Just you wait and see

The development of habits, thoughts and behaviors comes through both ongoing discipline and repeated instruction. We become proficient at something through the repetitive "doing" or "experiencing" of that task or behavior. God's training of our lives encompasses many aspects, but none so soul-liberating as the ordering of our thought life. The training of God that is directed toward our thought life, bringing into alignment our thoughts with his mind, allows us to develop behaviors that actually build our character on a solid foundation.

Train me, God, to walk straight; then I'll follow your true path. Put me together, one heart and mind; then, undivided, I'll worship in joyful fear. (Psalm 86:11-12)

The ability to walk the path God has laid out for us comes as we are submissive to the training God brings into our life - especially as it applies to our thought life. When I say "submissive" I am not referring to some mamby-pamby kind of response to God. I am referring to us taking the lead to center our thoughts on him, leading to the ability to refocus the desires of our heart toward the things that delight him. There is some effort exerted on our part, but it has huge rewards, so it is 'worth' that expenditure.

The ability to walk God's true path comes not only in our being trained, but in our "being put together" by God. We need to see the unity of heart and mind as important to being successful in our walk - we cannot have a divided thought-life as it will lead to a divided heart focus. Nothing could be truer than the fact that what the mind is inclined to dwell upon leads the heart in that same direction. If we think it, we often find ourselves saying and doing it! We need our minds aligned with his in order for our hearts to be affected by his heart - in order for our actions to actually reflect our relationship connection with him.

Undivided mind and heart - the basis of true worship. We are presented with the idea that we really enter into a different "level" of relationship with God when we have an undivided mind and heart - both functioning in unity with God's plan for our lives. Elsewhere in scripture, we are reminded that a double-minded man is unstable in all he does (James 1:8). There is no stability because there are no "constants" in his life. While there is always a place for variability in life, the mind is not one of those places!

What I mean is that we need to have focus - the right focus helps to determine the right outcome. As a young student in science class, the teachers introduced me to the idea of forming a hypothesis. A hypothesis was a basic idea or thought of what the outcome of the experiment would be - take this action, get that response (or so we thought). We would set out with one thought in mind, but often get a totally different result in the end. Why? Simply because our hypothesis was not based in fact - it didn't include all the factors that influenced the outcome. When what we desire and then set out to accomplish is based in fact, the outcome is much different.

Both mind and heart must be based in reality - centered on what God teaches, what he holds dear to his heart. This gives us a basis of "fact" from which to live life. The unity of heart and mind, centered upon God, loyal to him and him alone - this is the desired direction of our life. The outcome of that alignment will be phenomenal - just you wait and see!

Need a re-alignment?

Direct relationship with God - made possible by the blood sacrifice of Christ - is ours today. We can really "live" in his presence - have a life rich in every worthwhile experience, driven by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are no longer to spend all our time and energies gratifying the works of the flesh, but to live according to the Spirit of God that energizes us within. To gratify is to give pleasure to - give satisfaction to through indulging in - to give into sin's pull and the mind's lusts. Did you realize that scripture says we are free of that "pull" that demands 'gratification' now that we are Christ's?

But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ's life, the fulfillment of God's original promise. (Galatians 3:25-27)

A man's nature is defined as everything that makes up his inner man - his temperament (how he responds) and his character (why he responds). Apart from relationship with Christ, it is contrary to the things of the Spirit - incompatible with, on an ongoing and opposing course, and moving in a direct opposite direction from all that God would have for us. When we come to Christ, there are many times when we feel like our lives (old and new) are being lived in conflict - the old nature being in direct conflict with the new. It is as though they are in competition - each with their opposing needs, drives, wishes and demands. The scripture goes so far as to tell us that these two natures are "irreconcilable". They aren't just to go through a 'trial separation' - there is to be a total dissolution!

Those who are the property of Christ have become attached to him by new birth - their allegiance to their sinful nature being broken as a result of this new attachment. Now we find our dependency in Christ, not in ourselves. Romans 8:5-7 tells us that those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires - yet, those who live in accordance with the Spirit of God have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. In other words, there is an exchange of "allegiance" and this leads to an exchange of "focus". Allegiance is described as that which we dedicate ourselves to - every attitude, every motivation all directed to that particular thing or person. Because of that dedication, there is a desire to be obedient or submissive to the wishes of that individual. We find ourselves deferring to that individual - adhering to their wishes as expressed. If we have crucified the old man and been raised to newness of life in the Spirit of God, the flesh and all its passions have also been put off (we no longer give allegiance to them). Yet, many of us struggle with "fleshly" thoughts, actions, and compulsions every single day! Why? Actually there are three questions that might help us to answer this question:

