SEPTEMBER 9 "DON'T LOSE YOUR MIND"

       WE have often heard, "don't lose your Faith" but how about don't lose your mind!  Is your faith in your heart or is it in your mind? Good question isn't it?  In Romans we read, "for it is with the heart that you believe but with the mouth you confess". However, that being said, Paul, the same author of the book of Romans, here writes, "...your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ".  So while we may believe in our hearts, the battle will be waged in our minds. Yes we must guard our hearts with all diligence, for out of our hearts springs the issues of life.  However, I believe what is happening in our hearts eventually drips into our minds. Paul is saying that it is "our minds" that are led astray, not the heart. I have lost more friends who's minds have wandered more than anything else.  There is the occasion that someones heart just turns cold to God because of a tragedy that struck their life, but more and more I am finding that Christians are being led astray in their minds. In "their hearts" they would say they still believe in God, still believe in Salvation through Jesus but.....then comes the but......and after that you begin to hear all sorts of weird thoughts that are running around in their minds, they are losing the battle ground in a key place, the mind.  They have failed to put on their helmet of salvation taking every thought into the captivity of Jesus Christ.  As a Christian we must learn to live with and deal with a constant barrage of assaults that come through our thoughts.  Our problem is we give way to much credence to our thoughts, more so than we do to the Word of God or wise counsel. "I have thought this and thought it for quite some time therefore it must be true!", is the reasoning behind madness. We wait far too long to share these thoughts with others. Instead of sharing these thoughts with others from the onset, we wait until we cannot be talked out of them.  In the book of proverbs we read, "he who isolates himself seeks his own desires and rages against all sound judgment".  Well, a person who behaves in such a manner is a Christian who is losing the battle in the mind.  He is forming thoughts, conclusions and theologies that he does not want countered by anybody.  

     Normally the battle in the mind begins with an area in our life that we are refusing to submit to God. It begins with an area of disobedience in one area and then all of sudden everything starts to become quite convoluted and complex and we want now to try to think it clear, but it will not work. In the natural realm of life perhaps we can think a matter through but in the spiritual realm, we must obey it through. We will find that the moment we begin to obey the murky waters become clear once again. It can be a constant and wearisome task to keep the mind in tact, especially pertaining to matters of our Faith, our belief in God, Satan, The Church, The Salvation of the Saints and all these matters that really do go against the Eben flow of the society we live in and it does not take a large opening, but merely a small crack for the enemy to come in to our minds and begin to work his web of confusion.  As wearisome as it may be to constantly reign in our minds and judge thoughts, rather than allow them to run around lose and unchallenged....it is worth it in the end.  I have seen many people who's minds went before their bodies. They had a whole body but a very messed up mind, not able to function as a normal citizen. Perhaps the reason is that we can see the bad shape our body is in every morning in the mirror and immediately want to take action. The mind is concealed, it is not seen; except by the Word of God. The greatest mirror for the mind is The Word of God.  James in his epistles tell us that if we hear the word but don't do it, it is as a man who looks in the mirror, walks away and quickly forgets what he saw". Again, The Word of God is the mirror to our minds and when we read or sit under God's word but do not allow it to work as that mirror, we become self-deceived, everything starts to become convoluted and complex and we begin a slow deteriorating process of losing our minds.