Ah, my first day of a new year – I’m only twenty-two minutes into this fifty-fourth year and God’s Spirit calls me from my lovely bed, stirring my heart and thoughts. Now if only I can harness them and pull them all together into one communicable blog!
It started when I awoke from a dream – a bad dream, a real dream from my wicked past. It’s as though Satan can’t stand the thought that I’ve had such a wonderful day walking with my Lord; so he tries to spoil it by reminding me of the pit where Jesus found me! He’s so sneaky – using something as defenseless as a dream. But I have learned long ago that I’m the only one that remembers – God will not remember my sins any more (Jer. 31:34) and “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:12. Boy, Satan can’t stay around for long when I start remembering these precious promises from God. Soon, the dream and its haunting memory are gone! A sweet cool summer breeze floats into the window reminding me of God’s Spirit:
“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth…” John 3:5
“With free and wandering blasts as it wishes.” That’s how a note from the Geneva Bible aptly expresses it. Oh how wonderful to know that we have the Spirit of God and mind of Christ!
“For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” 1Corinthians 2:16
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” Philippians 2:5
Is it possible to comprehend such a truth? I don’t think so! But there it is in the Word of God, so I must believe it. I have the mind of Christ – surely that will change everything about me: first, the way I think, then the way I go! My thoughts become centered on Jesus, although I am quickly reminded that this weak flesh can never fully grasp what that means. In my whole lifetime, I will only gain a tiny thimbleful of the vast ocean of God’s understanding!
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. “ Isaiah 55:8,9
But I know that as His Spirit lives in me controlling my mind, so my life is changed completely, and this world is no longer home. I’m truly a sojourner just passing through! As I live and work in this world, my eye (my mind!) is focused on the next. Often we are reminded that living in the past is no way to live, for in so doing we miss all the blessings of the day. But living in light of eternity – in the future – only keeps our minds in Christ and everything else in proper focus! As I work down here, I think of my Lord working up there: preparing a place for me! Isn’t that what we do when we are parted from a loved one? Right now our youngest (my baby!) is working as a counselor at the Wilds Christian Camp. How often my mind wanders down to North Carolina into the hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to that special place, and I wonder what he’s doing at the moment. I haven’t been to heaven but it’s the same concept as my mind goes there and my heart clings to His promises:
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:1-3
…and I think about my Savior there fulfilling these promises and my mind is stayed on Jehovah!
Like a river glorious, is God’s perfect peace,
Over all victorious, in its bright increase;
Perfect, yet it floweth, fuller every day,
Perfect, yet it groweth, deeper all the way.
Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest
Finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.
Hidden in the hollow of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry touch the spirit there.
Refrain
Every joy or trial falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial by the Sun of Love;
We may trust Him fully all for us to do.
They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true.
Refrain
Frances Havergal (lived a short 43 years!)
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Beyond Common Sense 