Love God with All Your Mind - Friday, May 09, 2008
Love the Lord your God...with all your mind. Matthew 22:37 NIV
Part of the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your mind. I've often wondered what this means and how to do it.Our mind means our thought life. I'm convinced that we will do what we think about, and we will become what we do. In other words, what is going on in my mind today will in a big way determine what happens to me tomorrow. This is why loving God with my mind is so important. But what does it really mean to love God with all my mind? I think there are two keys.First, it means to think like God. Philippians 4:8 is how God thinks. He always thinks the best; He dwells on the good; His thoughts are noble. Are my thoughts like this? My thoughts should praise people rather than accuse them. They should be pure rather than impure. I often test my thoughts with this verse, to see if what I am thinking is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy.Second, it means to think about God. Colossians 3:2 says, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." God does not want to be relegated to only certain times and places in our lives. He wants to be on the forefront of our minds all day, every day. David said, "I have set the Lord always before me" (Psalm 16:8).This takes training. It takes self-discipline to control our minds. 2 Corinthians 10:5 commands us to "...take every though captive to make it obedient to Christ." We need to see the importance of our thought life, and work with God to bring it under His control.
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