“Did you know that we have between 30,000 and 70,000 thoughts that go through our heads in a day? Many studies show that the majority of these thoughts are negative. And according to experience the majority of those thoughts are limiting, destructive, and simply untrue.” 

• Jamie Gilbert “The Principle Circle”

Everyday there are thousands of opportunities to think. We were created to use our minds and imagine & meditate. Meditation is not just some eastern religious practice, it is something you and I do everyday.


Meditation is simply when we think on, ponder on, imagine, rehearse it, and replay something in our minds until we have the emotions that makes it feel real to us.


When we take things that people say, things people have done, bad experiences, relationships, pain, sickness, or any problem, and think on it, ponder, imagine, rehearse and replay it they start to feel real to us.

The real destruction doesn’t come from what happened. The real destruction comes because we take it on as our realities and we start questioning ourselves. When the problem or experience becomes what we replay and rehearse we begin to attach emotions to that, and that is where the real damage is done. 

That is why constantly throughout scripture we are told to meditate on the truth. 

“So keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising him always.
Philippians 4:8”


When we think on, ponder, rehearse and imagine the truth of what God says about us, the truth of our created value in Christ, the truth about our dignity and worth, we begin to attach emotions to those things, and they begin to feel real to us, not just something we have read or heard. You actually begin to believe you are what the Bible says you are. The best part is that when we do this, God's super abundant more than enough grace (His very ability) comes and makes us actually live in that identity. 

The thought or experience will always come and try to tear down your created value, and tell you that you are less than “because of this this and this”. Do not meditate on these things! Once you let one word, or feeling keep racing in your mind you will let it stir to the point you begin to attach emotions to it. 


Anxiety and depression are so real to us because we have let our emotions attach to thoughts of worry, lack and insecurity. 


I know myself, I have to catch my thoughts. I lived a year and a half after something bad happened in my life still experiencing the wrong emotions that came with it. The effects of the problem were my reality because I let my mind meditate on those things more than the truth of who I am. Because I was so self critical, the blame that I had for the problem became who I was, instead of just something that happened that God could redeem and restore in my life. 


God tells us to check our thoughts, because what we think about begins to affect our emotions. And when we have the wrong emotions, we lose our hope. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. We can not afford to let anything make our heart sick. It all comes back to what we think on, ponder, rehearse and imagine daily. 

"What you think about affects your emotions. Your thoughts matter"


“We are demolishing arguments and ideas, every high-and-mighty philosophy that pits itself against the knowledge of the one true God. We are taking prisoners of every thought, every emotion, and subduing them into obedience to the Anointed One.
2 Corinthians 10:5”


Every experience, thought or emotion we have has to be decided by Jesus. Jesus didn’t come and die so that we would continue to live in pain and agony over experiences in our lives. He didn’t come and die so that we would experience anxiety. He came and showed us how to live victorious over them all. Never said we won’t have opportunities experience them, but they do not have to have any power over us. They don’t decide who I am and how I am doing. 


As I bring that thought or experience or emotion to the obedience of Christ, I am literally in my mind deciding does this come in line with who Jesus is, and what He gives? Jesus only gives life (John 10:10). If it doesn’t add to, build up, encourage, grow or edify me I do not need to think on, ponder rehearse or imagine it! Yeah that may have been an experience in my life but that is not who I am! When I meditate on it I give my attention to it. I give my emotions to it. And I dig myself a rut. 


I have traveled to many churches, youth groups, and bible schools all around the world, and it is incredible the number of people IN CHURCH who are dealing with thoughts of suicide, depression, anxiety. Every church I minister at I could do an altar call for these things and people would respond. This epidemic stems from a lot of things in our society, but the root cause is wrong thinking. 


Many times people just want prayer over these thinking issues. They know they aren’t thinking the way they should, they think they need a miracle to overcome. 

They want to pray and pray for God to get them out of this emotional hell, this depression, this stress. I am not saying God will not help you, I am saying you can look to Jesus and His life and look at how he remodeled his thoughts to come inline with who God made him to be! 


"All those negative thoughts and experiences are doing are trying to tear down you God given identity."


You can beat depression, you can get over what somebody said about you, you can get over being bullied, you can get over that breakup, you can get over insecurity. Look to Jesus, see how He renewed His mind. See how when his identity was questioned he responded. The same thoughts came to question Jesus's identity that come to question ours. We can respond and overcome by the Grace of God. (Example Luke 4:1-13)




When you choose to see the good things in you because of God, instead of the thought or experience you let God’s grace help you in this situation. 


You are not alone. You do not have to strain and fight to make it right. You can rest in God’s grace to help you. He will help you change your thoughts. He will help you see the things you specifically need to meditate on. He will show you what you need to think on, ponder, imagine and rehearse in order to overcome your problems and experiences and live in your God given created value.

Please share this message if it helped you.

​- Tanner Gregurich