1. What is our mindset? It is a little appreciated fact that where the mind goes, the spirit follows. If it is set on things that are opposed to the Spirit of God - it will follow. If it is set on things that truly promise satisfaction and fulfillment - that is what we will experience.
2. What controls us? That which controls us either holds us in restraint - keeping us from responding a certain way - or allows us the freedom to pursue that which we desire. It is easy to see that if we have the wrong thing in control of our lives (like our sinful nature), we will not have much restraint when it comes to not pursuing sin. If we have the Spirit of God in control of our lives (moment-by-moment authority and direction over our lives), we will be less likely to respond to the sin nature - we will respond to the new nature being worked into us.
3. What do our emotions reveal about us? Although we are told not to rely upon our emotions as 'good' judges of what to do or not to do, they do provide us some measure of why we do what we do. If our emotions are up one day, down the next, we often feel like we are riding a roller-coaster with our obedience, too. We tend to be "emotionally" driven individuals - if it feels good, we do it, if not, we refrain. It is the Spirit of the living God that wants to have the control over our lives - if we are relying on our emotions to tell us something is good or bad, we will be disappointed.

We are not just "washed up" for a fresh start - we are also clothed in some pretty snazzy "adult wardrobe" that adorns us in some pretty awesome fashion. We are not talking clothing here - we are talking an exchange of mindset, emotional response, and spiritual 'will-power'. With our death to sin and resurrection into newness of life comes an exchanged mind - not all at first, as you may well have realized - but it comes. Our minds find other things to dwell upon that once were less appealing to us before this exchange took place - like meditating upon the scriptures and allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to us daily. Our emotions become more "even-keeled", with less ups and downs, and even less pull on us to respond when they are in a state of changeability. The biggest thing we see is our battle of the will - we almost talk ourselves out of responding to the old ways of life because we know they are in opposition to the things of the spirit. We call this a battle of the wills. The problem of "will" is addressed in the issue of control - who is in control? We constantly make a choice of our allegiance. Today's choice may be stronger than yesterday's - each day bringing new challenges for our allegiance. The more we align our allegiance (responding in obedience to Christ), the stronger the pull of that allegiance will be. Our desires begin to take a backseat to those of the Spirit indwelling us. It is a matter of choice - what will we align with today? Just askin!

Rotate and Align

There is a lovely Christian song by the group 'We Are Messengers' that absolutely catches my heart each time I hear it played on the radio. The words are from the song "Magnify", and they begin with the words: "I've been trying to make sense of the sorrow that I feel, holding onto for life to the only thing that's real. I've only scratched the surface; I've barely had a taste, but just a glimpse draws my heart to change; and one side of you lays my sin to waste. I don't need to see everything, just more of you." How many of us go through our days just trying to figure out some emotional "sense" we have been experiencing - a sorrow of some kind? I daresay it is far more than might want to admit it. The fact is evident - we all suffer some type of sorrow that kind of hangs us up a while - if only because of our own sinfulness. At those moments, we need to remember one thing - we don't need to understand it all, but we do need to realize we need more of him in our lives - for this is the antidote to any and all sorrow we might experience!

Sin once used death to rule us. But God gave us more of his grace so that grace could rule by making us right with him. And this brings us eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:21 TLB)

The words of the song go on and bear hearing this morning: "My sight is incomplete; and I made you look small. I've been staring at my problems for way too long. Realign where my hope is set, until you're all that's left."  All that's left is often all that is needed - when what is left is nothing but God himself. We don't need more "fixing" - we need more of him! You know the old adage about the forest and the trees, meaning we get so caught up in the details of our problems we find it impossible to see any way out. What we need most in life is this "realignment work" that brings us to the place that Christ is all that is left when everything else has finally been put behind our focal point. What we see the most is what we align with the best. Let that sink in for just a moment and then ask yourself where your focus has been lately. If it isn't on Christ, it is time for realignment!

Toward the end of the song, these words resonate the loudest to me each time I hear it: "God be greater than the worries in my life; be stronger than the weakness in my mind." Boy, isn't that the truth?!?! We have worries in our lives that seem to overpower us at times, almost making us feel like impotent and powerless people with no other hope than to go along with whatever has been happening in our lives. Most of the struggle isn't that which is right before us, but what we allow to convince us that we are incapable, or have access to less than what the trouble demands! Our focus begins to turn toward what we don't have whenever we allow our perspective to be clouded by the issue at hand. When we turn again toward Christ, we find the issue gets the right perspective - it isn't going to over-power us because we now see clearly what awesome power is within us. The mind wants to "give into" the troubles at hand, but the spirit is reminding us there is much more within us than the troubles will ever demand!

There is no other "ruler" in our lives - but we can get a little confused at times when we don't maintain the right focus. Most mechanics will remind us we need regular "realignment" of our tires because it allows for "even wear" and "steady drive-ability". The mind is no different - it needs an occasional realignment to become aware again of just how "unsteady" our walk has been without that right alignment! Just sayin!