Where is your MIND?

 

I love what Charles Dickens said, “Minds, like bodies, will often fall into a pimpled, ill-conditioned state from mere excess of comfort”.  How about this Plato quote, “When the mind is thinking, it is talking to itself”.  The question is: what is it saying?

Of course, as a born again believer, I prefer to listen to the Word of God as the primary source of wisdom.  The Bible gives us clear instructions dealing with what to think about, and where our minds should be focused.  If you did a Google search about the mind, you would see a barrage of information on how the mind should be controlled, worked out, and so on.  There is information on ways to increase focus, overcome depressing thoughts, think to be rich, and the list goes on and on.

The first quote I mentioned from Charles Dickens is quite enlightening.  It falls right in line with Newton’s Laws of motion.  The common phrase is “a body at rest tends to stay at rest”.  I can be actively working or playing and just want to keep going; however, as soon as I sit, and if I sit long enough, I do not want to get up!  My mind is the same way!  Once engaged in thought, reading, discussion, or any other act of intellectual sport, the mind stays engaged, but let the mind have “excess comfort”, how soon can we lose strength.  This is quite dangerous for our spiritual condition.

It is important for Christians to put the effort into reading, thinking, and dwelling on the things of God.  The natural state of man is described in Romans 1:28, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient".  With this in mind, if we allow our mind to become lazy, it is a high probability that our mind will make it's way back to this natural state of thinking.

It is no secret that it takes work to create a godly way of thinking.  And just as Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4:1, "ye have [already] received of us how ye ought to walk...", many of us already know that it takes work.  So, the quandary is not "learning" how to work on our thinking, but rather simply "doing" the work. 

So, where is your mind?  We all have experienced that what we think about eventually determines our behavior.  Therefore, if we think on the eternal, we will act for the eternal!  Paul, while in prison, wrote on how to experience joy even in the worst of conditions in Philippians 4:8: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things".  How many things are now eliminated by this verse that we typical think about throughout the day?

Nate