Be Prepared: The Mind, Part 5

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

Philippians 2:5-8

Ultimately, the mind prepared to serve the Lord belongs to a person who strives to have the mind of Christ.

• The mind of Christ is the mind of a servant.

"And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all."

Mark 10:44

• The mind of Christ is humble.

"The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility."

Proverbs 15:33

• The mind of Christ is obedient.

"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love."

John 15:10

In review, a mind prepared to serve the Lord will be

• A Renewed Mind
• A Willing Mind
• A Mind Stayed on God
• A Mind That Recalls
• The Mind of Christ

"And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself."

Luke 10:27

Be Prepared: The Mind, Part 4

"This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD."

Lamentations 3:21-26

A mind prepared to serve the Lord recalls some things.

• God is compassionate.
• Great is His faithfulness
• He is our portion.
• He is good.
• We can hope in Him.
• We should wait quietly for Him.

Aren't those all wonderful things to recall? When you are hurting, He is compassionate. When you feel alone, He is faithful. When you feel destitute, He is your portion. When it seems as if only bad things surround you, He is good. When all seems hopeless, you can hope in Him.

Quiet your mind. Recall and wait for Him.

Be Prepared: The Mind, Part 3

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee."

Isaiah 26:3

In preparing our minds to serve the Lord it is important that we learn to keep our minds stayed on the Him. One of the biggest hurdles in serving the Lord is avoiding worry. We worry when we look at our circumstances instead of our God.

I don't have a lot to say about this. When you worry, just quit it! My mom was the queen of worriers. Once when my husband was teaching a Bible study on this subject he said, "Do you realize that 90% of what you worry about, never happens?" My mom piped up and said, "See how good it works!"

It was funny, but she was wrong. It is not worry that protects us, it is the Lord.

Keep your mind stayed on God!

Be Prepared: The Mind, part 2

"For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not."
2 Corinthians 8:12

In order to prepare our minds to love the Lord and serve Him, we need to develop a willing mind.

Have you ever asked someone to do something and though that person agreed, she did it unwillingly? Doesn't that drive you crazy? My grandson is four. Almost always when I ask him to do something, he jumps up and does it right away. Every once in a while, he doesn't. Just last week, he decided to see what happens at bedtime if he takes very slow baby steps on his way to his room. He was not going willingly. (By the way, he did not like what happened.)

God delights in a willing servant. So how do we develop a willing mind?

To begin with, the verse says our willingness is based on what we have, not on what we don't have. To develop a willing mind, we should

• Asses our abilities.

What are we good at? What are we capable of? Now this is not necessarily what we like to do, but what we can do. For example, I really am a shy person. Very few people who have met me get that. I don't act shy. I don't act shy because I am capable of speaking to others. It's not something that I like naturally, but I am capable of it. I reached a point in my life where I needed to be willing to allow the Lord to use that ability.

On the other hand, I am not a musician. I can sing, but I cannot play an instrument. I even took piano lessons as an adult because I wanted to have that ability for God to use. It is just not one of my abilities. I suppose I could have continued lessons and devoted massive amounts of time to practice in order to become marginally competent, but I came to a point when I had to assess my time and decide what was good stewardship of my talents and abilities. Instrumental music is not one of them.

So assess your abilities, and then

• Thank God for your abilities.

If you realize that your abilities came from God, it is easy to be willing to use them for Him.

Finally,

• Look for ways to use your abilities.

There is so much to be done for the Lord that no ability, no matter how insignificant you think it is, will go unused if you are willing.

Be Prepared: The Mind, Part 1

“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”

Mark 12:30

Last week we looked at preparing our hearts to serve the Lord. This week, I want to take a look at preparing our minds. When I began searching my Bible for what God says about our minds, I was actually surprised at how many things there were. Sometimes in Christianity there seems to be an attitude that “if your heart is in it” you’ve done all you could. That’s not always true. We have a responsibility to serve the Lord with all our minds.

So where do we start? According to the Bible, we should have a renewed mind. That would be a good place to start.

• A Renewed Mind

A renewed mind is a renovated mind. Let’s talk for a minute about renovations. There is a difference between remodeling and renovating. In this house, we remodeled our bedroom. We repainted and redecorated and repaired some things, but we kept the same basic structure of the room. A remodel is a makeover. To renovate literally means to make new. In our last house we renovated the kitchen. We stripped the room all the way down to the studs and the subfloor and started all over again with new floor, new walls, new fixtures — the whole enchilada. We made a new kitchen.

Too many times, we try to remodel our minds — keep the same basic thoughts but do a makeover. That’s not enough.

We need to start over and that begins at salvation. Before we are saved, when we are lost, our minds are blinded.

“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

2 Corinthians 4:3-4

“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

Ephesians 4:17-24

Once we have received salvation, we have to begin the daily job of building our minds up in Christ.

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:7-9

Concentrate on the thoughts of God. This is why it is so very important to read the Bible every day. The Bible is God’s written record of His thoughts. In our frail humanity, we will never fully grasp His thoughts, but Scripture is the only place to begin.

So read the Bible every day.

In Sunday School we sing the little song:

Read your Bible
Pray every day
Pray every day
Pray every day
Read your Bible
Pray every day
And you'll grow, grow, grow!

Tomorrow, we will begin looking at the characteristics of a renewed mind — a mind prepared to serve the Lord.