Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
The battleground of the ego is the mind. The mind is designed to be your servant, not to be in control. You must make a decision to take command of your thinking. The world would like to bombard you with topics to manipulate, deceive, and coerce you into being a slave to their agenda. The ego wants to enslave. Love wants to empower. You determine which path you take by taking command of your thoughts and focus. It is your decision where you place your gaze, focus, attention, and thoughts.
If you dwell on lust, you will eventually act on it. If you dwell on Love, you will eventually walk in it. How simple it is yet this very decision is where the battle rages on. The ego wants to enslave by directing your attention to those things which would enslave you. It wants to create problems so that it can solve them and convince you to submit to its control. The advertising industry spends billions of dollars each year trying to tweak your ego into buying products and services promising to solve perceived problems.
Think on what is true. Don’t let people convince you of some illusion that counterfeits reality. By exposing the truth, the illusion will fade away from your consciousness.
Think on the honorable and just. The Divine Laws guide you into the honorable and just aspects of life, all based on Love.
Think on the pure. Purity is an aspect of Holiness. The ego would attempt to dilute purity with sin and lawlessness. Focus on doing the right thing even if it is inconvenient.
Think on Love and the lovely. You become what you focus on. Your character becomes cleansed and people will see the difference in your actions, words, and responses. You will attract people to you as you become the expression of Love.
Think on those things of good report. Focus on the positive. When you think on the positive, you attract the positive. When you think on the negative, you attract the negative. In the past, the church and the world preached “name and claim it”. The problem was that they failed to understand that Love was to be the motivating force behind proclaiming the positive. Instead “self” was the driving force and you would only see temporal results. Speaking the positive in Love is enduring and fruitful.
Are you being whipped around, tossed to and fro, by responding to your mind’s anxiety? Are you an emotional wreck? Are you in constant turmoil? Are you feeling hopeless? Do you see no positive outcomes to your situation? Are you relationships falling apart? Stop thinking! Stop your actions! Regroup! Build your foundation on Love first then think on those things found in this verse. Be vigilant towards protecting your mind. Remove yourself from those outside stimuli that are contrary to your wellbeing. If you can’t say something positive, maybe its time to keep quiet until you can.