Fix your eyes on heaven part 2-the mind

Following on from the previous blog on the heart, we move to the mind. Some of the things that are significant about the mind are:

-The mind you actually have quite a lot of control over.

-Your thoughts, your mind can influence your heart.

-Knowledge is power in the Kingdom of God.

-Our New Testament is full of knowledge

Jesus spent much time teaching to improve, correct, develop people's knowledge. He regularly used statements such as: Did you not know; did you know that; but I tell you; Amen I say to you; I tell you the truth. Basically, Jesus gives us the knowledge of the Kingdom which we access and process with our minds. So Jesus gives us knowledge, and part of the Holy Spirit's role is to: Guide you into all.....truth and re-mind you (John 14). Re-mind is to put back into the mind something that was there. And, as very imperfect humans, we need reminding a lot! I know I do.

This shows us how important the mind is to the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit. If part of the Holy Spirit's work with us is to keep things of the Kingdom in our minds, it is important, as Colossians suggests, to keep our minds on things above.

2 Peter 1:1-3 (NKJV-my italics)

'Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ (that's you and you me) Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.'

Here we can also see how the mind and heart merge at this idea of the knowledge of God, when the desire for God leads to knowledge of God which leads to a Godly mind and focus which leads to greater desire for God. They feed into each other. Keeping the things of God in your mind can help you desire them more in your heart.

This type of knowledge, requires 2 things, facts and understanding. You can know the 'fact' that God is trinity, but understanding it takes something else. And both of these require the MIND. Not feelings and emotions, but the mind. God is not mindless, nor is our faith in him mindless. I think sometimes the idea of living by faith not by sight can unintentionally be communicated in a way which bypasses the mind. But that is not God that is not what is taught in his word.

Again from Colossians 3: 'Set your minds on things above not on earthly things'. Set your minds on can mean thinking about, learning about and knowing about things above. It can also be about knowing truth, knowing what is important according to God-you do this with your mind.

Why is the mind so important? So often we can think that things matter more than they actually do.

With our minds we believe lies. In fact, our beliefs are based on the mind. So when our mind is focussed on things above, the truth, light and life of Christ, who we are in him it changes what we believe about here and now.

When our minds are in that place of being focussed on him and his truth and that is the primary way we understand things, it is then from this position that we see, and interpret the things of this life. Both the ups and downs ins and outs, the good news and the bad news. Our minds interpret it and try to understand it.

So getting our minds fixed on things above is not in fact about being above and separate from the world. It is about living in and understanding the world and circumstances through heaven's eyes so to speak. Which we cannot do unless our minds are on things above. If our minds are fixed on earthly things, things on earth will seem much bigger.

Have you ever lied on the grass and looked up and some of the grasses rise above your head? If you were fixed in that position, you would never realise that the grass is actually small, fragile and not intimidating at all. Part of doing this includes, as mentioned in Philipians 4:8 thinking about good, right, noble, just, pure admirable things and in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 Paul encourages to take every thought into captivity to Christ.

If you want to get your minds on things above-get your minds into his word, choose your thoughts.

Overall looking at the heart and mind we cannot live by faith if we have our minds and hearts set on earthly things. But with our mind and our hearts fixed on things above: What a life we would lead, what a faith we would have. It would be so much easier to hear from God, to be still before him, to wait for him.

We are encouraged to move further and further away from the old, because of the new that we have in Christ such as our lives being hidden with Christ in God. Very often it is when we lose our focus on things above that we can struggle with our faith more. However, there are constant reminders (Re Mind to put back in our minds) of the new that we have. We can cope and engage with the world, its struggles, trials, hardships more as Christians by being fixed and focussed on things above. That we would pursue God and his Kingdom with all our hearts, and that we would fill our minds with truth, and the knowledge of God through Jesus our Lord.

To end this two part blog look at 2 Corinthians 4:17-18: 'For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all, so we FIX our eyes NOT on what is seen but on what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary (a chasing after the wind-Ecclesiastes) but what is unseen is eternal.' (NIV 1984 my emphasis, my italics).

In other words, it is the unseen that is what really matters through being centred, fixed, focussed on, set on things of what is above. This includes both the spiritual truth we have been given in Christ and knowing where we are going when we die. Through being like this we can remain focussed on what really matters and what doesn't. We can have our hope in something eternal, rather than slip to put our hope in something temporary which are the things of this world. We can endure hardships in Christ.

By having heavenly things our goal, what we are aiming for day to day, and by having spiritual truths fixed in our minds, we can live both in and for the glory of God. May we get to the place that Paul has at this point, that we would see our trials as light and momentary because our hearts and minds are fixed on Jesus and never lose sight of the hope we have in Christ.