Mark 12:30-31
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
I love being creative. I guess I would even call myself a creative type. Seeing something come out of what feels like nothing into a real object or idea is exciting to me.
And so I really love the thought that God wants me to love Him with all of my mind.
You don’t check your brain out when you come to faith in Christ. Instead, He asks you to bring it all to Him.
God is a creative type
Now, some of you might be getting annoyed or bored with all this creative talk.
But the reality is that we serve a creative type.
God created everything that exists. All the beauty of the forests, oceans, mountains, sky, animals, and humans were created by God.
He didn’t have to make everything so colorful, detailed, and complex. He could have just made everything simple and bland.
God’s mind is evident in all that we see.
God created your mind
Here is another thought: God created your mind.
Why would He do that if He didn’t want to you use it?
God gave you a brain that,
- stores information and has been storing it since you were born
- can add to previous information learned
- controls your body
- can process information without having to write or speak
- can recall images, names, people, songs on demand (at least most of the time)
- and on and on
So don’t waste your mind!
God gave it to you and wants you to love Him with it.
So what does that look like?
Love God with all your mind
I want to give you three ways to love God with your mind.
1. Give Him control
2 Corinthians 10:5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Your brain is an information processing machine. You can probably have a hundred different thoughts before you even finish your first cup of coffee in the morning.
Unless you are doing it intentionally in for something like a brainstorming session, don’t let your thoughts run wild.
Untamed thoughts can lead you to some very crazy conclusions.
Stop them in their tracks. Don’t even give them a chance to think they are in control.
Take them captive and remind them they are to obey Jesus.
2. Don’t settle
Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Your brain is constantly being wired to think a certain way. Memories, experiences, beliefs, the way you were raised, and some many different influences you get exposed to throughout your life all play into the pattern of your thinking.
Paul reminds us in Romans that we need to be seeking after the transformation of our minds. And we are not doing this in a space void of interaction but in a world that is working hard to stamp our minds with its pattern of thinking.
And notice what’s at stake – God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love me, keep my commands”.
Part of showing Jesus that you love Him is by following His will for your life. And the way you know what that is is by seeking after God transformation and renewal of your mind.
3. Suit up
Ephesians 6:12-13
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 17take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
Your mind is a war zone. There is an ongoing battle for right thinking.
And before you go into battle you need to be prepared. If not, you won’t last very long.
So suit up.
Take the helmet of salvation:
Where does your hope come from you or God? Putting on the helmet of salvation is visual showing you that you need to guard your mind with the assurance of salvation and a future hope. Which all comes from God.
Putting on the helmet of salvation is visual showing you that you need to guard your mind with the assurance of salvation and a future hope. Which all comes from God.
Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
This is a battle that will require you to fight. You have been assigned a proactive role.
You don’t kick back and relax. You don’t hunker down and wait for the enemy to come to you. You Go after him and attack him where it hurts with your most powerful weapon.
So how and where do you get this weapon?
This weapon is in the pages of your Bible. These words written on those pieces of paper held between two protective covers are the very words of God.
Words that spoke everything your eyes can see and can’t see into existence (Col. 1:16, Heb. 11:3).
Words that produced life in a lifeless dirt.
These very words are the ones you get to pick up for your attack.
So take these words read, reread, study, pray over, rejoice over, delight in and memorize them.
Bring your mind with you
So bring your mind with you.
Give thanks to God for this wonderful gift that rests on your shoulders.
And then begin to work at loving Him with it.
Soul Check:
Are you loving God with all your mind?
Do your thoughts run wild and eventually lead you in the opposite direction of God?
Do you need to get your mind out of the lost and found and start using it for God’s glory?
Check out these other resources:
How Jesus Changed How We Think About Death
Benjamin Moore Blog 