And the reason the thoughts kept coming back to me was that I kept turning their sin over in my mind. And so I discovered another of God's principles: We can trust God not only for our emotions but also for our thoughts. As I asked Him to renew my mind, He also took away my thoughts.

To Tanta Yanns the clothes in fashion when she was young represented God's final say on human apparel. All change since then came from the style book of the devil.

Lord, I give to You the way I feel about Karel, my thoughts about our future—oh, You know! Everything! Give me Your way of seeing Karel instead. Help me to love him that way. That much.

Sometimes what we think will make us happy is the opposite of what God wants for us.

When something goes wrong, what's the best course of action? To change your direction. The word repentance means to stop going one direction (your own way) and turn toward the right direction (God's way). Your past may be a part of who you are, but it certainly doesn't have to define your future. Or if you feel stuck and unable to change directions and move toward God, think of this transformation another way. The Bible says that God is the Potter and we are his clay (Jer. 18:2-6).

Our lives are always moving in the direction of our strongest thoughts. What we think shapes who we are.

Tragically, many people have this faithless, wishy-washy mindset, which causes them to lose the battle in their minds before they ever fight it in the world.

We were created not for earth but for eternity. We were created not to be Liked but to show love. We were created not to draw attention to ourselves but to give glory to God. We were created not to collect followers but to follow Christ.

We compare our behind-the-scenes with other people's highlight reels.

We may claim to believe in God, but we don't want to believe so much that it makes us different.

Let God create in you His masterpiece. He will make you truly different and joyfully weird.

There's nothing cool about turning against God. There's nothing fun or cute or right about compromising who God wanted you to be.