Week 4 Day 4: Think About What Is Pure

"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” Philippians 4:8 NASB

Purity means not mixed with anything else, it speaks to integrity, a wholeness, completeness; to be clean and free from harmful substances. Just as we would not allow mud into the water we drink; we should not allow destructive thoughts into the thoughts we think. A little bit of mud contaminates the whole glass. To be pure in the Biblical sense means to be morally good and relates to a person’s inner character. The goal of purity is to be whole.

To have pure thoughts means that our thinking does not contain anything that doesn’t properly belong in our minds. It means to be free from the thoughts that destroy, damage, weaken or pollute. We must carefully choose to dwell on the good so it can eventually displace the bad. If we don’t, the bad thoughts will spread into every area of our mind, even those areas we care most about. Distrust, unforgiveness, bitterness and pain will not only dominate your thoughts about the people who hurt you, but they will also invade your thoughts about the people you love most. It is inevitable unless you choose to let the thoughts go.

If we take a glass of water and add a small bottle of red dye to it, we will see the dye invade the pure water and affect its color. We can make it clear again by continually adding pure water to the glass. As the glass overflows, the pure water eventually displaces the red dye and the water in the glass becomes clear again. 

We are God’s chosen vessels for His Spirit. It is His Spirit that cleanses the contaminated things we freely allow into our minds or that get dumped there by the actions of others. We can complain about the pollutants in our glass, or we can clean it by allowing God’s Spirit to work in us. Cleaning doesn’t just happen, there is work to be done on our part. We must act on what the Spirit tells us to keep His cleansing flow pouring into us. 

When we don’t act on the things He prompts us to do, the flow of His Spirit “stops.” He is a loving Father that will not pile a “to do” list on us. He teaches us and grows us one task at a time. When we don’t respond to what He tells us, His Spirit patiently waits for us to catch up. But during our inaction, the impurities of the world pile up and pile on us. There are consequences to our actions and our inactions. Unhealthy thoughts will take root and take over if we don’t work with the Holy Spirit to wash them out.

Have you ever not acted on a prompting of the Holy Spirit? Name times you have done what you know you should do and times you have not. What were the results?

Meditate on "whatever is pure" today.