Learning to use mental visualization techniques to improve athletic performances has been a breakthrough method for many athletes trying to reach the highest levels of their sport. Michael Jordan spent hours visualizing successful performances, high-flying dunks, and fade-away jumpers to help him become the greatest basketball player of all time.
In the same way that athletes can improve their abilities by mastering their minds, we can also improve our lives and our relationship with God by using our minds properly. Guarding our hearts and minds from worldly trash is encouraged in several places in the Bible. Guarding our minds will improve the quality of our lives and deepen our relationship with God.
The only way to overcome our sinful nature and the temptations of this world is to “live by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16). The next verse reads, “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.” Our sinful nature and relationship with God cannot coexist successfully. One or the other must be sacrificed.
Martin Luther said, “You can’t keep a bird from flying over your head, but you can keep it from building a nest in your hair.” By God’s grace, we can keep our thoughts pure so impurities do not build a nest and reside in our minds.
Submit your thoughts to the authority of Christ. “Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Master your thoughts by giving them to the Master.