Filter Your Thinking

How We See the World

This morning we will talk about how we all see the world. I’m sure many people assume everyone sees the world exactly the same way “I do.” The truth is, we all have different eyes, different color receptors, and brains that pick up details differently than other people.

For instance, my vision is green-deficient. For me to see a green that really looks bright, it is WAY TOO bright for other people. At my last job I painted my office walls a pleasing shade of pale green – to ME. Everyone who came into that office commented on HOW GREEN it was.

Have you ever seen a picture that actually contains two pictures depending on how you look at it? Maybe with your first look you see a tree, but a second look will show you animals below the tree. Or a picture of a very old woman becomes a beautiful young lady. It all depends on how you look at it.

People’s minds filter the images they see and pick out certain colors or shades of light. Your mind can look for the beauty or the misery. You’ll see both in this world around you if you look hard enough.

Thought Filtering

The third tool God has given us to battle our anxieties is the concept of filtering our thinking – filtering the sights, memories and ideas that come into our minds. Two people can walk through the same traumatic experience but filter their thoughts differently and walk away with two completely different responses.

Unfortunately, this occurs far too often in marriages. A husband can ask a question that, to him, seems all too benign: “Are you going to wear that shirt to the party?” The wife, however, hears all sorts of accusations or shameful judgment in that question, and she can’t believe how hurtful her husband is. This happens because the wife is running the question through a filter in her mind that connects this question to other past hurtful comments she has received in her life.

Before we go on, let’s evaluate the function of a filter. It is supposed to be helpful, to purify and catch the junk before it contaminates everything else. Many people with anxiety and depression allow their minds to filter things the wrong way. They allow junk thoughts to pass through, and they completely miss the positive blessings in life.

As a result, many anxious people become even more distraught because anxiety attunes the brain to threats, making the person more likely to notice the bad than the good. That often leads to growing depression because as the brain looks more and more for the bad and the threats, the person begins to feel life is hopeless. For those who feel disillusioned with life, the brain’s filter turns even darker, looking for proof to support why they feel so bad.

This catch-22 spiral of doom is and always has been a part of the human condition. I don’t think it’s anything new. I think our cultural epidemic of anxiety is just more prevalent now because so much more negative information swirls around us to be filtered, and we filter it incorrectly.

The simplest and most direct advice for avoiding this problem of focusing on the bad and filtering out the good is found in Proverbs 4:23:

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

That word for “heart” encompasses your whole will, your mind, and your thinking. The advice is to guard (“filter”) your thinking because your actions will flow from what you allow your mind to ponder.

Some people might argue, “But everything IS awful! I’m not just imagining it.” That’s called a “cognitive distortion.” Your thoughts are lying to you. If you have hot running water, refrigeration, electric lights, and the ability to read, then you have more luxury than kings and peasants for 99.9% of people in history. I’m sure you have experienced – and might still be experiencing – painful things, but “everything” isn’t “awful.”

Scripture tells us that using the “filtering” tool to fight against anxiety will take some self-discipline because it entails taking control of our own thought lives.

2 Corinthians 10:5 – We demolish arguments and every pretention that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

If your thoughts dictate your actions, then it is imperative that you take captive every thought and filter it through the lens of Jesus. You must recognize that some thoughts are unhelpful to you and actually increase your anxiety. Other thoughts are for your benefit – thoughts that line up with the truth of God.

Necessary Thought Filters

Our job today is to understand how we are to filter our experiences, beliefs and surroundings in life. We need to understand which thoughts are worthless and stop ruminating on them. Other thoughts are ones we should spend time pondering, and these are the thoughts we need to hold on to.

We go back to our foundation passage, Philippians 4.

Philippians 4:8 – Finally, brothers and sisters, 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.

Here Paul continues to tell us how to experience the peace of God. He instructs us to filter our thinking and focus only on the true, the noble, the right, the pure, the lovely and the admirable.

A quick side note: THIS IS NOT “Name It and Claim It” theology! Some Christians say you can create your own future by simply envisioning it. Or they might say something like “Never say you’re feeling sick or you will become sick.” That feels more like incantations to me. This is simply controlling your thinking so as not to allow your thoughts to take you into dark places of anxiety and depression.

Having said all that, let’s look now at how we are to filter our thoughts and bring them into alignment with the knowledge of God.

