Consider Your Thoughts: As We Think So We Go

In our verse today, Paul tells believers in sweet Jesus not to allow the world to squeeze us into its mold of thinking, doing and saying. The word “world” used here stands for everything that is in direct opposition to God and His ways and is doomed to pass away. We obviously don’t want to go there. Paul admonishes us to be aware of its corrupt, errant, evil and deceitful practices – its principles, talk and desires. We accomplish this task by taking everything back to God’s Word. It is to be our guide for all of life.
Scripture is True Truth. God never goes against His written Word – His revealed will - and He has mercifully given it to us for our good so that we may walk in its ways. We are told in Deuteronomy 32:46-47: he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you--they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” 
Jesus Himself attested to the Truth of God’s Word when He said in Matthew 5:17-18: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 
Paul tells us we are to dwell on things above not on earthly things. We do this by putting our thoughts and words through the sieve of whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy (and Amy Carmichael adds “necessary”!). And be like the Bereans who even took Paul’s words back to Scripture making sure they were true before allowing them to become a core value.  
In our day and age when we are sorely bereft of truth it is refreshingly wonderful to have something we can stand firm in and that is the Word of God. It never changes. He has told us His Word will never return void but will accomplish its purposes for which it was sent. It is eternal standing firm in the heavens and it is our guide for all of life. Never, never neglect it. Never. Never. Never.