Stop and Think: The Mind in Life and Ministry (Part 4)

The power of our thoughts cannot be overestimated. The mind is our headquarters, our war room, our Oval Office. Our mental processes drive our attitudes, guide our decisions, and shape our community. Here thoughts coalesce into worldviews, seeds of selfishness or service incubate and blossom into sin or righteousness, and plans are hatched whether for good or evil.

In Part 1, I shared the need to tie up the loose ends of our minds (1 Peter 1:13) due to the worldview-creating power of our thoughts. Then in Parts 2-3, I shared some dynamics of the mind that help us form a blueprint of the battlefield.

1. The mind is a spiritual battlefield.
2. Human thoughts are incomplete, misshapen, and distorted.
3. Your thoughts reflect your identity.
4. Your thoughts reflect your values.
5. Your thoughts shape your relationships.

In this final installment, I want to share a few more dynamics of the mind.

6. Your thoughts affect your affections (Phil 4:6; Col 3:1-5). Our loves and hates, hopes and fears, trusts and suspicions are all affected by our thoughts. It’s easy to think that our affections are natural, spontaneous, and immutable. But the truth is that our affections are radically shaped by our thoughts. We do not only fall into love or react in hatred. We evaluate people and situations, and our developing thoughts shape our affections. Have you ever watched a movie whose plot is designed to draw the audience to side with the man who’s wrongfully divorcing his wife or the woman who’s recklessly embittered over circumstances of her own making? You’re forced to fight your misguided affections by reminding yourself of reality. You must reset your mind so that it reinforms your affections.

7. Your thoughts color your trials (Rom 8:28; James 1:2-4). How we think about a situation changes nothing and changes everything at the same time. Meditating on the promise of Rom 8:28 does not cancel your trial, but it does color your trial. And this is not a bait-and-switch or a hall of mirrors. It simply depends on which view of reality you’re taking—the temporal and earthly or the eternal and heavenly (2 Cor 4:16-18). James is not saying something outlandish or impossible when he urges us to “count it all joy . . . when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2-3).

8. Your thoughts fuel your attitude (Eph 4:32). Thoughts are high-octane entities. They are powerful stimulants for your attitude. Like protein for muscle, thoughts feed attitude. The more you think envious thoughts, the more jealousy will cloud your attitude and hijack your actions. The more you yield control to anxious thoughts, the more jittery and scattered and disillusioned will be your attitude. The more selfish your thoughts, the more you’ll take a stance that’s entitled, rights-oriented, demanding, and quick to take offense. But when you dwell on Christ’s forgiveness, you open a fuel line to gospel qualities: “kind,” “tenderhearted,” and “forgiving” (Eph 4:32).

9. Your thoughts are known and tested by God (Ps 139:1-2; 23-24). This reality is meant to encourage and frighten us all at the same time. God evaluates our thoughts and ambitions and motives and affections. He is not deceived by externals and outward actions and behavior modification. He knows what we think and why we think what we think. This should move us to gratitude, and motivate us to fear.

Stop and Think: The Mind in Life and Ministry (Part 1)
Stop and Think: The Mind in Life and Ministry (Part 2)
Stop and Think: The Mind in Life and Ministry (Part 3)

Stop and Think: The Mind in Life and Ministry (Part 3)

Our mind is mission control center. It fuels, drives, and directs us. The dynamics at play are legion, and are well-worth our careful reflection. In Part 1, I shared the need to tie up the loose ends of our minds (1 Peter 1:13) due to the worldview-creating power of our thoughts. Then in Part 2, I began sharing some dynamics of the mind that help us form a blueprint of the battlefield.

1. The mind is a spiritual battlefield (Gen 4:6-7; Ps 77:1-9, 11-20; Gal 5:16-17; 1 Pet 5:6-7).
2. Human thoughts are incomplete, misshapen, and distorted (Rom 12:1-2).
3. Your thoughts reflect your identity (Rom 8:5-8).
4. Your thoughts reflect your values.

Here in Part 3, I want to explain a fifth dynamic of the mind that plays a very central and public role in life and ministry:

5. Your thoughts shape your relationships. Our relationships and our community are molded by what we think about God, the gospel, ourselves, and each other.

Example 1: A self-centered person will view others as means to an end, as mere instruments and tools serving his pursuit of some greater goal. These self-centered thoughts will mold how he treats (or neglects) others.

Example 2: Romantic thoughts construct blinders which block out the wider community, narrowing one’s thoughts on a particular person. Other people become stage extras who only carry significance if they contribute to or take away from the main drama.

Example 3: If you’ve convinced yourself that correction is implicitly attacking, you will respond defensively when your sins and weaknesses are exposed or challenged. Your relationships will be shaped by self-justification, blame-shifting, cover-ups, and all sorts of defense mechanisms.

The girl who thinks she’s prettier, cuter, and more of a catch puts herself higher on the flow chart and higher in her own invisible caste system. She then acts like this in both blatant and subtle ways. Others must either accept her caste system and her flow chart (resulting in subservience to a false perspective) or reject it (resulting in conflict or at least the requirement to exercise patience). The guy who thinks he’s intellectually superior or rhetorically dominant or athletically supreme will carry himself in a way that expresses his central role in the world around him. In this world it only makes sense for him to value his opinions above others, to talk more than listen, and to deserve victory in every circumstance.

We all have our own caste system. Certain positions and personalities get top billing, while others are relegated to the lower rungs. We construct these systems through culture, experience, family, consequences, authority, and many other factors. In addition, we all occupy our own place within our systems. But Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection as well as his example and his teaching overturn our caste systems and call us not only to act differently but to become and think differently.

Men and women shaped by the gospel will interact with others in a radically different way than those whose own narcissistic narrative places them firmly at the center of their own story.

