Mind, Day 2

Mind, Day 2

Our minds and hearts

Psalm 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

My daughter, Hayley, attended a Christian School for 4 years. Every week there was a new memory verse, she was required to memorize all of the verses by the end of each week. On Saturday, over 1 year of public school later, my daughter competed in her first Bible Quiz meet through our church. There were 4 sets of 20 questions with a break in between each. After a long snack break, the quizzers started to drift off. not as focused as before. The first thought is "what is she doing, where is her mind!" How could I help her to refocus. I couldn't concentrate anymore, my mind was stuck on what she was doing. She missed 6 more questions during those last 2 rounds. The reader kept reminding them to shake it off, if you miss one, don't let it get to you. At the end of the quiz meet, the score keeper came up to me and said, " Hayley would have got more right, she only missed 8, but what she did was interesting, she listened to the question and when she heard the right answer she turned her mind off, not realizing that others might be right as well. She missed the questions that had multiple right answers."

How often do I do that? When I know I am right or have the right answer, I turn my mind off to the possibility of another answer or one that would be the better answer. Do you do that too? Another thing that it helped me to see is that 4 years of memory verses have inscribed his word on her heart, just as yesterdays definitions stated. The two are closely related.

Society today talks about our minds being crazy, disturbed, imbalanced. Many times requiring treatment to "fix" them. When we loose a family member, or hear something bad, our hearts ache and our minds close. So I think our mind or "heart" is not physical, but more emotional. While our brains and hearts are physical. I am interested to see what the Bible says about our minds. The Bible talks about our minds being either good or evil, hardened, blinded, corrupt, debased, renewed, pure, loving God with all of their minds, mind of Christ, united in mind. Which one of these best describes your mind? I can answer that I have probably had most all of those words define my mind at one time or another.

I believe God has prepared me for this week more than I knew when I started. The verse he brought me to was one that my husband used this weekend. Read it carefully.

Romans 7:21 It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what it right, I inevitable do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart, But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to Obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

The mind is so powerful. It can cause us to question our inner most being and the things we can not fully comprehend. Whenever we feel we are going to loose our minds, we should remember that Jesus Christ was the only one without sin and that we do have a sinful nature about us, within us. Those who do not believe in Jesus Christ are still "close-minded" because the devil is at work to keep them from the truth.

Luke 8:12 Thus along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

Thank God that we have an opening of our mind when we receive Jesus Christ as our gift. It doesn't mean we will no longer sin, but it means we will have a better understanding of our sins and truly be sorry, hopefully be less willing to sin and to be an example to others so that they may come to know our Lord as well.

Luke 24:45
Then he opened their minds to understand these many Scriptures.... With my Authority, take this message of repentance to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: `There is forgiveness of sins for all who turn to me.' You are witnesses of all these things.

Please pray for Debi.

Lord, thank you for helping me to see how close our hearts are to our minds. How they are separate from our brains and beating hearts. You are amazing, Lord, thank you for your reminder that we are forgiven when we repent. Thank you for knowing our minds and hearts.