An Empty Bookshelf 

I’ve rearranged my office to make a bit more space and to get rid of some unused items in unused cupboards. It is spring after all…

As such I have received a new bookshelf that now sits behind my desk. What an opportunity to fill it with great books! Or with bad ones… I guess it depends who you’re talking to.

I think our minds are a bit like an empty bookshelf. We have this wonderful opportunity to fill it with great thoughts, ideas and knowledge every day. Or with bad ones.

Paul writes to the Philippian church to think of “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable” (Philippians 4:8). Sounds like good books to park on the bookshelf of my mind.

Every now and then it might also be good to take stock of what is in there already. Maybe it’s time to clear out the shelves of the hateful, self-loathing and fearful thoughts we may have gotten used over time, dust off the shelves and fill them with truth from God’s Word.

I find it helpful to pray this prayer from Psalm 139:23-24:

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Amen.