Set our minds on the Spirit.

I have been trying to gain a deeper understanding of how to “walk in the Spirit. ” How do I live in a human body and be constantly bombarded by earthly things but  “set my mind on the Spirit”.  How does that work?  So I have been studying in Romans and also praying that God would direct my thinking and show me truth.  Today I read:

(Romans 8:5-8) For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Wow- that seems black and white.  If we live according to the Spirit we DO set our minds on spiritual things- otherwise we are “hostile to God”!  Hostile means antagonistic, unfriendly, non-receptive.   We cannot please God if our mind is set on the flesh. 

Yesterday I had some trials and difficulties and as the day progressed I found myself wallowing in self- pity.   Now self-pity is quite obviously a mindset that is focused on flesh.  As I pondered this I realized that in the big picture of life- God had allowed the trials and difficulties so if I reacted in a negative way- ultimately my negative reaction was directed at God since He is Sovereign over-all and He allowed it to happen to me. 

I had never viewed self-pity as being hostile to God but it is easy to see that it is a focus on the flesh. 

Peace with God

Over the years my understanding of why I exist has changed a number of times.  Now that I am officially “old” I know for certain that I will be standing naked and empty handed before my Creator soon.  All of us die- 100% guaranteed no matter how hard we work to stay fit and healthy.  And the existence of God is evident in creation even though the vast majority of people do not want to acknowledge Him.  Just because we don’t want a righteous judge to exist does not change the fact that He does.

I am at peace with God.  I long to meet Him face to face.  I understand the apostle Paul saying “to live is Christ and to die is gain”.  I don’t feel like my work here is done- there are some people I love very much who are not ready to meet their Maker and I keep praying for them and hoping to influence them but if God calls me home I will not kick and scream about it!

I can’t say that I have peace with earthly life though.  I feel like I am on the battlefield in a war.  I feel battered and beat up- pulled in different directions- tempted and tried.  I can feel exhausted like I am climbing up Mt Elbert and there is no oxygen! (Did that once and only reached the summit because my sweet hubby helped me).  Daily life can wear a person down.  Sometimes we have an agenda but the multitude of distractions and interruptions keep us from accomplishing much.  Or we are fighting a bad habit and we have days where we fall flat on our faces, both scenarios can be discouraging.

In the midst of all the madness- all the horrible scenes on the nightly news- there can be a peace and calm inside that feels rock solid.  It comes from knowing with absolute certainty that God Almighty is pleased with me.  I’m not perfect- I still fall flat on my face and sin daily – I get impatient- speak without thinking- eat when I am not hungry- but I have more confidence of my right standing with God than I have ever had before in my life.  I have more compassion for the lost and suffering- more hope for victory over the sins that I struggle with- because God is FOR me. It is a peaceful place to be. 

God of the Ants

Several years ago I was sitting in my backyard in a lawn chair planning future yard projects.  I got to watching the ants busily working to build an ant hill in the sandy soil of my lawn.  I thought “They don’t even know I’m here.  They don’t know that I am god over them and could destroy every one of them with a wave of my hand (holding chemicals, of course).  They are busily going about their lives completely ignoring me.  If I destroyed their anthill with my shoe they would just start re-building.”

Recently after watching the sobering evening news, watching the warnings for a horrible storm coming to an area that had just been hit by a previous storm I commented to my husband, “if I lived in that area I would repent!”  I said that because sometimes I think God is trying to get our attention!  He wants us to call on Him to save our wretched souls from destruction!  He could crush us all in a heart beat- destroy everything we’ve done with a wave of His hand and we ignore Him- almost completely.  We go about our lives with our own plans and dreams.  We seldom bother to consider Him.  When we do pray it is usually to TELL Him what we want Him to do for us!  We boss Him around like He is our servant and we get angry at Him when He doesn’t do things the way we want in the time frame that we expect!  How arrogant!

