Mind the mind 101013

"The mind is the faculty which ought to guide and conduct the soul.  It is to the soul what Moses said his father-in-law might be to the people in the wilderness, as eyes to guide them (Num. 10:31).  It is the eye of the soul, without which the will and affections would perpetually wander in the wilderness of this world, drawn to every object which seemed to offer some present good.  The first thing , therefore, that sin aims at is to draw off and divert the mind from the discharge of its duty.

There are two particular duties of the mind in this matter:

1.  To keep itself and the whole soul ready to obey God in all that he requires, and to watch against enticements to sin.
2.  To see to it that all particular actions are performed as God requires, in the right way, and at the right time; and to refuse all temptations concerning things forbidden."

Indwelling Sin In Believers -- John Owen --- p 63

In Romans 12 Paul admonishes us to renew our minds and that my deaar friends in no small task.  We take in so much that we shouldn't.  We are entertained by that which should offfend us and tittilated by that which should horrify.  From Movies to TV shows to commercials we allow the world to provike our flesh having little care for the dmamge it does to our minds.

And so we live weak and pathetic lives for Him.  We neglect duties we forego service we fail in keeping out hearts fixed on Him.  Instead we live as "Gentiles" in the futility of the world tossed here and there by our affections and thoughts never knowling the peace He has for us.

Our minds dear friends need to be protected from the dung the world offers and filled with His Word - guided by His Spirit.  But it is easier and more comfortable to be of the world with a veneer of Jesus than it is to be in Jesus suffering the smears of the world.

Take heed how you think, what you thing and why you think.  Your mind is indeed a critical faculty and when it is not guarded it yields to everything that enter it.  This keeps us from serving Him, it keeps us from being holy,it hinders our sactification and sullies our witness.

We should rail against the world and its attempt to pervert our thoughts away from Him and even pervert our thoughts of Him.  If we do not, how can we call oursleves His?  How can we have any assurance.  For we cannot say, "not I but Christ."