Christian Living
Loving God with the Mind
By David Yuen
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
-Romans 12:2
The world, in all its darkness, has many ways to consume us even with the most common things that we think of each day. Of these, perhaps the most overlooked way is the trapping of thoughtlessness and superficiality. As Christians, we are at war not only with the world around us, but also with the one that is within us. And within any war, perhaps the greatest weapon an enemy could have is within the subtle manipulation and desensitization of the mind.
According to the Bible, the first and greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind (Matthew 22:37)”. Throughout the Scripture, it mentions how we must worship with all things that are of our being, especially with regards to the spirit. But with the banality of the everyday grind, with the numbness of apathy surrounding and suffocating every liberating thought that we could have, we are desperately losing the one characteristic that is important for serving God’s purpose—the uniqueness of our minds.
Nearly each day, everyone releases the typical chatter about work, money, play, and "toys" (especially for the ones that they don’t have). Go into any coffee shop, bus stop, and shopping mall—listen into any conversation and more than likely the subject would be about the typical things. For the younger generation, it might be about cars, sports, music, the opposite sex, or other trivial comments. For the older generation, it might be about work, good restaurants, investments, other adults, and so on and so forth. By themselves, there's nothing wrong with discussing these subjects, but there is certainly more to life than just those things that people, including Christians, tend to overlook.
Outside of church, when was the last time that maybe you or someone else you heard had a consistent conversation about God and a person's place in the world? When was the last time you've deeply meditated on the meaning of a scriptural concept or on a scriptural perspective about a secular or controversial issue? How often have you ever seriously asked yourself of why you do the things you do and why you live your life the way you do? And most importantly, how often have you asked yourself about the real meaning and purpose of your life? For an average person and Christian, probably not as much as one may think or talk about money, gossip, trends, discount sales, possessions, how attractive that person is, etc., etc.
God has ultimately given humanity the gift of a mind so that we could be more liberated. But through the superficiality of the media, through the stale monotony of daily living, and the concerns and worries of meeting the "status quo" or keeping up with the "Jones'", more and more believers have failed to consider the potential of this gift and end up trading it off, inadvertently, for the ideals of a soulless world.
The apostle Paul once mentioned that our war, as believers, isn't going to be one engaged in flesh and blood, but in spirit. Our minds play a pivotal role in both the battle and the struggle that we have in this. And if we were all to become apathetic and begin to consider deep thinking as a waste of our time, which is meant to be focused on the quote-end-quote "important" things, then what good are we as believers?
Of course, this does not mean that everyone in the church should instantly become hardcore philosophers or theologians. Likewise, this does not mean that the writer of this article is more "profound" just for pointing this out because, if anything, he’s just as guilty of superficiality as any other Christian could possibly be. But the point is, the mind and how often one uses it for the Lord is perhaps one of the best weapons we have against this world today.
Far too often, many Christians fall under the false assumption that, because they are “saved”, all of them secretly know all the answers that they need to know and, therefore, wouldn’t need to search any further besides just going to church every Sunday. But the truth is, most often, they don’t and believing that they do could sometimes lead to far more trouble further down the road for them than they would like to think.
In an age far past the age of information, where secular intellectualism has become a mindless juggernaut assaulting the gateway of every believer, Christians will be poorly equipped if their minds have been dulled by a two-dimensional world that surrounds and immerses them each day. If one were suddenly forced to defend their faith against an intellectual assault, what good would it do to know which cell-phone happens to be the trendiest? If one were asked to explain a profound spiritual concept to a nonbeliever, in order that he or she could be saved, what benefit would it bring to know which mutual fund has a better reputation over another?
Overall, when we use our minds to explore the profound things that we should explore, not only do we become better equipped for God's purpose, but we also begin to realize, more and more, in where we fit into that purpose. And when we do, we inevitably begin to love God more with our minds as we use them to contemplate Him more and more. True, there are many superficial chores in life that we have to tend to within our thoughts, but when they become the only things that we can think of (even when we don’t need to) then how much further would it be for them to eventually become the masters of our mind? And if that happens, perhaps the worst fact about it is that it happened simply because we allowed it to. But when God is the master of our mind, it is only then that our minds become the master of our thoughts and that our thoughts then become the master of all the superficial things in life, rather than the other way around.
As Christians, we should learn to encourage each other’s thinking and not be afraid to discuss issues that we would not normally consider talking about in our daily lives. In a manner of speaking, we should all learn to become accountable for each other’s thoughts, having not just an open mind, but a godly and discerning one willing to freely admit one’s own mistakes just as one is willing to sensitively point out and rectify another’s. But perhaps the most significant practice that true believers should do is to not be afraid of asking questions and finding the answers to them, especially to those that pertain directly to spiritual life. Remember, asking questions is not necessarily a sign of a weak faith, but rather, the act of not asking any at all can be a glaring signal of an extremely shallow one.
According to Romans 8:5, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit”. In the end, if God wanted to examine how you lived your life by asking you how and where most of your thoughts and conversation times were spent, what type of life would you have to show God? For one thing, there’s a great chance that the right one wouldn’t have anything to do with talking about bargain deals or “blue-chips”!
(Note: This work was originally published in the Jan/Feb 2003 edition of the "Spring of Life" newsletter)
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Yes, loving God with your mind, your heart and your soul; and walking beside Him every step of the way. You are given the chance to be saved because Jesus died for our sins; however mankind cannot continue to do as they please and live in sin just because "once upon a time" they believed! No, they must live each day as if it were the last day...and then they will have a crown and a Mansion waiting for them in heaven.
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