Today I thought about the ant analogy again.  What if I knocked over the ant hill- destroyed all of their work with my shoe- or even a shovel & rake and the ants got angry at me?  What if they decided to attack me by biting me?   Perhaps my intent is that I want them to move their anthill somewhere else.  I am being patient and kind.  I simply want them to acknowledge my authority and move.   Since I can see the bigger picture let’s suppose I didn’t want to use chemicals since I am a bird lover and didn’t want to upset the balance.  They only see the small picture of their lives and I’m knocking over their house.

Isn’t that what many people are trying to do after these hurricanes and tornadoes, volcano eruptions, floods?  They are shaking their fists at God- if they acknowledge His existence at all.  Maybe it’s just “Mother Nature”.  Either way they fail to bend the knee and acknowledge God and there is a huge, eternal price to pay for that.

Take it a step further and imagine the ants start biting me- over and over.  Ganging up- rebelling in mass.  How long would I be patient with that foolishness?  How many bites would I put up with before I said “enough” and got out the big chemicals and blew them all away? 

Sometimes I tremble at the arrogance of man. 

We have such a small view of God.  He is so much more powerful than we can imagine and when I watch the news I wonder how much longer He will be merciful?

Watch me!

Recently, I read something that made me think that a true Christian should live a life that is so guilt free- so zealous- so above criticism that if a young believer asked them, “What should a Christian lifestyle look like?”  they could respond with “Watch me.  Watch how I live.  Watch how I study God’s word.  Watch how I eat and exercise.  Watch how I manage my money and how I spend my free time.  Watch how I treat my spouse and children.  Watch me”.

What a clean conscience one would need if they lived a life open to that level of examination!  It isn’t that we wouldn’t fall flat on our face into sin at times but we would quickly get back up and seek God’s forgiveness. We wouldn’t wallow in the sin. 

I can be “all or nothing” in my thinking and recently I did some research and discovered that this is a “perfectionist” mindset.  If I can’t do it perfectly then I won’t do it at all or I have to start completely over.  For a dieter this might mean if I eat one cookie I may as well eat the whole bag since I “blew it” and will have to start over tomorrow.  It would be so much better to stop at one cookie but the “all or nothing” thinker seldom stops there.  We learn this kind of thinking in early childhood.

The Scriptures tell us to change our thinking. Romans 12:1-2  “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Philippians 4:8  “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”  God empowers us and we can choose how to think.
 

My husband’s cousin recently died and he was a God honoring man.  Many years ago when we were nearing the end of a visit with them he asked us “do you see any hypocrisy in my life?”    I was deeply impacted by that question.  Could I ask someone that and receive their response graciously? 

He was striving to live a life that honors God and he inspired me.

Truth is Priceless

Sometimes preachers speak “peace” to us and sometimes we speak it to ourselves.  We think we are doing well when we “claim a verse” as God’s promise to us but we must be absolutely certain that the living and active Spirit of the Living God has spoken that word to us.  God does still speak to His children.  Jesus said His sheep would recognize His voice.  Sadly, our world gets noisier every day and the chances of randomly hearing His voice gets slimmer.

We carry noise and distractions with us everywhere we go.  Our lives are cluttered with interruptions and it is a struggle to think deeply about anything. 

The sad truth is many people claim to be Christians but they have no desire at all to know Christ well, to talk to Him and know what He expects of them.  They do not pursue truth in the innermost.  They find something that feels right and good and they embrace it as truth whether it is or not. They forget that God has an enemy and this enemy is the master deceiver. 

A follower of Christ must want to hear His voice- must want the absolute truth.  We must crave it- pray for it- look in the Bible for it.  We must ask God to “lead me to a passage that speaks to where I am today”. However, it is a sobering thing to hear from Him because then we cannot claim to “not know” the truth.  It is like a child playing outside and making lots of noise so he “doesn’t hear” his mother calling him to come inside.  If he hears he is obligated to obey or risk punishment.  The positive side is that if we asked God for directions on making a decision and felt like we heard from Him then we can proceed with great peace and confidence.  And it will be a real peace.

