Life and Peace

“Letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.” (Rom, 8:6 NLT)

Have you ever noticed that your mind seems to have a will of its own and doesn’t always do what you want it to? You sometimes find yourself thinking in strange places. For example, when you want to pray your thoughts often stray. When you want to study God’s Word, your thoughts wander. When that happens, you need to use both the Holy Spirit and God’s Word to help you get your mind under control. Here’s how.

First: Let the Spirit control your mind  

If you try to control wrongful or wandering thoughts with your own power, you will fail because your sinful nature is a powerful hard-to-resist inner force that will continue to fight you. As a born-again Christian, however, you have a powerful advantage to help you do what’s humanly impossible. You have God’s Holy Spirit within you to give you power to recognize wrong thoughts, capture them, and bring them under the control and into obedience to Christ!  

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Cor. 10:5 NIV)

Second, obey and trust the Word of God

Not only do you have the Holy Spirit to control your thoughts, knowing, obeying and applying the Word of God will enable you to know the truth and will set you free!

Jesus says, “If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32 GNT).

The above passage has two parts

The first part says, “If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples”. And the second part says, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The second part of this verse is quoted by many people and groups everywhere, and it’s often printed on the buildings of major universities. But you rarely, if ever, see the first part of the verse quoted where it says you have to learn and obey God’s Word. Unfortunately, people want freedom without God’s truth. But the fact is there is no freedom without truth. And there is no truth without God’s Word!

Therefore

Using the power of the Holy Spirit within you, along with knowing, applying, and obeying God’s Word, as well as filling your mind with his truth, the easier it will be to direct your thoughts where you want them to go. This will please God and will lead to life and peace (Rom. 8:6).  

“The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” (Gal. 6:8)