Historical Posts
Pure Minds – audio
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Most of the time my mind is going in a million different directions.
If you ask me something, and I request some time to think about it and get back with you, I’d better write it down immediately. If not, I’ll forget about it within 30 seconds. I don’t know if it’s the inevitable effects of getting older, or just an easily distracted mind. Or maybe some combination of both.
I suspect I’m not alone.
If Satan can’t get us to abandon Christ, he’ll just make us so busy that the Lord is just another thing on our to-do list.
- Bed made? Check.
- Exercise? Check.
- Kids up and dressed? Check (sorta).
- Quick prayer as I run out the door? Check.
And so the day goes.
Whisper a quick prayer before eating lunch at your desk, and an exhausted Thank-you-for-getting-me-through-this-day prayer before sinking into oblivion to prepare to repeat the next day.
To that kind of mind, my mind and yours, Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).
Much of my life I’ve thought that meant that I need to keep my heart clean – keep the garbage and sinful thoughts out – but now I’m not sure that’s exactly right, at least not here.
I think Jesus meant that my heart doesn’t need to get too full – full of distractions, to-do lists, chores, deadlines, stresses.
As one commentator puts it, “The ‘pure in heart’ exhibit a single-minded devotion to God that stems from the internal cleansing created by following Jesus” (Craig Blomberg, p. 100).
A single-minded devotion. That’s what I need. It’s what you need.
Something that’s pure is unmixed, unadulterated. Pure water or pure gold or pure milk has nothing added to it to dilute its value.
Same with us. God wants to fill our hearts with him so that there’s no room for anything else. That doesn’t mean, of course, that we won’t have concerns about work or school or bills. But it does mean that we filter everything in our lives through him.
God doesn’t want just one part of our mind.
He doesn’t want just a little slice of it, but he also doesn’t want the biggest slice. He’s not one of many jostling for a little bit of our time and attention.
He wants it all.
And once he’s got it, all those distractions and worries seem so much smaller.
Once he’s got it, then you and I will see God everywhere we look.
Content by Donald W. Treadway
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Just a State of Mind
A woman summoned her waiter and requested that he turn the air-conditioning down. Minutes later, she summoned the waiter again, asking that the air-conditioning be turned up. As her complaints continued, a man seated at the next table said to the waiter, “She must be driving you crazy, making you turn the air-conditioning up and down like that.” “Not at all,” the waiter replied. “We don’t have air-conditioning.”
State of mind
I have observed a lot of people like that woman. Some of them keep their thermostats on eighty in the winter and seventy-two in the summer. Still, their houses are too cold in January and too warm in July. It’s all a state of mind.
The Bible conveys a similar message
Solomon wrote of man, “as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). We are what we think. The apostle Paul admonished, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8).
Whatever we allow to fill our minds will control our lives
Jesus taught that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). Words and deeds are the expressions of thoughts. It is no wonder that Solomon also wrote: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).
Those concerned with living right will also be concerned with thinking right
The mind is a battlefield. To win the war we must keep the battlefield cleared of all those things which make for defeat. That is why Christians oppose pornography, filthy and vulgar language, indecent movies and TV programs, and vulgar and suggestive books and magazines. The battle is difficult enough without filling the mind with that kind of garbage.
In order to succeed in the struggle we must fill our minds with God’s word
The Psalmist exclaimed, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11). We must do the same!
Content by Roger Rush
Visit Roger at the 6th and Washington Street Church of Christ in Marietta OH.
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