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Mind
Mind
Thinks
Thinks
Proverbs 23:7 (ESV)
7 for he is like one who is inwardly calculating.
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Intentions are a mental representation of a goal and the means of achieving it.
The word of God will help cleanse our minds as Jesus shows the standard for purity:
28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Same goes for you ladies. But this applies to not just sexual sin, but many other evil intentions you have in your mind.
That is why we read the word of God because it will help filter out these kinds of thoughts.
We must meditate on the word of God for this very reason, which leads to the next part of the mind… …
Meditates
Meditates
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Meditation stems from your mind and is connected to your heart.
What are you meditating on?
Understands
Understands
14 The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge,
but the mouths of fools feed on folly.
It’s one thing to think about a concept in our minds, its a different ball game to comprehend it.
I’m sure many of you feel this way at school, you might be thinking real hard about that math equation but you are not able to understand it.
To truly understand to be pure, we must seek knowledge. The way we grow in our knowledge is to fear God.
7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
There are two kinds of fear:
1. The Wrath of God
2. The Deep Respect of God
Believes
Believes
23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.
Conscience
Conscience
Fun fact about Neurosurgeons, they cannot find the conscience as a physical part in the brain. The brain helps filter it, but evolution does not explain this. As a Christian, this is such a beautiful piece of evidence for a creator, our God, to plant a conscience into our brains.
The conscience relates to what is right and wrong. Do you know what is right and wrong?
To a certain extent, I see that many people have an instinct of what is right and wrong. Even if they don’t know Jesus, if someone murders their loved one, they will feel a loss but also a feeling of rage because what the murderer did was wrong. The world is basically united on the idea of what Hitler did in WWII, and to commit genocide of the jews, was wrong. Christians and non-christians alike. Morality, which means what is right and wrong is engrained to an extent in everyone of us because God has planted a conscience in us.
However, without Christ, it stops just about there. Those unsaved, will not have the same sense of what is truly right and wrong regarding spiritual purity.
Do they know that it is wrong to think lustful thoughts about other women who they are not married too?
Do they know that it is wrong to feel anger at someone, even if they think it is justified?
Do they know they find joy in praising God, their creator?
The answer is a hard no as even though our implanted conscience knows maybe murder is wrong, Christ still needs to purify our hearts to help our conscience know what is biblically right and wrong.
Where is your heart at? Is your heart hardened to what is good?
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
We see here that unbelievers:
Are rebellious with their hardened hearts.
They are not close to God because of their hardness of heart
They have become calloused to what is good and pursuing what is wrong.
A hardened heart is impure and numbs us and what is wrong becomes right to us and what is right becomes wrong.
When we view sin, we should know how evil it is. How it is what has separated us from God. Sin is Satan’s discipleship and the sin that we see in our lives and around us should grieve our hearts.
1 Timothy 4:2 mentions that those who stray away from the faith have a seared conscience. The phrasing used here is to be cast with a hot iron. The conscience becomes insensitive, scarred, immune to what is good and not.
How is this second chamber? How is your conscience? Does sin still vex your soul? Does it bother you at all?
Don’t Stop Meditating and Reflecting
Don’t Stop Meditating and Reflecting
Christ did not just ask us to turn away from sin and say “good luck.” Christ died for our sins but then left so that He could send a helper. There is brokenness from our sin but restoration in Christ. Purification will be meaningless if we do not have the one who is pure working in us.
The 4 chambers of the heart connect and intertwine but there are some key, separate practices that can relate to the mind and conscience. Meditate constantly on the word of God and His truth.
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
Our minds should be repeating verses, biblical understanding, and a constant dialogue of conversation and prayer with God. If this is not prevalent, then our minds will never be pure.
The same goes for our conscience but go an extra step and reflect on the severity of sin. Sin is why Christ had to die. Our sin warrants a punishment of eternal separation from God. Sin also is selfish and hurts others. Know what is wrong and turn away from it. Jesus did not save us to keep on sinning, Jesus saved us that we would go and sin no more.
10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
Turn away from sin but also fill your heart with what is good.