Set Your Mind on God's Path

Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path. (Psa 119:105)

Our thoughts have enormous power over our lives. Neurons that will change you are firing in your mind. Those neurons follow branches or pathways developed by your thinking patterns. Overtime, those pathways between neurons will be shaped in ways that are unique to you – and God has no intention of wasting them.

Brains have what neuroscience calls neuroplasticity. Which pathways or synapses remain and which ones wither away depends on your mental habits. Those that carry no traffic go out of business like bus routes with no customers. Those that get heavily traffic get stronger and thicker.

In other words when you practice hope love or joy your mind is actually, literally rewiring your brain! The bible uses Streams as a symbol for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit should flow out of our spirits our souls and our mind like streams of living water. Set your mind to look for the presence and goodness of God in your life, the river of living waters flowing out of your belly.

Jesus promised us this living water.

Research shows that 75-98% of current mental, physical, emotional and behavioral illnesses and issues come from our thought life; only 2-25% come from a combination of genetics and what enters our bodies through food, medications, pollution, chemicals and so on.

God has given you a “sound mind”

(2Ti 1:7 NKJV) For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Be prepared to fight the thoughts that invade your mind. Thoughts of not being good enough, thoughts of I should have done this or I wish I had done that, thoughts of shame, impure thoughts – images that swirl around in your mind

The way we live will inevitably be a reflection of the way we think.

Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Don’t try harder. Try softer says John Ortberg.

(Rom 12:2) Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

True change always begins in our mind. Becoming the you, you want to be starts with

your thoughts. Think great thoughts. Changing your thoughts through will power and focusing your efforts on positive emotions is like putting perfume on road kill. You need to get rid of the road kill before the smell will go away.

The spiritual life begins with paying attention to our thoughts, which is why the psalmist prayed,

(Psa 139:23 AMP) Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart; Test me and know my anxious thoughts;

God knows our thoughts better than we do, and He will help you learn what is going on in our minds from one moment to the next.

Take any thought, especially thoughts that feel weighty or that you find yourself turning over and over in your mind, and ask, What direction do those thoughts lead me in? Are they leading me toward life – toward God’s best version of me? Or in the other direction?

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you. Ask Him, will you give me the right thoughts?

(Isa 26:3 ESV) You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Also a reminder that we need to be sure we have a forgiving mind. Set your mind to forgive, set your mind to God’s will. Jesus when he was teaching on prayer said to pray thy will be done and to forgive others and he forgives us.

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.