What's On Your Mind?

2 Corinthians 11:3 says

“But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning,
your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to
Christ.”

…and Colossians 3:2 says

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

Just like a computer, a mobile telephone has a certain amount of space within it for storing information, such as ringtones, pictures, games, etc. Some mobiles have different amounts of space (known as ‘memory’) for each different category, but many, like my friend Andy’s, have what is known as dynamic memory. This means that the mobile just has one big space. So, for instance, you may have to delete some pictures in order to have space for a game.

Our minds too are dynamic. No-one can remember everything they have ever learnt, and some things disappear altogether, because we have never used them, or called upon them, since learning them.

If taking things onboard pushes out other things, then we need to be very careful about what we “set our minds on”. In 2 Corinthians 11:3, Paul is suggesting that our minds can be led astray from the things of God by setting them on other things – things which are not pure, lovely, noble, etc. (see Philippians 4:8). In Colossians 3:2, Paul says to do one, not the other; definitely not both. In a manner of speaking, the text infers that you can’t do both – if your mind is on earthly things, then you will be “led astray from your…devotion to Christ.”. If your mind is on the things of God, then you will have no interest in those earthly things which are contrary to His Word and His ways.

After all, God’s first Commandment is to “love The Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.”, as Jesus Himself reminded us (Luke 10:27).

The Pedestrian Crossing

Matthew 21:22 says
"…If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.“

Have you ever watched people as they come up to a pedestrian crossing? Invariably, they won’t check whether someone has already pressed the button – they will automatically press it themselves. After all, it is a switch: it is either on or off, and it is on a timer. If it is already on, then pressing the button again has no effect whatsoever. There are even some people who keep their finger on the button, pressing it in machine gun action, thinking that this will speed up the process!

Jesus taught us this about prayer, that if you really believe that will God will answer your prayer and that He can do what you ask, then you will receive what you ask for. This is a case of trust and faith in God. Just like at the pedestrian crossing, some of us impatiently keep ‘pressing the button’, because we don’t believe one push is enough. Some of us feel we need to press the button ourselves, because we don’t believe the on light means what it is says. Some of us don’t even wait for the lights to change before crossing the road – we take the action ourselves, even though we have prayed.

Shouldn’t we simply bring our prayers to God and patiently wait for His answer, believe that He will answer – that the lights will change and we can cross the road safe in the knowledge that He is guiding us across?

The Secret of Joy

Matthew 22:37-39 says

"Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' "

Ron, at the church I go to, has an incredible depth of experience, knowledge, wisdom and anecdotes. When he speaks, it's like collecting pearls from the ocean - a gem from him really is a gem.

Yesterday morning at Pray 7 (our church's weekly prayer meeting. 7am on a Tuesday morning), Ron was leading our thoughts and told us about the secret of joy. It's about getting your priorities in the correct order.

1) J - Jesus
2) O - Others
3) Y - Yourself

and that spells JOY!

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He had no hesitation in quoting from The Scriptures. The greatest commandment is not just a commandment - it is an attitude, a lifestyle, and not just something to "tick off your list", like Do Not Murder. If we do love God with all our hearts, souls and minds, then our priorities will naturally start to correlate with His. If we put God first in our lives, then thinking of others before ourselves (See Philippians 2:3-4) will be a normal part of our lives. Godliness and Godly actions will lead to joy in our own hearts as we serve Him, and others, before ourselves.

Precious Promises, Evil Desires

2 Peter 1:3-4 says

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires."

This quote has been on my computer's wallpaper now for 23 days. It is the August screensaver from "Proclaim!", the daily radio ministry of the Moody Bible Institute, which is broadcast daily on Premier Christian Radio.

It was only the other day, when I was having a bad day spiritually, that I actually took notice of what my wallpaper said. It is clear that Peter is saying here that God's power in the Christian gives us everything we need, not only for our daily lives, but for that long sought-after quality of godliness. It is however, expressed through our knowledge of Him, so it follows that we should be seeking to increase our knowledge of Him. Spend time reading His Word and actually resting in His presence, getting to know Him personally.

Peter goes on to say that God's own glory and goodness is what He has used to call and sanctify us and He has given us great and precious promises in order that we can live in the divine nature. Living in the divine nature means being like Him. When we understand that He has given us everything and we put our whole trust in Him, we can partake in some of that "godliness", that divine nature.

Now, this last bit is the bit that really struck me. We can escape the corruption in the world. What causes the corruption in the world? Why, evil desires. This means that we ourselves are also responsible for this corruption. All those things we know of as the "7 Deadly sins", such as greed, lust, envy, slander, malice, etc are all evil desires. Every time I spend a lot of money on myself - on things I want, rather than need; every time I'm jealous of someone else; every time I get angry with someone for no good reason; every time I look at something I shouldn't - especially when I close the window and 2 Peter 1:3-4 is sitting there on the desktop, right behind it.

This is what brings it all into focus - God knows our every thought and He has given us the power to be more like Him. So why don't we?