Experiences

First, you must filter your experiences. You have to decide what your mind will remember from your past and focus on. We must understand that we are all shaped by our past and our history, both good and bad.

For some of you, a healthy family dynamic and being involved in a loving church created a model of how you want to live your own life and lead your family. Yet for others, past trauma has shaped your unconscious responses to various situations – loud noises, unexpected touches, or even being in specific locations.

Some people constantly remember the hurts, the trauma and the pain people caused them. They focus on all the ways life has failed them, and in every new situation they filter their experiences looking for danger and threats. They begin to believe that since bad things happened to them in the past, bad things are likely to happen to them again.

Yet, no matter what hardships you have gone through, you can choose to focus instead on all the ways God has remained faithful. Even in the pain, how has God walked through the experience with you? How has God met your needs, healed your wounds, and made you stronger through your hardships? Not only that, but how has He blessed you in little, unexpected ways? Filtering your mind to look for God’s faithfulness will completely alter how you face challenges and opportunities in the future.

Beliefs

Next, you must decide how you will filter through the truths and untruths that try to take a foothold in your heart. What beliefs will your heart hold on to?

Psalm 103: 2-5 – ²Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits ³who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, ⁴who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, ⁵who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Surroundings

Finally, you must learn to filter what your eyes and ears perceive in the world you encounter. You may not be able to control everything around you, but you have a lot more control than you might think. You simply have to be intentional about deciding what you allow your eyes and ears to perceive – what you watch, listen to, and interact with.

The world offers us a twisted image of God’s good creation, an image of evil and darkness. It’s challenging nowadays to watch television shows or movies, listen to the radio, or scroll through social media without being surrounded by a messy, dark world of sinful behavior and evil ways of thinking. When we watch, listen to, and read about these messed up ways of doing life, this shapes our own thinking and our behavior. It causes us to expect everything around us to operate like these messed up stories we take in.

It’s not just the media, it can be the people you surround yourself with. Some people are habitually negative, constantly complaining about politicians or young people or the price of everything. And that negativity rubs off! When you are surrounded by everything negative, that’s what your mind will start filtering for.

Instead, we should look for the pure, the lovely, the admirable – and God created a world filled with those things. We’ll find them if we look for them!

All this means you likely will have to make some hard choices. You may have to change the music you listen to – the shows you watch – the social media you consume – the friends you hang out with.

I know all this sounds like a lot to ask; but if your anxiety is suffocating you, you need to eliminate the parts of your surroundings that remind you of all the things wrong with the world. Surround yourself with things that are beautiful and excellent – the types of things that glorify God and point to His wisdom in creation.

It’s hard for me to name all the types of things that might fit this bill. I believe, though, that with the Holy Spirit inside us and a basic understanding of the Bible, most of us can recognize whether something in our lives should be filtered out or kept. Be honest with yourself, even about things you really like but know you should get rid of.

Everything Filtered Through Christ

Most of the things we have discussed so far are recognized by the therapeutic community as healthy mental health practices for all people. There are Bible verses to support this concept of watching over your thought life, but non-Christians are able to pursue this same wisdom.

The Bible’s guidance is different because, ultimately, everyone must create their own filter as to which thoughts they will hold on to and which they will reject. Establishing that filter could be very different from person to person and should be very different between Christians and non-Christians. As Christians we are provided the filter through which we put all our lives: the Word of God, our Savior, Jesus Christ, who guards our hearts and minds.

I want to share one final passage, written by Paul, that brings together much of what we have discussed today and in past weeks.

Colossians 3:15-17 – ¹⁵And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Conclusion

This week I read a phrase that really stuck with me:”Where your mind lingers, feelings grow.”

• If your mind lingers on all your boss’s worst traits, you will resent him.
• If your mind lingers on all the ways your spouse helps you, you will love him or her more.
• If your mind lingers on the dark, cynical stories the world tells, you will be pulled into darkness and you will worry about the ways your life will fall apart.
• OR you can let your mind linger on Jesus – on the beauty of His creation and on His chosen people, the church. You can focus on the mission He has given you; on the Spirit that leads you; on the forgiveness He freely gave you; on the strength with which He empowers you.
• Then your heart for Jesus will be filled with love and gratitude, and that will drive out your worry. It will wash away the despair, and it will bring you the peace Jesus so badly wants each of His children to experience.