I love illustrations that help me picture how things work. This one has been a big help for quite a while.
It has been very beneficial for me to see the way our brains help our minds express themselves in the material world in which we live. Even the distinctions between the left and right hemispheres of our brains show the way our minds process both thoughts and feelings together. The necessity of good relationships to promote the healthy development of our brains also illustrates how important our relationships are in affecting what goes on in our minds.
In the same way as our physical heart pumps blood through our body as directed by our brain, our soul-heart pumps beliefs and feelings through our soul as directed by our mind. This means that, whatever we set our minds on to believe and value will determine how it is with our souls.
The adage, GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) expresses this, that feeding our minds garbage determines how garbagy we live. It is also true that when we feed our minds the life and truth of Jesus Christ, it determines how faithfully we live. This is why God’s Book is just as clear on the fruit that comes from setting our minds on the sark (flesh) as it is on the fruit that comes from setting our minds on him and his Holy Spirit.[1]
Yesterday morning, Father directed my thoughts back to this expression from his word:
You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.[2]
What stood out is that there is a way of life in which God keeps his children in “perfect peace”. It is a relationship in which that perfect peace will follow us all the days of our lives as long as we relate to God in the distinctive attachments that belong to our relationship with him.
The first issue is that this person trusts in God. It is “because he trusts in you” that the rest happens. Everything in life is about attaching to God by faith since our life comes from him, and we can only return to the meaning of life by faith in his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.[3] Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and his peace is waiting to “keep” those who trust in him.[4]
Second, because of this faith, the person’s mind is “stayed” on God. That means that, because of the attachment to God in faith, the mind is settled, or established, or secured on God. When we are in such foundational attachment with God, our heavenly Father keeps us “in perfect peace”.[5]
Elsewhere in God’s Book we get these additional promises of God’s peace:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.[6]
This reinforces that what we think and feel in our minds affects how we relate to God which results in God’s peace guarding both our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus (love it!).
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.[7]
Everything begins with what our minds attach to. When are minds are on the Triune God, not only does his peace guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, but “the God of peace” himself “will be with you.”
Jesus said that where our treasure is,
there our hearts will be also.[8]
When our minds treasure what Paul describes, that is where it is “stayed”,
or anchored, or attached like a branch abiding in the vine.[9]
God has even given us men like Paul to exemplify how to do that. When we put
their example into practice and enter the same relationship with God as they
had, we experience the God of peace himself being with us always, to the very
end of the age.
I hope we see the cues to experiencing this
peace!
© 2020 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
[1] Romans 8:5-6 in the
context of Romans chapters 7 and 8; Galatians 5:16-26 shows this contrast very
clearly as well.
[2] Isaiah 26:3
[3] Romans 1:16-17 shows
this in relation to the necessity of the good news of the gospel.
[4] Isaiah 9:6
[5] Hebrew: “shalom shalom”, or, “peace peace”, with the repetition
raising the bar, so to speak, on the kind of peace being addressed.
[6] Philippians 4:4-7
[7] Philippians 4:8-9
[8] Matthew 6:21; repeated
in Luke 12:34
[9] John 15:1-11 in the
context of the whole of John 15.
No comments:
Post a Comment