Are you more “mind full” or “mindful?” I have been working hard on my mind for the last year and a half, but I am definitely still more the first. I have often wished that I had the mind of a dog. I cannot say 100% what goes through a dog’s mind, but I would bet that it is much simpler and “In the moment” than what goes through the human mind. I think it goes something like –
“There’s my human, I love her so much!”
“Oh goody, it’s time to eat!”
“Oh boy, it’s time for a nap!”
“Oh look, another dog, I want to play!”
And not –
“Uh oh, hope I wasn’t exposed to COVID last night.”
“How am I going to get everything done today?”
“Should I have done that?”
“I’m really worried about…”
“I wish I was tall and thin like that Great Dane.”
“I wonder what the future of our world is?”
Our thoughts pretty much control our lives. You may ask yourself, “But I can’t control what goes through my mind, can I?” Although the mind is very difficult to control, you can learn how to guard, strengthen and renew it. Our minds are the first thing that Satan goes after. Paul says the following:
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
Paul mentioned strongholds. What are strongholds? Dictionary.com defines stronghold as a place where a particular cause or belief is strongly defended or upheld. In short, it is a mindset or attitude. There are many strongholds that we experience including worry, unforgiveness, judging, materialism, fear, guilt, doubt, resentment, and insecurity.
We aren’t born with strongholds. We develop them in our minds, through our life events and experiences and through Satan’s deceitful guidance. For example, maybe a close friend or family member deeply betrayed your trust and hurt you. The enemy then whispers that you cannot trust anyone and that you are on your own. You develop trust issues which then result in an unwillingness to trust God’s promises in your life. Frequently, we aren’t even aware that we have these strongholds.
Here’s something you can do to renew your mind. Fill your mind with good stuff and take about the bad stuff!
Paul tells us to “renew our minds” and we can do that through a steady intake of God’s Word. Peter calls Christians to “desire the pure milk of the word, so that you may grow up into your salvation” (1 Pet. 2:2).
Think about the things that you are filling your mind with – television, the news, books, etc. Have you ever heard the term, garbage in garbage out? That’s how it works with our minds too. Rick Warren said: “Put mental garbage into your mind and you will get garbage out of your life.” Further Proverbs 15:14 says, “a wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash.” We should read our Bibles and fill our minds with knowledge and positive things.
In Colossians 3:2, Paul tell us to set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. Further, he instructs us as follows:
“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable and anything that is excellent or praiseworthy.”
Phillipians 4:8-9
Check out my post next week to learn more about controlling your mind.
