When I wrote my current book, Outrageous Forgiveness In 30 Days I clearly understood that the stories in the book had and were changing my own life. James Allen wrote a line that has stayed with me over the years: "You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration."
Think about his statement. It is true. Too many Christians tend to have some very powerful totally controlling desires based in anger, revenge, a sense of the world, people and God Himself being unfair along with other erroneous mind and heart sets.
As I wrote I found I was discovering in a personal way many things I already knew at the intellectual level, but as with many things these truths needed to sink down from my head to my heart.
Around forty five years ago I read a statement attributed to Jonathan Edwards, "The ideas and images in men's minds are the invisible forces that control them." Mr. Allen's line states the same truth.
Christians must come to the place of accepting what Paul calls the "mind of Christ" thus our desires and aspirations are in balance with the scripture. Solomon gives warning about getting too close to evil men Proverbs 23:7 "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:" The principle works for good or evil; what you think about the most intensely will become the real you.