Loving God And Loving Others: The Basics Of Becoming ChristlikeSample

Day 4: Loving God With All of Your Mind

When Kelly’s kids were young, the family often went camping in the mountains of Colorado. The beauty of God’s creation was captivating, and the family loved setting up camp there.

God used the image of setting up camp to remind Kelly of more than just His incredible creation; He used it as a metaphor for her thought life. When someone has offended or injured you with their words, do you allow hurt to “set up camp” in your minds? Or do you let the truth of God’s Word take up residence to bring life and grace to your thoughts?

While we can’t control the thoughts that enter our heads, we can control what we do with those thoughts. And we need to be proactive in dealing with wrong thinking. It’s easier to express our love for God when we are deliberately mindful of our actions, words, and tone of voice.

The Bible has a lot to say about our mind—from how to deal with sin that begins as a seed there, to exhortation on what to think about, to how to take our thoughts captive and realign them with the truth of God’s Word.

Jesus calls us to love God with all our minds. The Greek word for “mind” in Mark 12:30 is dianoia, and it refers to the mind as a faculty of understanding, feeling, and desiring. It covers everything from our deepest thoughts to our imaginations, both good or bad.

Because Christ lives within us, the life-giving Spirit leads us and helps us in our weakness—including dealing with our thoughts—as we seek to love God with all our minds. 

We must learn to recognize and deal with thoughts that aren’t in line with the truth of God’s Word. As we acknowledge wrongful thinking, we should take each thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. In other words, we can’t allow our minds to dwell on wrong thoughts—we must evict them. We then replace those thoughts with God’s perspective, truth, and love.

Once we’ve dealt with our wrong thinking, we need to be intentional about filling our minds with right thinking. We need to remember who God is and what He’s done and consistently meditate on those truths.

Questions for Reflection:

• Where do you need to realign your thinking and perspective with God’s?
• What thoughts have you allowed to resonate in your mind? 
• What are you actively doing to fill your mind with good thoughts?