Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt

I want to talk with you about your imagination. You imagine thinks all day and every day. Words you hear paint pictures in your imagination. Thoughts you think, come to you either because you’ve summoned them, or they’ve just randomly come to your mind. Either way, they paint pictures in your imagination. Unfortunately most people spend far too much of their time imagining things they fear or are concerned will go wrong in their life. The newspapers and the media only add to the fears by spewing bad news which fuel negative imaginations.   

God never intended your imagination to become the devil’s playground! When people imagine and think about fearful and negative things, they eventually speak about them. No one is excluded! At some point, people talk about the doom and gloom they imagine and spend time thinking about.

In doing so, they often speak things that are contrary and often the very opposite of what they are hoping and praying for from God. This results in the undermining of their own faith and peace. Christians of all people should realize that words are the very vehicle that God used to create and bring life to this world. Words are powerful! They have the power to build us up, or bring us down.  Proverbs 18:21 NLT says, “The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.”

What you imagine, stimulates and launches words. Those words have power because they affect and impact you! They are containers of power that build up or compromise everything including your faith and peace. Isaiah 26:3 NLT tells us to think on the opposite of the bad news the world tries to get us to focus on. It says, “Lord, you will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts (imaginations) are fixed on you!” 

Is there really power in thoughts and words? The experts will tell you that consumer confidence (what consumers think—good or bad) absolutely affects our spending habits and thus the economy in a powerful way. If people think our economy is in a bad state, they then talk about it, and talk themselves into not spending money. When people stop spending money, the economy gets worse. That is the power and effect of the imagination and the words that follow.

When imaginations come that are negative or contrary to God’s word, we should swat them like mosquitoes. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “Casting down imaginations, and every thought that elevates itself over or is contrary to the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ…” This is teaching us that wrong imaginations aren’t cool! It is instructing us to cast them down! 

Your imagination was given to you for God’s purposes and your blessing!  He wants you to use it for good things and God-things! He wants us to meditation on God’s Word. In Joshua 1:8, we learn that doing so will bring us good success! Joshua 1:8 (NLT) “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.”

I think on the promises God speaks to us and imagine them overtaking my life. I think on His love, His protection, His provision, His healing, His wisdom, and all His blessings overtaking my life. Why? Because Deuteronomy 28:2 says, “And all these blessings shall come upon you AND OVERTAKE YOU because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.” I imagine changing areas of my life to please Him. I imagine someone needing me to encourage or pray for them. I imagine the grace of God helping me in everything I struggle to do in my own strength. Godly imaginations are power to me. I think them. I thank God for them. I pray about them! It fills my thoughts and mouth with good things rather than the doom and gloom everyone else talks about. It reminds me of God’s promises and helps my thought-life stay in faith and in peace.

This is what God intended your imagination to be used for so that you’d be encouraged and be a vessel of encouragement to those around you! What’s on your mind?

Philippians 4:8 (NLT) “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

In His love,
Pastor Tim Burt 

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