THE QUESTION By Jeannette Haley

“In the multitude of my thoughts within me
thy comforts delight my soul.” – Psalm 94:19

Out of the blue, a friend asked me recently, “What do you think about all the time?” Without hesitation I responded with one three-letter word, “God.” I suppose the quickness of my answer before analyzing the question for three days or so resembled a thoroughbred charging out of the starting gate, but that was because I had recently been considering my thought life and how it has changed through the years. After all, who can accurately calculate and efficiently categorize the staggering number of thoughts a person has every single second of their day? Only our omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, immutable God can do that. Psalm 139:1-4 makes it plain that God intimately knows our thoughts and ways, “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.” (Verses 1-4.) Jesus, God Incarnate, knew the innermost thoughts of the Scribes and asked them, “Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?” Matthew 8:4. Consider Psalm 10:4 which reads, “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.” If we focus on the little word “all,” no doubt the question will arise, “Who can possibly keep God in all his thoughts, all the time, when there is so much information coming at us in our daily lives, let alone the stuff that bubbles unbidden to the surface from deep within our hearts?

We are all influenced and affected from time to time by emotions that ebb and flow within the framework of our minds like oceanic tides under the constant influence of the moon. For some, strong emotions likewise hold sway over their ability to think as God would have them think. Others think along the line of built-up facts, like a stack of bricks, while some are motivated by their mental concepts, and finally others have a self-erected image of themselves that overshadows their thought process. Therefore, what are Christians to do with their minds? The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians gives us the answer when he wrote, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” Philippians 2:5-8. Note that this verse is infused with the anointing of self-denial, humility, sacrifice and obedience. We are also told what to think on in Philippians 4:8, 9 which most of us are familiar with. In fact, it is my opinion, for what it’s worth, that these verses are the perfect remedy for mental anguish and perplexities if we would but learn, receive and obey it.

“Oh, but sister,” someone might protest. “How can we possibly have the mind of Christ when we are just human with human passions, problems, and pursuits to think about?” On the other hand, no doubt many believers nod and agree that yes, the mind of Christ is nice, and they go on thinking that since they are saved, and go to church, say a prayer, read a few Bible verses a week and even make a casserole for the church potluck that somehow, in some way, God is going to automatically plop the mind of Christ into their head, and presto! They’ve arrived. Of course, the reality is, God doesn’t work that way and if you have been led to believe He does, then you need to wake up, grow up and stand up for the truth—and the humble truth is, what pleases God is when they are “pressing in” daily to have the mind of Christ, and do His will.

Paul asked the Romans, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?” (Romans 11:34.) To the Corinthians he asked, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16.) Therefore, to “let this mind be in you” is to realize that the little word “let” is an action word and is our responsibility. To have the mind of Christ there must be a surrender of the self-will to the will of God; that is, a sacrifice as Romans 12:1 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (See Romans 6:12, 13; 7:5; 1 Peter 2:5.) But this is impossible to do if we blindly, or stubbornly, continue thinking our own self-serving thoughts while being “conformed to this world” instead of “transformed by the renewing” of our mind. And what is the result? A renewed mind will “prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (See Romans 12:2.)

It is at this point that Paul interjected, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” Romans 12:3. It’s almost as if Paul is issuing a strong “Whoa” to those who have thus far “ridden at a full gallop” through the first two verses of Romans 12. They’ve gone through the motions of “presenting” their bodies, hoping that it’s a holy and acceptable enough sacrifice to the Lord, while mentally deciding not to conform to this world, at least in some areas that didn’t interest them in the first place, and nodded in agreement to having a renewed mind which gives them a chance to prove their mental prowess at knowing the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. All that should be enough to build a first-class mega church on, and if not that, then at least work their way to an enviable leadership position in the church.

But, oh no! Paul is throwing a wrench into any deep-seated, self-willed, self-glorifying, self-serving ambitions: he is actually telling every man this: “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” Romans 12:3. The bottom line is, a person can appear to be religious, and even prophesy, cast out devils and do “many wonderful works” but Jesus said, “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” Matthew 7:23. It all comes down to doing the will of the Father which is in heaven. (See Matthew 7:21-23.) How can we “have the mind of Christ” if we fail to be obedient and do His will? Doing God’s will was the complete and total mind of Christ. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” Matthew 6:10. He stated in John 5:30b, “…I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” In John 6:38, Jesus said, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” and then He went on to explain the Father’s will. How many of us, when we find ourselves in the darkest and most trying moments of our lives, pray as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will but thine, be done” Luke 22:42?

To help us understand the mind of Christ and what it means for the Christian, allow me to share from an excellent teaching by Oswald Chambers regarding Philippians 2:5-8 and the mind of Christ: “We are apt to forget the mind of Christ is supernatural. His mind is not a human mind at all. Never run away with the idea that because you have the Spirit of Christ, therefore you have His mind. God gives us the Spirit of Jesus, but He does not give us His mind; we have to construct the mind of Christ, and it can only be done as we work out in the habits of a holy life the things that were familiar in the life of our Lord. We cannot form the mind of Christ once for always; we have to form it always; that is, all the time and in everything, ‘with patience’ (see Luke 21:19), and learn never to say fail! When God re-creates us in Christ Jesus He does not patch us up; He makes us ‘a new creation’ (RV mg). Every power of our being is no longer to be used at the dictates of our right to ourselves, but to be subordinated to the Spirit of God in us Who will enable us to form the mind of Christ.

“The type of mind Paul urges us to form is prescribed clearly—the mind of true humility; the mind ‘which was also in Christ Jesus’ when He was on this earth, utterly self-effaced and self-emptied; not the mind of Christ when He was in glory. Humility is the exhibition of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and is the touchstone of saintliness.”

By way of contrast, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” Romans 8:5-8. The bottom line is, there are only two roads to travel on in this life—the narrow road, and the broad road. Yet, many souls try to keep one foot on the narrow way and the other foot on the broad way because their heart’s desire is not fully committed to doing the will of God concerning the “mind of Christ.” Such people ride with the wind in their sails and the last thing they want to consider is humility, self-denial, sacrifice and obedience in any way, shape or form. Sadly, for them the result is there is no emotional, mental or spiritual place of rest, for God says, “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” Isaiah 57:20:21. For other souls who have one foot in the world and the other foot in “religion” their thought life is in a constant turmoil between justifying why they do what they do, when they know it is wrong, or justifying why they don’t do what they know they should do to be right. We read in James 1:5-8, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” [Emphasis added.] Isaiah 26:3 says “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee”.

Revisiting the question of what I think about, the Apostle Paul summed it up when he wrote, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.”” Philippians 3:13-15.