Train your Mind to be Stayed on God

“And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” Philippians 4:8 NLT

In an inspiring story shared by the Steamboat Pilot yesterday, it was reported that 32-year-old Brett McOuat completed the 100 km Never Summer race on Saturday, the sixth trail run of his career in just under 16 hours, a time that placed him 17th finisher overall. The race is run across a variety of terrain, from jeep and logging roads to Alpine trails and more — with over 14,500 feet of vertical gain. According to McOuat, the race is one of the hardest 100-kilometer races in the state of Colorado. He witnessed a number of runners struggle on the course, dropping out while competing on one of the hottest days in the race’s history. The race was so hard, in fact, that only 187 runners out of 282 finished. Despite the race being physically grueling though, Brett told reporters that the challenge (and the training leading up to it) was more mental than physical. He went on to say that, while he has to maintain a solid baseline of running fitness, blocking out the negative thoughts is key to a successful race. 

And while I would agree that blocking out negative thoughts is crucial, it’s only one key to a successful race and a successful life. The other is fixing “your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.” You see, it’s not enough to just remove gloomy and cynical considerations that go through our mind. Negative thoughts must be replaced immediately, continually (renewing of the mind) and completely (taking every thought captive)—something that’s done by training our minds to “think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” In other words, we must train our minds to focus on God, who is always good, if we want to make it to the finish line. 

So, knowing that a good majority of the runners who don’t finish a race blame it on their thinking, as negative thoughts lead to negative performance, be sure to put the same effort into training your mind as you do your body my friend. Make it a daily habit to read the Bible and commit it to memory so you can fix your thoughts on “what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable” at all times. This is the key to overall success.

Heavenly Father, thank You for reminding us of the importance of keeping our minds stayed on You at all times. Help us to truly grasp the power of our thoughts that we might read the Word daily and commit it to memory. It’s in your precious name we pray Jesus. Amen. 

Happy Running!