How Worldly Wisdom Finds it's Way in Our Life

Yesterday, we examined how those little sighs of exasperation, unsaid sarcastic remarks, and bottled up angry outbursts, will come exploding out of our mouths or will be indicated in our actions if we don't remove them from our lives.  So where do all of these negative thoughts come from?  For the most part I believe our negative thoughts come from either worldly wisdom or our flesh. Today we'll examine eliminating worldly wisdom from our life.

Worldly wisdom is easy enough to spot and eliminate in theory, but not necessarily in practice.  Worldly wisdom can enter our lives through television, magazines, news articles, unsaved family, and unsaved friends.  If there is an area of your thought life you are trying to control chances are there is a source of worldly wisdom influencing it.

Are you constantly worried?  Eliminate the news.

Are you ungrateful for your husband and children? Eliminate any media that is remotely romantic.

Are you dissatisfied with your appearance or weight? Don't watch any show that doesn't line up with 1 Peter 3:3-4's definition of beauty.  Watching a rail thin woman whose job it is to be rail thin does nothing for your thought life, chances are she exercises 2 hours every day and eats a ridiculously low amount of calories.  These models on television posing as real women give us unrealistic goals and remove our focus from making our hearts beautiful rather than our outward appearance.

One a side note other people's comments can certainly affect our thought life as well. It's not always possible to control the people we spend our time with in the case of family and co-workers but we should have the courage to change the subject (even if it means asking directly) if the conversation is not edifying.

The world's wisdom can influence our lives in so many subtle ways it's hard to name them all.  Tomorrow I'll tell you of my experiences of Media Fasting and why I think every Christian needs to make it a regular part of their life.

• Thoughts on Thoughts
• Why our Thoughts Matter
• How Worldly Wisdom Finds it's Way In
• Completing a Media Fast
• Eliminating Fleshly Thoughts
• Noble and Pure Things to Think On

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Also, I am looking for some guest posters this month as I try to finish writing a book for the course I'm teaching next semester.  My only request is that you be willing to allow me to guest post on your blog a later date.  If you're interested please e-mail me at joyful kasey at gmail dot com.

Blessings!