{"id":787,"date":"2019-01-14T14:16:41","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T14:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?p=787"},"modified":"2019-01-25T15:12:56","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T15:12:56","slug":"philippians-4-challenge-day-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-13.html","title":{"rendered":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 13"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"www.unsplash.com\"<\/a>
www.unsplash.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HABIT #3: Think on noble things.<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

READ IT<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cFinally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable\u2014if anything is excellent or praiseworthy\u2014think about such things.. . . . <\/i>a<\/i>nd the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.\u201d <\/i>(Philippians 4:7-8)<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the big deal about thinking noble thoughts? Why is it so necessary to guard your mind? Some might argue that thoughts aren\u2019t important, only words and actions. But every word and every action begins as a thought. The first and most important battlefield you will ever fight on is the battlefield of your mind. Win that battlefield, win the war.<\/p>\n

The consequences between dwelling on noble thoughts versus harmful thoughts are stark: harmful thoughts take from you, creating a void and leaving a deficit. They eat away at your peace like a cancer. Jealousy or comparison will cause you to focus on all that you don\u2019t have. Sexually immoral thoughts take something God created for good and pervert it into evil. The guilt and the shame that inevitably follow poor actions eats away at your peace.<\/p>\n

Noble thoughts, pure thoughts, lovely thoughts add value to us, not take away. They buffet our minds, protecting us from the evil within and without. Think of noble thoughts as a shield that protects the natural peace that God intends for all his children to enjoy. Think on noble things. Protect the peace that is rightfully yours.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

WRITE IT<\/b><\/p>\n

Share in the comments below<\/a> and answer this question, \u201cWhat is something noble you can intentionally dwell on today and how will it add to your peace of mind?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PRAY IT<\/b><\/p>\n

Father, guide my thoughts. Protect my mind from attacks of the enemy. Guide my thoughts towards noble things today.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

LIVE IT<\/b><\/p>\n

Gear up and fight for victory on the battlefield of your mind today. Every time you find yourself indulging in harmful thoughts, intentionally redirect them to noble things. See how this brings about the peace of God in your life.<\/p>\n

Use #phil4challenge<\/i> to spread the word about the Philippians 4 Challenge!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HABIT #3: Think on noble things.   READ IT \u201cFinally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable\u2014if anything is excellent or praiseworthy\u2014think about such things.. . . . and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[365],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-phil4challenge"],"yoast_head":"\nPhilippians 4 Challenge: Day 13 - Next Steps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Day 13 of the Philippians 4 Challenge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 13 - Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Day 13 of the Philippians 4 Challenge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-13.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next Steps\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-14T14:16:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-01-25T15:12:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Josh Daffern\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@joshdaffern\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 13 - Next Steps","description":"Day 13 of the Philippians 4 Challenge","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 13 - Next Steps","og_description":"Day 13 of the Philippians 4 Challenge","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-13.html","og_site_name":"Next Steps","article_author":"facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern","article_published_time":"2019-01-14T14:16:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-01-25T15:12:56+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg"}],"author":"Josh Daffern","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@joshdaffern","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-13.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-13.html","name":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 13 - Next Steps","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-13.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-13.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg","datePublished":"2019-01-14T14:16:41+00:00","dateModified":"2019-01-25T15:12:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac2e15479ad6a320d2082837203cb7c"},"description":"Day 13 of the Philippians 4 Challenge","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-13.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-13.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-13.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/mtvpastor\/files\/2016\/01\/Philippians-4-Challenge-300x181.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/2019\/01\/philippians-4-challenge-day-13.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Philippians 4 Challenge: Day 13"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/","name":"Next Steps","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Josh Daffern","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/#\/schema\/person\/8ac2e15479ad6a320d2082837203cb7c","name":"Josh Daffern","description":"Born and raised in California, Josh graduated college from California Baptist University and spent two years as a missionary in Africa before coming back to America and finding the love of his life (Robin). Josh graduated from New Orleans Seminary with a Masters of Divinity and a Doctor of Ministry. Josh has been involved in full-time ministry for over twenty years. He enjoys hiking, beach volleyball, reading, playing anything competitive, and rough-housing with his kids. Josh, his gorgeous wife Robin, his outrageously handsome boys Zeke, Shepherd and Lincoln and his princess Elle, live in northern Virginia. Josh also blogs on Patheos as New Wineskins: an Apologist for the Modern Church and you can find links to all his content on joshdaffern.com. Enjoy the blog!","sameAs":["http:\/\/joshdaffern.com","facebook.com\/drjoshdaffern","https:\/\/x.com\/joshdaffern"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/author\/jdaffern"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/607"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":843,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions\/843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/nextsteps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}