Spirit Controlled Thinking

Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – August 16, 2017

Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. Romans 8:5-6, NLT

Sinful impulses masquerade as a friend inviting you to a fun filled mind dance, but your time together turns out to be an ugly fiasco of guilt and shame. Your thinking can be easily deceived by the devil’s seductive dance. On the opposite end of the scale, surrender to the Holy Spirit’s mental control, He will deliver you from the mind games of ungodly influences. The Spirit’s entourage includes life and peace, who escort you to an engaging experience of God’s moves.

The Apostle Paul describes a very real tension between being controlled by sin or being controlled by the Spirit. His own life was an honest case study for wanting to live for Christ, but capitulating to desire; a daily battle that still relentlessly rages on for contemporary Christians. Spirit controlled thinking leads to mental freedom, while sinful thoughts trap us in torment. So how do we conquer the battle between our ears? What is God’s solution for fallen creatures?

“Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin” (Romans 7:25).

Similar to the way I trust a bank to control my money, so I deposit my mind’s shares with the Spirit for safe keeping. By faith I capture my thoughts and turn them over to Christ for Him to steward, as He does best. Satan cannot snatch what I hide away with my Savior, but my mind is vulnerable to lies and deception when I allow thoughts to stray away unattended by the Spirit. Lazy thinking leads to stinking thinking, which can culminate in detrimental behavior. But mental cleansing comes from Scripture, adoring the Lord of creation and engaged community.

A mental cleansing comes when my soul ingests truth. Like an anticipated bite of a savory dish, we luxuriate in the moment when meditating on God’s Word, while the juices of Jesus’ love satisfies our soul’s deepest longings. Truth turned over and over in our mind grows us more like Christ. Worship of our Creator while exploring His creation expands our mental capacity to receive practical knowledge of the Holy. In addition, thoughts pregnant with truth give birth to healthy relationships. An engaged community is able to hear each other’s heart and learn from shared experiences. Intimacy with friends frees us from selfish self-talk and gives us accountability to change. When we surrender to Spirit controlled thinking we experience true life and peace.

“Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit” (Galatians 6:8, NLT).

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