You’ve heard the phrase that our computer age generated: garbage in, garbage out. It’s not only true of computers, it’s also true of our minds. We’re examining how we can bring our thoughts into captivity, how we can change wrong thought patterns that keep us mired in deception and lies and misery.

One important element in creating a right thought life is to carefully guard what you put into your mind. If you allow garbage in, your thought life will reflect that input.

What do you read? Trashy novels, junk on the internet? Do you spend more time reading God’s Word and good Christian material than you do reading the world’s literature, even if it’s not necessarily evil? You will never change your thinking if you’re reading trash or failing to read the Bible consistently with top priority over all other reading.

What do you look at on television and videos? What you see with your eyes has a stronger impact on you than what you read or hear—combined! If you’re pouring visual junk into your mind and not screening what you allow yourself to watch or see, your thought life will be filled with those images, and it is very difficult to get rid of them. Believe me, what you look at is determining to a large degree what you think about.

What do you listen to? Are you soaking up the world’s music? Much of the lyrics are not within the guidelines of Philippians 4:8. What kind of conversations do you listen to? Do you subject yourself to off-color conversations, gossipy conversations, critical conversations? Your thinking won’t change with that kind of input going into your mind.

If you will change the input into your mind, you’ll be amazed how your thinking will change. Of course, an essential is the Word of God, poured into your mind regularly and systematically. Scripture memorization is a fantastic way to program your mind correctly. Good reading has helped me immensely.

I simply can’t overemphasize the importance of guarding your mind closely. The world we live in is full of garbage, and we’ve become desensitized to it. Remember, garbage in, garbage out.