LOSING MY MIND - THEN SET IT

Most of us are likely pretty familiar with the ever-popular saying, I must be losing my mind, or I feel like I’m losing my mind.

It’s usually associated with some negative connotation referring to having poor mental health like, going crazy, out of touch with reality, or just plain loosing it.

But what if I told you that God wants us to lose our minds! He does.

Not go crazy or be mentally unstable, but simply get a new mind and lose the old one.

Why would God want us to lose our mind you might ask? Here’s why.

“For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.” Romans 8:6

You see our current minds are constantly thinking on things of the flesh, which are man-made, or man devised assignments.

In other words, we tend to think about things like bills, making money, success, fame, fortune, popularity, getting nice things, our attire, our image etc. Those are all things that appeal to our flesh.

God wants us to have a life of peace, and we can’t do that with our current mind, which mainly focuses on self. Self-focus is too limited.

We need a transformation.

“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”  Romans 12:2

The word Trans here infers transported. God wants us to have a mind that is transported from thinking of things on earth to thinking on things of heaven. We need a higher mindset if you will.

So how do we get that higher mind? Let’s see what God recommends.

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” Colossians 3:2

As you’ve probably noticed there is a common theme within the verses in Romans and here in Colossians, both say “SET YOUR MIND”

This same theme runs throughout the Bible, in more than 30 places in the Old and New Testament God encourages us to SET OUR MIND.

God wants us to lose our mind because our current mind is not SET. Set means fixed, focused, locked in on one thing.

We have so many things and thoughts about different things that pass through our minds daily. Thoughts about what someone said, what someone did, what we should have said or did, what did or did not happen, why it happened the way it did, so on and so on and so on.

Studies have shown that the human brain generates more than 6000 thoughts a day.

They concluded that we transition, there’s that prefix trans again, more than 6.5 times between thoughts every 60 seconds.

Here’s an example. What am I going to eat tonight? I can’t believe that jerk cut me off today! Wonder who is going to be tripping at work tomorrow. I wish they would quit texting me, we aint cool like that. I’m not voting for either of those 2 jerks. I will never forgive my dad.

See what I mean. We are just all over the place. About to lose our mind.

If you are someone who gets 8 hours of sleep, then that means you are awake and thinking 16 hours out of each 24-hour day. So then, 6.5 thoughts x 60 seconds x 16 hours awake equals 6,240 thoughts each day.

Or if you sleep less than 8 hours, like many of us do, then your thought time increases exponentially. Possibly up to 8000 thoughts a day.

Look at the math here. 6000 thoughts a day, 42,000 thoughts a week, almost 170,000 thoughts a month, and billions of thoughts in a lifetime.

Did you know that every great inventor, artist, genius, or successful person devotes their thoughts to focusing on only a few things each day.

That’s what makes them great.

We do a lot of thinking. And just what are we thinking about so much?

ANSWERS! We’re thinking about answers to life’s problems.

That’s why we have no peace. What if there was only one answer. GOD!

What about my rent? God, please help me. Which school, house, person, job, should I choose? God, please show me. What about..God, God, God

Why God? Because he is the only one that knows what’s best for us.

Don’t be mistaken, this will require real work. Every time a scattered thought comes in, we will have to capture it with Gods thoughts.

This will require a renewing of how we do what we do.

When we renew our minds our thoughts change. When our thoughts change our life viewpoint changes. When our life viewpoint changes, we are ready to receive all that God is prepared to give us.

To renew, we must begin by detoxifying our minds from toxicants like fear, anxiety, worry, doubt, unbelief, skepticism, conspiracy, negativity, anger, judgement, and the like.

While detoxing we must replace those toxins with nutrients like love, forgiveness, compassion, peace, kindness, trust, prayer, and reading Gods word. These nutrients will help us grow strong and healthy minds.

As we do this, we will get what the Bible refers to as a sound mind. A sound mind means a stable mind. Not scattered all over everywhere.

Let’s begin today with intentionality to every single thought that goes through our mind.

Keep the good, dispel the bad. We must try and only focus on God. As a crazy thought comes, just say Lord help me Set My Mind.

We must begin each day by setting our mind. Remember we might have to do it repeatedly, over 6000 times or so daily, but we can do it!

Our peace is dependent upon it.

This is a Thompson Truth.