Wednesday, October 2, 2013

How To Live Sane In An Insane World, Part 8

I pray each of you are having a wonderful day today! I’m so thankful to the Lord for everything He continues to pour out. Everywhere I look, I see His hand at work!

In the last blog, we talked some about having our mouth filled with God’s Word. It is far too common to have blessing and cursing flow from the same port! Where does that blessing and cursing come from? Where does that sweet water and bitter water come from? Where does that life and death come from? It comes from my heart, and until I begin to “man up” and ask God, “God, where did that come from,” I might walk in deception. I have inquired of the Lord the source, and He has responded, “It’s coming from your heart; you have to get your heart straight.” Those are not pleasant words; I don’t like it when God says that to me. I may reply, “But God, I have the heart of David!” He says, “Yes, you do, and the heart of Saul.” That’s what needs to be transformed, our hearts.  

Listen, I’m tired of getting sucked back into the draw of the world and its mentality. In the Bible, the Apostle Paul writes, “No good soldier entangles himself once again with the things of the world.” I don’t have time for it anymore. I can’t afford to be entangled with the things of the world! There are too many things I want to experience in the Kingdom of God, and I’m robbing myself of the measure of God’s Kingdom by allowing myself to be entangled with the cares of the world, the lusts of the flesh, and the desire for other things. They are always there trying to pull us away from the things of God.

So, I say to you . . . if we will take the medicine—sometimes it does taste bitter—it will eventually bring us to a place of greater life.

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1).

What are we seeking, friends? What are we fixated on? What is consuming our lives? What consumes our thoughts and emotions? What’s driving us? What’s compelling us? I will tell you this: in the Kingdom of God, motivation is everything! What motivates us to do what we do? What we do can sometimes look really bad, but it may be from a good motivation. Sometimes it can look really good, but come from an evil motivation! God is always looking at the motivation of the heart.

Other people don’t know your motivation; don’t worry about their judgments! You get your heart straight! Just as other people cannot see your heart, you can’t see theirs. Don’t be focused on the speck in a brother’s eye as long as you have a beam in your own. We’re so good at judging others while we walk around half blind. Isn’t that true? We need to search our hearts and let God search them, too.

Verse 2 says, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” I like that . . . it’s like concrete setting . . . like a linebacker set in position. God wants us to prosper, so it’s not necessarily the things on the earth that are evil; God doesn’t have a problem with things, believe me! He doesn’t have a problem with you prospering. If He did, that means He would have lied. Just read your Bible and see how blessed women and men of the Old and New Testaments were! I’ve been young and now I’m old, but I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging for bread. It’s not the things, it’s what you set your mind on! What are you fixated on? What’s driving you?

Paul continues in verse 3 of Colossians, “You died, and your life is hidden in Christ in God!” It’s time for us to consider ourselves dead! D.E.A.D.! When we consider taking up our cross, sometimes we want to die just a little bit at a time! We get one arm nailed up, then we pull it down and put the other one up there and say, “Okay, God, you can have this arm now.” Then we want to wiggle around on the cross. WHY DON’T WE JUST DIE??!! You can’t hurt a dead man. The reason we keep getting hurt is because we’re just not that dead yet. Dead men feel no pain. Let’s set our focus on things that are above and not of this world. Amen?

A key to living a crucified, victorious life is to keep our thoughts and minds in check. Again, here is a review of your complete spiritual prescription to be taken three times daily until you evidence a change in your thought processes. After that, administer as needed!

1.     Casting down imaginations (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
2.     Getting our minds renewed (Romans 12:1-2)
3.     Meditate on and SPEAK the Word of God (Joshua 1:8)
4.     Judge our thoughts (Philippians 4:8)

Grace and peace,
pg

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