Philippians 4:8

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Alexander Graham Bell once said, “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” I believe the same could be said of the eight aspects of Philippians 4:8. Focusing on them will unleash great power into your life while disregarding them will prove perilous to your walk as a Christian.

“Garbage In – Garbage Out” really captures the essence of this passage. As an example, let’s consider our children. In the K-12 years they will receive about 16,000 hours of school instruction plus an additional 16,000 hours ingesting popular media such as television, internet, video games and iPods. If they attend church not once…not twice…not three times, but four times a week at an hour a pop that amounts to 2,400 hours of input over the same time period.

33,000 vs. 2,400 is not fuzzy math.

We live in a sin-saturated culture and the only way to combat that is to make sure we are renewing our minds (Romans 12:2), taking every thought captive (2 Cor 10:5), and focusing on that which is pleasing to God. So the next time you pick up a magazine, or crack open a book, or turn on the television, or fire up the computer, make sure you are taking in a steady diet of that which is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.