All in Your Mind

It’s all in your mind, baby.

I can see you now, head swiveling, looking over your shoulders, before looking back at your screen to point questioningly to yourself.  “You talking to me?”

Yah, sure, you betcha! (It doesn’t make sense without a hint of Canadian wilderness-man-speak in your tone.  Try again.) (So much better.)  I am, actually, talking to YOU.  And to me, so don’t feel like it’s just you that I’m putting on the spot here.  I am in this equation 100%, don’t worry.

Anyone out there remember the Pat Benatar song from the 80’s?  Love is a Battlefield.  If I’d have been listening closer back then, that would have concerned me, I think.  But I didn’t “get” Benatar, or most pop music back then.  Honestly, not much has changed.

I have been thinking though, that My Mind is a Battlefield would have been a far better, though arguably less catchy, title—or at least would have put the focus where it needed to be.  Most relationship issues of any kind suffer when our thought life runs rampant.  Fidelity, monogamy, jealousy, trust: these are all issues that begin in the mind.  People entertain things they initially wouldn’t in the mind, calling it “fantasizing” before it ever becomes reality.  The mind is the birthplace of so many things, good or bad.  Nothing comes into being without first being conceived in the noggin.

The good news is that we can get a new mind.  

I see you there.  No, I don’t mean a brain transplant.  Though I passionately longed for one during my college math classes.

If only I had known then what I know now—that the Great Physician performs just such a surgery on all who submit themselves to His Spirit.  I might’ve passed that math class the first time.

But I digress.

Since it’s clear that today, I’m too silly to give this the gravity it deserves, I’ll instead rely on the Word.  It says it so much better than I can anyway!

Phillipians 4:6-7 KJV

⁶ Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

⁷ And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 

2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 KJV

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, ² That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

2 Timothy 1:7 KJV

⁷ For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Hebrews 8:10 KJV

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

1 Corinthians 2:15 KJV

¹⁶ For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.

Romans 12:22 KJV

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

  

This could go on, and on, and on.  But the point is, God doesn’t want us to be chained to our old mind, with all its old problems and frailties.  The Holy Ghost intends to give us a NEW MIND, the mind of Christ!  However, just as the Lord is a gentleman, and won’t override our own will by forcing the baptism of the Holy Ghost upon us (as in Acts 2:38-39; Acts 8:14-17; Acts 10:44-48; and Acts 19:5-6), He also won’t do repair work on someone’s thought life without consent from the individual.  In some respects, this is an ongoing process, because it is up to us to cultivate a healthy thought life once we’ve been redeemed.  We can’t fill our minds with the same trash we were exposed to before our transformation, and then wonder why our old issues pop up.  But when we truly submit ourselves and our minds to Him in a spirit of repentance, turning away from whatever is contrary to the Christian walk, he makes all things NEW.  Even our minds. 

If you’re not sure about this, let me refer you to this account from Luke 8 (NLT).

²⁶ So they arrived in the region of the Gerasenes,^[c] across the lake from Galilee.²⁷ As Jesus was climbing out of the boat, a man who was possessed by demons came out to meet him. For a long time he had been homeless and naked, living in the tombs outside the town.

²⁸ As soon as he saw Jesus, he shrieked and fell down in front of him. Then he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Please, I beg you, don’t torture me!” ²⁹ For Jesus had already commanded the evil^[d] spirit to come out of him. This spirit had often taken control of the man. Even when he was placed under guard and put in chains and shackles, he simply broke them and rushed out into the wilderness, completely under the demon’s power. 

³⁰ Jesus demanded, “What is your name?”

“Legion,” he replied, for he was filled with many demons. ³¹ The demons kept begging Jesus not to send them into the bottomless pit.^[e] 

³² There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby, and the demons begged him to let them enter into the pigs.

So Jesus gave them permission. ³³ Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned.

³⁴ When the herdsmen saw it, they fled to the nearby town and the surrounding countryside, spreading the news as they ran. ³⁵ People rushed out to see what had happened. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been freed from the demons. He was sitting at Jesus’ feet, fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid. ³⁶ Then those who had seen what happened told the others how the demon-possessed man had been healed.³⁷ And all the people in the region of the Gerasenes begged Jesus to go away and leave them alone, for a great wave of fear swept over them.

If that isn’t healing for your MIND, and all that ails ya, I don’t know what is.  The Lord isn’t any less powerful today than He was back then.

Just give Him a chance.