We have to fight for the truth- sometimes it’s like looking for a hidden treasure in a garbage dump.  It is a lot of work, there are many distractions and a lot of junk to wade through.  But God does love to bless the children who persevere in this work and finding a jewel can be the most joy-filled, exciting thing!  It makes all of the work worth the effort!  Truth is priceless.

The Hard Path

There is a destructive evil in Christianity today and a tendency for preachers to comfort the masses with words of peace.  Given the bad news on the TV each day it is no wonder that we long to hear something pleasant.  The more upbeat the message- the more popular the preacher.  The helplessness we feel over devastating weather patterns or shaky global economy should cause us to look to God for comfort and answers but sadly even Christians turn to the government – not God. 

   

When I saw hurricane Sandy headed for the east coast I prayed that my friends and relatives out there would cry out to God for protection- deliverance- salvation!  I thought of the biblical account in Amos 4 where God is talking to Israel and says:

 “I gave you cleanness of teeth (starvation) in all your cities, and lack of bread…yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD. “I also withheld the rain from you…I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither… yet you did not return to me,”…I struck you with blight and mildew; … your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,”  “I sent among you a pestilence(plague or disease)… I killed your young men with the sword…and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD.

          God very clearly takes responsibility for starvation, drought, insect and plant diseases- loss of crops, human illness and even war and death.  He is sending calamities in the hopes that His people will return to Him and acknowledge their need for His provision and protection.  But He laments that despite all suffering and loss the people refuse to cry out for His help.

We have made God into a formula: "Just say this prayer, give, serve, try to do the right thing and you can go to heaven when you die".  How nice.  How handy and convenient.  I have been to a number of funerals where the deceased never showed any interest in God his entire life.  Why would he even WANT to “go to heaven and be with God”?  His very life proved that he didn’t.  But many don’t want to face the awful truth that someone we knew and loved might be facing an eternity of screaming agony…so we talk about what a good man he was.

I fear that churches today neglect the call to fight evil, pursue holiness, put on the full armor, engage in the battle against sin, be watchful and pray.  Fight against our natural tendency to be spiritually lazy.  If it’s true that I simply need to follow a few guidelines and “believe” the right things then why would Scripture warn so strongly against sin and call us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling!? (Phil 2:12).  It is NOT a simple formula – it’s a craving- a hunger- a passionate pursuit of God and a desire to be with Him more than we want life here on earth.  It’s a love that encompasses our heart and mind and body and soul.  It’s a desperate desire to know Him better and please Him more every day.  It’s a heart thing- not a ritual.  We have to WANT to be with God so much that it affects everything we do and everything we are.

"For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

(Matt 7:14) Search for it!  This is the most important thing you can do in all of life!!

Getting to the Roots

If your shoes were causing your foot to blister you wouldn’t focus totally on the blister- buy ointments, band-aids etc.  You would get different shoes.  If you didn’t change the shoes in some way they would simply give you another blister. 

Emotional pain can be like a blister- it flares up and hurts like crazy!  Sometimes we hurry to put out the inflammation and soothe the hurt but real, lasting healing will only come if we can deal with the source of the pain- the root issue.   We need to find what is causing the emotional pain.

I like to garden and do yard work.  I live on an acreage that was once meadow and prairie.  The weeds are stubborn and tenacious.  A person can mow and mow, week after week and chop the tops off of the weeds but if you don’t deal with the roots they simply come back.  I have also discovered that many weed species are able to go to seed when they are very short. When that happens I have an old root AND new baby weeds to deal with.  The mowing is simply not enough.  It can make the surface look better for a while but it isn’t a true solution to weed control.

Killing off the roots with chemicals is costly.  Digging up the roots by hand is hard and dirty work.  It is time consuming and slow but either way- getting rid of the roots is going to cost me something.  However, it is a much more lasting and effective solution to the problem.   

The same is true with struggling to understand the emotional issues that drive my behavior.  Sometimes I am believing lies and really don’t want to admit that I have been wrong my whole life.   But oh, the sweet peace and joy I experience when the lie is replaced with truth and the darkness is replaced with light.  It is worth every bit of effort.