Stop and Think: The Mind in Life and Ministry (Part 1)
Stop and Think: The Mind in Life and Ministry (Part 2)

Stop and Think: The Mind in Life and Ministry (Part 2)

Our thinking drives our priorities, our priorities dictate our actions, our actions form our habits, and our habits reflect our destiny. Therefore, knowing the dynamics of the mind is fundamental for living wisely.

1. The mind is a spiritual battlefield (Gen 4:6-7; Ps 77:1-9, 11-20; Gal 5:16-17; 1 Pet 5:6-7). Conflicting thoughts rage and war against each other. The comedic picture of dueling shoulder angels is painted with the strokes of experience. We know that the battles in our minds sound just like these angel-demon exchanges. An entire arsenal of self-justifications, distortions, partialities, manipulations, and positionings are amassed against the pure truth. Why else have courts over the decades required their participants to swear to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”? And why else do they close with the fitting prayer of desperation, “so help me God”? Your mind is a spiritual battlefield. 

2. Human thoughts are incomplete, misshapen, and distorted (Rom 12:1-2). Our minds must be “transformed” instead of “conformed to this world.” This exhortation implies that our thoughts have been pressed into the world’s mold, a mold that does not fit within God’s perfectly-shaped designs and purposes. We face this pressure, from within and from without, every single day. We will not win the battle without pushing back. The Word of God, through meditation and internalization, provides this reverse pressure.

3. Your thoughts reflect your identity (Rom 8:5-8). We are what we think. Of course, our thoughts are conflicted, so it’s not exactly that simple. The reality is that our conflicted thoughts reflect a conflicted identity. Fleshly thoughts war against spiritual thoughts. At the same time, the New Testament clearly teaches that our identity in Christ is dominant (Rom 8:9-11; Eph 4:22-24; Col 3:1-11). This dominance of our new nature is the basis for Paul’s constant exhortations to think and desire and choose and act in line with our new nature. If our thoughts and desires are dominated and controlled by the flesh, it’s clear who we have chosen for our master. But even though the Christian may be shaped and influenced and colored by his own sinful desires, his mind bears more of a gospel shape and a Spirit-influence and a divine hue.

4. Your thoughts reflect your values. We think about what we value. If we love our reputation, we will find ourselves wondering constantly about what others think about us. If we love sleep, we will find ourselves drawn to how much we’re going to get tonight or when a nap is coming or how we’re going to feel and function without getting enough rest. Can you sense themes in your thoughts? About God? About circumstances? About yourself? About others? About your future? Over time, such repeated thoughts form ruts in our thinking. As these ruts criss-cross, they construct an entire worldview out of which we operate and within which we interpret our world.

The Christian life is thought-to-thought combat. Strategizing for the battle must involve poring over the blueprints of the battlefield. Blessed is the man who thinks well.

Stop and Think: The Mind in Life and Ministry (Part 1)

Stop and Think: The Mind in Life and Ministry (Part 1)

How much of your life is affected by your mind? How much do your thoughts affect your day? To what extent are your attitudes, your perspectives, your relationships, and your communication shaped by your thinking?

In 1 Peter 1:13, Peter draws a powerful picture: “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ . . .”

The phrase “preparing your mind for action” portrays the ancient act of “girding up your loins,” a strategic adjustment of the customary robe where a man would reach down, draw up the bottom portions of his robe, and tuck them into his belt for increased mobility. Just like we put on shorter or tighter clothes for athletic activity, the ancients would reposition their own clothing for exertion. Drawing from this custom, Peter is urging these suffering Christians to do something profound: “Tie up the loose ends of your mind.”

Draw a mental picture of the typical inner-workings of your mind. Do your thoughts blow with the breeze of circumstances, or are they tied down with a thick rope of faith? Do your anxieties flap loudly in the wind of your schedule, your workload, and your finances, or are they wrapped and bundled up with daily prayers? Are your thoughts about people marked by irritating loose ends and fraying fringes, or are they bound tightly with patience and love and gospel realities?

Consider the potent realities which Peter highlights throughout 1:13-25 as he builds his exhortations upon gospel truth. In other words, Peter provides grand reasons for every command he gives. By thinking on his reasons and realities, we are driven inescapability to follow the moral instructions he gives. Just think about the behavioral implications of the following realities:

• Based on the promise of future grace . . . (1:13)
• Based on the holy character of God  . . . (1:14)
• Based on the holy calling of God . . . (1:14)
• Based on the impartial judgment of God . . . (1:17)
• Based on the priceless cost of your ransom . . . (1:18-19)
• Based on the emptiness of your former life . . . (1:18)
• Based on the “last times” revelation of Christ . . . (1:20)
• Based on the resurrection and glorification of Christ . . . (1:21)
• Based on the object of your faith and hope . . . (1:21)
• Based on your irreversible new birth . . . (1:23)
• Based on the eternal potency of God’s word . . . (1:24-25)
• Based on the “good news that was preached to you” . . . (1:25)

These truths create a sober worldview. These truths function as so many ties to bind up the loose ends of your mind, to put decisions and priorities in proper perspective. They construct a value system that matches the structure and flavor of the gospel. They make sober-mindedness seem sensible instead of boring. They make clear-minded, heavenly thinking rational and desirable. They make morality and maturity and stability attractive instead of stuffy and rigid and old-school. They make obedience appear virtuous and ornate instead of futile and obsolete. Again, notice how all of Peter’s commands are tied to specific reasons and realities. We have to actively think about these things for them to have a binding effect on our mindset and our everyday mental mood.

The Christian life and ministry is thought-to-thought combat. It requires focus, concentration, resolve, and exertion. It is impossible to overestimate the effects of the mind on our everyday life. But if thinking truly is war, we must think better about our thinking if we want to fight better in the fight.