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Excellent Thoughts

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.

I like this verse because it is so life giving in the way it is written.  As I was typing it out, I was thinking  how differently we might each see different thoughts.  What one might say is noble, another might say is disrespectful.  What one might say is right, another might say is wrong.  This seems so subjective.  How do we know what is excellent and praiseworthy?  We must rely on the Spirit to speak to our hearts and reveal those thoughts which God views as true, right, noble, etc.  The other side is that we must pay attention to the Spirit's prompting to our thoughts that are not in line with God's views.  We cannot go about our day in complete denial that what we are thinking is completely okay with God because someone else had the same opinion about its rightness or loveliness.  We must depend on God to give us each the discernment we need and then pay attention and respond when the Spirit provides prompting.  We cannot think about any of these things without the help of Christ in us and the Spirit speaking to us.

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