Our intention creates our reality.

Some of us are interested in directors, but really the vast majority of us are interested in actors. You experience the films through the actors, so they're all locked into your imagination in some kind of layer of fantasy or hatred or wherever they settle into your imagination.

I love huge movies. Not sure I am the guy to make them, but you can rely on me being there watching them.

Where is your focus today? The beautiful or the ugly? Things to praise or things that are to be cursed? Things of eternal value or things that are worthless? Turn from the worthless and ponder the true, the noble, the authentic, the reputable, and the gracious. It took David deep into the heart of God and will do so for us!

Never have there been so many words and images coming at us 24/7. They come through our senses and enter our minds. But so many of them are worthless and lead to worthless thoughts. Never has there been a greater need to watch what we watch, to monitor what we see and hear, to protect our children from the enemy's assault through worthless things and images.

David hit a point in his life when he knew that he had to get his mind back on the things of God. Revenge, discouragement, lust, greed—none of the ugly emotions of life were going to get him through his trials. Only God could do that. So that's where he needed to refocus his mind and life.

The old adage tells us "Garbage in, garbage out." I'm afraid too many of us who are believers in Christ don't take proper care of what we feed our minds. So much in the way of entertainment is not honorable. We are taught to be cynical and skeptical, even about truths of God. But God's Word doesn't warn us about the negative in these verses. Through Paul's letter to the Philippians, God tells us to fix our minds on the positive.

Father, I fix my mind on you today. I won't allow the petty distractions of the world to rob me of the power of your Word that sustains and keeps me in all situations.

How many times do we miss blessings simply because we weren't looking for them? We get busy and distracted. We get stuck in bad moods. We think too much about ourselves—what I need and want. When our minds are stuck on all that is wrong, we miss all the wonderful things God puts in our path.

Is it any wonder why church is so important? Some think they can live the Christian life without a strong local fellowship, but I'm not one of them. I know how important it is for me to unite with others to fix my mind on what is right, pure, lovely, and admirable—to think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. What's on your mind? Is it excellent?

It takes a long time to ruin a life. It all starts with the stories we live by.

is true. We change not by mustering up willpower but by changing the way we think, which will also involve changing our actions and our social environment. We change indirectly. We do what we can.