looked at the multitude of people, He was moved with compassion for them. However, He never spent time with the multitudes unless it was to help them in some way. The people whom Jesus allowed to be close to Him, with the exception of Judas Iscariot, consisted of those who had the same values and beliefs He had.
The influence of God the Father lifted Jesus above the limitations of other people’s thinking until He was able to say, do, and accomplish His Father’s will. This shows us that spending time with the right people can eventually help us arrive at the right place to do the right things. So Jesus spending quality time in prayer with the right Person—God the Father—while He was here on earth was a major factor that helped Him fulfill His mission and ascend to a place of honor at the right hand of God the Father for eternity.
Don’t Burn Bridges
The time may come when one of our close friends no longer exhibits the same beliefs and values as they once did, and they actually begin to negatively influence our relationship. When that happens, we may find a debate going on in our mind about what to do. Do we end the relationship? Or do we just overlook it and act like it doesn’t matter? The truth is, we may not have to do either one.
When a person close to us no longer supports us or shares common beliefs, we can gradually move them from our inner circle of associates to our outer circle of acquaintances. Moving that person to our outer circle can be done by not initiating contact with them but responding graciously to them when they contact us, limiting the time we spend with them but being willing to help them if we can, and by carefully evaluating what they have to say. The reason we don’t want to burn the relationship is so we can leave the door open to help them if the opportunity arises. And we don’t know when we might need their help. The goal is to avoid unnecessary conflict and yet choose wisely who we will have as our close friends. The apostle Paul tells us, “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men” (Romans 12:18 NKJV).
The Normal Process of Life
It is normal for some people in our inner circle to no longer have the same goals and interests as we progress in the plan God has for our life. God didn’t call all of us to do the same things or go to the same destination. Also, some people don’t grow at the same pace we’re growing. So we have to let them progress at their chosen pace while we continue at the right pace for us in the direction God wants us to go.
Most likely we’ll have a few people who are our friends for a long time, and even for a lifetime. But we must also realize that we cannot take everybody with us on the path God has called us to go. Not all our friends are called to go that way. We must gravitate toward and spend most of our time with those who are going in a similar direction to the one we’re going. We must love everyone, but we must also limit our close friends to those who have the same values and beliefs that we do.
Two More Categories
There are two more influences in this world that affect our thought life that I talk about in my book, Revolutionary Mindset, our environment and our words. These might be even influential to your life.
