Colossians 3:1-5 – “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. 5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.”  NASB

As we continue this journey let me suggest that there is a genuine problem in all of this.  Can you relate and say, “Why is it that we can relate when it is argued that it is too high and lofty a goal and it does not work in normal life?”   We can because we failed to move to verse 3 and gain the needed understanding.  We became so thrilled with the promise of verse 1 that we forgot that verse to informed us that it is imperative that we ‘change our thinking.’

Inside the believer’s heart, Jesus lives and brings His infinite wisdom, understanding, and joy.  He is ‘in’ us.  Our problem is that we continue to think the way and about the things we used to think.  We still evaluate things the way we used to evaluate them.  We still consider life the way we used to consider it.  We are stuck in Stinking Thinking.

That is a real problem.  We are not the person that we used to be, but we still have an old head or thought process at work.  We have a ‘new heart’ but an ‘old head’ and that is a problem.  We continue to think about and in the manner of the person that used to live in this tabernacle, but that person is dead and doesn’t live there anymore.  We have a heart that is crying out, “Let me be who I really am.”  That presents a real problem.

It would serve us well to remember in Proverbs 23:7, “…as a man thinks in his heart…”  How one thinks is reflective of how he is and how he lives, but as a ‘new person’ in Christ, we don’t want to continue in that kind of thinking.  That brings to mind the words of Paul, “Oh wretched man that I am.”  We, have a battle inside that cries out, “what is wrong with me?”  We don’t want to think that way or live that way because we have experienced Christ in the new birth, but we do.  Something is terribly wrong, what do we do?

I agree with the declaration of the apostle Paul that ‘because’ we have been raised with Christ and because He ‘is’ our life and His inexhaustible sufficiency is ‘within’ us we can do this.  We are enabled by the Holy Spirit to begin the process of reprogramming our minds and developing Kingdom Thinking or Christ Thinking.  It is a process and it is up to us to determine that we are going to direct our thoughts along different paths.  We choose to ‘set’ our minds on things above, the Kingdom of God, and Christ.

The Christian has a different mental outlook from the world.  The Believer has a certain way of thinking biblically.  Before the Christian life becomes a Way of Living it must be a Way of Thinking.  Christ must become the Lord of our thoughts!

I have had people, push back, and insist, “I can’t help the way I think.”  I say that is wrong!  God says, “set your mind on things above.”  That is a command, not a suggestion!  God never commands us to do something that we cannot do, that would be diabolical, and He is not diabolical.  Therefore, when anyone argues, “I cannot help what I think” that is the wrong position. 

I contend that all the Old Testament prophecies spoke of the miracle of salvation and identified that it would affect the mind.  It would not be written in stone but in the heart and the mind.  That opens another thought that we will address in a couple of days but until then, I pause and pray that you will have a fantastic Independence Day!

Have a Great Day in Jesus!