Proverbs 23:7 – “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

There are many things that influence us as we journey through life. We are first influenced by our parents. We will have all of their good traits and also their bad ones. I used to tell my children that they had everything good in them that their mother and I had in us but they also had everything bad in them that their mother and I had. I would encourage them to build their lives around the good and not the bad.

For the most part they have been influenced by the good. The second greatest influence on the way we think, is our school and Sunday school teachers. We will, over time, start to think as they think because they are teaching us what they believe. Then there are those friends that we spend time with as we are growing up. They will try to convince us that the way they see things is right and we should jump on board and think and do things as they think and do them; so we join the crowd.

You will be influenced by personal experiences as well. Many time those experiences teach us what not to do. Our existence becomes a matter of how we think. Our world is created in our mind. What if our thinking has been influenced and we have been programmed with wrong things? There are always bad ideas and bad influences that we encounter from time to time. Just because someone says something, and declares it to be truth, does not make it so.

John 16:13, Jesus said: “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”

We have people that are in positions of authority that are telling us what we should and should not do. According to Jesus even the Holy Spirit does not speak of His own authority but tells us what He hears from God The Father. Your world will be shaped by what you allow to invade your mind. Make sure that it always lines up with the word of God before you allow it to take residence in your life.

These are the day to day issues we address at the Gathering Place every Sunday Morning at 9:30 and 10;30, then on Wednesday evening at 7. Come and join in. We would love to have you.