4 Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7 The shalom of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Messiah Yeshua.
8 Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, 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 any praise, think about these things. 9 The things which you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: do these things, and the God of shalom will be with you. [Philippians 4:4-9 HNV]
They burrow. They bore in. They attach themselves inside your head. Earworms, a term once used exclusively for insects, is now the name for those unrelenting tunes that you can’t get out of your head. Songs like, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” the “Barney” song, or my personal nightmare: “It’s a Small World After All.”
They say the only way to rid yourself of the insidious infestation is to replace it with another tune—your “cleaner” song. New words and a fresh tune can crowd out the old.
Maybe we could use a cleaner song for our thought-life as well. When lustful or vengeful thoughts creep into our minds, reading and meditating on God’s Word can help to clean up our thinking.
Scripture tells us to love the Lord “with all [our] heart, with all [our] soul, and with all [our] mind” (Matt. 22:37) and not to “be conformed to this world” but to “be transformed by the renewing of [our] mind” (Rom. 12:2). It instructs us to think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy [Phil. 4:8].
When our minds wander to evil, the best “cleaner” is to allow the wisdom of the Bible to permeate our thoughts and hearts (2 Tim. 3:16).
Dear Lord, our desire is to spend time in Your Word.
We know that meditating on Your Word fills our minds
with thoughts of You and helps to keep our thinking
from wandering to evil. Help us to do so.
Character is the sum total of all our thoughts, words, and deeds.
Earworms
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