Have you ever had negative thoughts replaying in your mind and you felt powerless to stop them?

This merry-go-round that you never asked to get on is taking you in circles inside your head.

And what's worse about it is these thoughts are indicators of the condition of our hearts.

Why is that? Because thoughts come from the heart.

Welcome to Keep the Heart podcast with Francie Taylor. Francy is an author, teacher,

and conference speaker known for sharing biblical insights that are practical and inspiring.

Now back to today's valuable study.

This episode title, Managing Our Thoughts, is carefully worded. Notice that I didn't say

controlling our thoughts, because clearly we are not in control. If we were, we'd be enjoying

so much peace and abundant quiet because thoughts are noisy, so we'd just shut them off.

We can't control our thoughts, but God can teach us how to manage

them, and as we continue to yield this area to God, he can even teach us to discipline our thinking

so that we become masterful at managing our thoughts. We are not victims of our thoughts, but we can become trapped by our own thinking

if we allow it. The Bible has a lot to say about our thoughts, and it helps us if we know these

truths. Let's consider three ways that God's word gives us for managing our thoughts. First, stop replaying the negative thoughts.

Negative thoughts are not helping us. They are tormenting us. There's a reason why God provided

a list of acceptable thoughts in Scripture, and we need to know this list. It's found in Philippians

4-8. Many of you already do know it. Listen to the

list. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are

just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good

report. If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,

think on these things. This list makes our job easier. All we need to do is ask ourselves if our

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