Philippians 4:7
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
I find more often than not, I have to consciously make a very concerted effort to guard my mind. It is a difficult but necessary task, that requires consistency as well. Guarding my mind is what keeps me focused on God and His ways. It is so easy to within an instant, allow the world's way to distract me.
Let's take beauty for example. To the world, it is primarily on the outside...clothes, shoes, handbags, houses, cars, our hair, our body, our jewlery. Sure we can see beauty through the sparkle of someone's eyes, the gorgeous big smile of a child, or a stranger, or a loved one. Or we may see it in the mountains, the ocean, the butterfly that crosses our path or the aroma of flowers in a garden or on a hillside. But we must protect our minds from defining beauty as the world does.
This revelation came to me almost three years ago, when I felt the pressing on my spirit to stop reading Hollywood and fashion magazines.
It took me several months to work up to letting go of them but in January of 2008 I stopped reading magazines such as People, In-Touch, Entertainment Weekly, OK, Us, etc. I travel for work, so every week when I was flying-all I was doing in my downtime was reading these magazines of little substance and that of which are nothing more than pure gossip and mostly the invasion of people's personal lives. The information I was choosing to fill my mind with was clouding my judgement, causing my conversation to be foolish and the wasting of words, infusing a poor self-image into my thoughts and pure rubbish.
It took me several months to work up to letting go of them but in January of 2008 I stopped reading magazines such as People, In-Touch, Entertainment Weekly, OK, Us, etc. I travel for work, so every week when I was flying-all I was doing in my downtime was reading these magazines of little substance and that of which are nothing more than pure gossip and mostly the invasion of people's personal lives. The information I was choosing to fill my mind with was clouding my judgement, causing my conversation to be foolish and the wasting of words, infusing a poor self-image into my thoughts and pure rubbish.
Now that I look back on it-it is quite interesting that the timing of all of this occurred as I was preparing my heart and mind to serve God and His people on my first ever mission trip. The other thing really cool about all of this, is that the Holy Spirit took the desire away from me. I can see this clear as day, as I have no desire to read the magazines. I have since bought three and if you can believe I never even got to reading or looking at two of them before I threw them away.
I have prayed to let go of things and the difference is vivid to me between when it becomes a fleshly struggle to let go verses the Holy Spirit delivering me from the temptation or foolishness.
I truly believe it starts with making every effort to guard my mind from what words, thoughts, or pictures/images I allow to come in and occupy it.
Mark 12:30
Love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
Dear Lord- Help me to guard my mind and thoughts all day long. Help me to stay focused on You and to always be reminded that the best way to do that is to read your Living Word, take the time to serve your people and to pray continously. It is not always easy for me to do this, but Lord please stay close to me and help me to do this, so I can bring you honor and glory. I love you.
No comments:
Post a Comment