Introduction:
What are you?
You are what your thoughts are.

Prov 23:7
"For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he"
A man is what his thoughts are.
Tell me your thoughts that you frequently brood upon. I’ll tell you who you are or who you will become.

Thoughts lead to actions
Actions lead to Habits
Habits lead to character.

So, thoughts are the fundamental building blocks of what man will be.
If the thoughts are right, a man becomes righteous.
If the man is harboring thoughts of bitterness & hatred and when it becomes intense it leads to murder.
If the thoughts a person entertains are full of lust then eventually down the road he commits adultery.
So, basically everything depends on what kind of thoughts we continually nurture in our minds.

Since our thoughts can be both good & evil and the choice depends on us to think the right kind of thoughts, we can choose our thoughts.
Our mind is like a machine. The fuel that runs this machine is thoughts.
If we want to become something we need to alter our thoughts. Then we will become according to our thoughts.

By the time we’ve committed our lives to God, we have already accumulated a lot of habits and characteristics in our  lives based on what we have seen in our parents, friends, relatives & the environment. And we’ve developed a thought pattern that was influenced by the environment we grew up with. For e.g., if our parents are praying Christians, then we would have acquired the habit of praying. If we have continuously moved with friends who did not have values in their lives, then our thought-pattern also would have become like that.

After we come to Christ Jesus, our thought patterns do not change automatically. They are a mixture of good thoughts & bad thoughts. So, we have some good thoughts based on good influence and some bad thoughts based on bad influence. Thus, we may have good habits & bad habits. For e.g., a person could have both a kind heart but also be a drunkard and destroying himself because of the influence he might have had due to the environment he had in the past.
Good habits which we already have in our lives need not require much of our attention for e.g., if we already have a kind heart & a helping nature then in that area there may not be much of a need to improve. But, in the areas we are weak, those are the areas we need to turn our attention to and give them full focus so we can become God-like in those areas.
This is why the Word of God exhorts us saying
Eph 4:23
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
We need to be renewed until our mind starts thinking right in the areas we are weak.
Paul also says,
Phil 4:8
8 Finally, brethren, 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--meditate on these things.
Yes. Meditate - Think on these things.
So, now we need to renew our mind so that it can churn only good and honorable thoughts so that it influences our thought-pattern thus influencing our actions thus influencing our habits and thus finally influencing our character and our very nature that when we wake up in the morning, our thoughts are only good.

Now, the main question is how are we going to influence our thoughts.
1. First of all, to stop chewing wrong thoughts willfully.

2. Examine the environment we find ourselves often in because it directly influences our thoughts. Whatever things we dwell on we will eventually become.
This is very important because
Gal 6:7
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap".
Whatever influence we sow into our minds, that will get planted and they will grow.
Rom 6:16-17
"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?"
Rom 6:19
"For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness".
Whatever we give ourselves to, to that one we will become a slave – either a slave to righteousness or to sin. No in-between. Especially our mind needs to be presented to God on a continuous basis so our thoughts are godly thoughts.
For e.g., if one exposes himself to filthy movies continuously, slowly those filthy things he sees will affect his thoughts. Or probably one may go a step further and avoid filthy movies but expose himself to useless movies which do not contribute to godliness and will not contribute anything for a positive development. Even in this case, the thoughts become slowly futile and our effectiveness for the Lord decreases. Those thoughts that run thru our mind will be some trash thought and we cannot maintain the anointing in our lives.

3. We need to influence our thoughts by God’s Word.
We need to get soaked in God’s Word.
God’s Word are His thoughts in written form.
We need to start choosing His thoughts over our thoughts because His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
Isa 55:9
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts".
So, we need to fill our minds with God’s Word constantly.
For e.g., in the morning when we wake up, usually the devil bombards our minds with
thoughts of anxiety,
thoughts of worry,
thoughts of fear
So, before the devil starts attacking our mind, we need to reach for God’s Word and start meditating on His Word of promise, His goodness to us, the provision He has for us.
For e.g., we watched in the skit how we need to guard ourselves with the Word of God so we do not succumb to the attacks of the devil.
For e.g., when the devil comes and tells us things that make us afraid, our soul gets shaken and we freeze. We think how am I going to face that situation, how am I going to handle it? We start reasoning out immediately.
So, now we need to counter such an attack of the devil. Otherwise we are leaving our soul without any remedy. We need to provide a remedy and that remedy is this…
We need to assure our soul saying “No. Whatever the situation may be, God has not given me the spirit of fear but He has given me the spirit of power. So, do not fear. If the soul does not get these assurances, then slowly our soul starts sinking low and we succumb to the discouraging thoughts from the devil after a continuous series of attacks from the devil.
If we easily get discouraged often, it is due to these discouraging thoughts. And these thoughts need to be countered with assurances from God’s Word.
Ok. When the devil starts bombarding our minds with discouraging thoughts we immediately try to reason out and start planning how to handle the situation.
Usually, when such thoughts of anxiety attack us they may be based on facts and real situation only. These attacks will be based on real life situations only. They are not likely to be fictitious situations.
Devil will only present facts. For e.g., what are you going to do for your job? You lost it.
Let us analyze such a thought. This is a very real thought. Is there anything wrong with it?
No. Humanly speaking there is nothing wrong with it. So, when these thoughts come to us, we tend to get frozen. We tend to get discouraged.
So, how can we handle such thoughts which are based on real life situations.
Ok. This is one of the right ways to handle it.   
While the thought is based on facts & real life situations, the spirit behind  this thought is not right. The spirit behind this thought is evil. It is intended to intimidate me, put me down, paralyze me and discourage me and make me ineffective.
So, when I’m attacked by such a thought, it is not merely that thought that is attacking me but this thought is mixed with the poison of putting me down, to make me afraid, to cause anxiety etc.,
What we need to do  is instead of handling the thought directly, first I need to assure my soul with the promises of God’s Word saying “God has not given me the spirit of fear. So, I shall not fear.”
It is kind of like this. Instead of handling a hot utensil with our bare hands to remove it from the stove, we need to use the gloves to remove the hot utensil from the stove. And the gloves can be likened to God’s Promises of Assurance. We need to definitely remove the hot utensil but we handle it using the gloves.
So, we cannot ignore the real life problems. We need to handle them. Probably, have a mode of income every month. But, I do not need to handle it with panic & anxiety. We need to quieten our soul  first before thinking of a solution for this problem. And after we have  acquired our quietness and rest in our souls, when we handle it we can usually see many answers to the problems we are facing. Now, where we thought there is no way, our eyes will be opened to see many ways. Oh! I can probably do this, do that and our soul gets really lifted up. Then we can move on and crush the problem.
That is why the Word of God says,
Isa 30:15
In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.
Thus, we can conquer mountains which we face in our lives and live a life that is fruitful unto the Lord.
So, to summarize
Thoughts lead to actions
Actions lead to Habits
Habits lead to character.

And we need to sow the Word of God so our thoughts become godly thoughts. Then they lead to godly actions and godly character.

Nirmal, 3/6/04