Nineteen-year-old Liu Shih-Kun was an esteemed concert pianist in China until the Cultural Revolution banned all things related to Western influence. Refusing to renounce his beloved music, Liu was deemed an enemy of the people, beaten and imprisoned. There he languished in a tiny cell with no books, no paper, and even worse for Liu – no piano. Six years later, for propaganda reasons, he was asked to play in Beijing with the Philadelphia Orchestra. After years without an instrument to practice on, he performed brilliantly. And eighteen months later when he was finally released, he again played flawlessly. His secret? Stripped of everything musical, for seven and a half years Liu disciplined himself to shut out negative thoughts and practice hour after hour on an imaginary piano.
We don’t realize the extent to which our disciplined thinking contributes to our performance in life. If we are able to be thoughtful moment by moment day after day, it will elevate our quality of life. Our thoughts have power to direct our lives and determine our destiny. That’s why the apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.”
Pray with me… Father, we want to exercise discipline… self-discipline… In the single most important area for us to use it… our thought life. Jesus told us that ‘as a man/woman thinks in his/her heart, so is he/she.’ Nothing defines us more than our thought life. We pray we would seek to honor you there, in that vitally important space between our ears. Lord, deliver us from ‘stinkin-thinkin’ and move us, by the Holy Spirit, to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. In His strong name we pray, amen.
Blessing,
Pastor Ken
No comments:
Post a Comment