Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Battle for the Mind

"Man [male-female] is obviously made for thinking.
Therein lies all his dignity and his merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought.
Now the order of thought is to begin with ourselves, and with our author and our end". (Blaise Pascal)

There is a battle going on for our minds. I guess you knew that.
'Do not eat the bread of a miser, Nor desire his delicacies; For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you'. (Proverbs 23:6-7 NKJV)

“As he thinks in his heart, so is he.” It is important to take some control of your thinking process. Runaway thinking can end up anywhere. We very easily begin thinking in patterns of unbelief – just conforming to this world. It is dead-end thinking - since Christ is Risen! Thinking is a titanic battle. But, it is always “in grace”.

Knowing and trusting God means having a new mindset. The evil world system – “selfish self-preservation” – is actually passing away. No longer distrustful of God, no longer bitter at the world, and no longer facing a bleak future, we are to live in joyful hope, amidst all the difficulties. We are to “put to death whatever in you is earthly”, not to put on a goody moral appearance, but because there is now a new way of thinking and living, namely - “in Christ”.

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. … Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)… … You have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self…… Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness …love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
(Colossians 3:1-3, 5, 9, 14)

O Father, thank you for a new mindset – full of hope in Christ; we pray that your grace, will ever sustain us in this battle.

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