All Your Mind

“Peter, do you love Me?” We all know the story in John chapter 21 of how, after denying Jesus 3 times Peter was restored in his relationship with the Lord after being asked by Him 3 times if he loved Him. I really believe Peter did love the Lord passionately. He loved Him with all of his heart & soul. Enough to follow Him. Enough to commit his life to growing His Kingdom. I think the problem was in Peter’s mind.

Matthew 22:37-38 tells us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command.”

I have had a problem with disobedience lately. I don’t disobey all the time, but I have not done some things lately God has impressed on my heart to do. I’ve used my circumstances to give me reason (excuse) to not tell someone He loves them or to not sing a song because I didn’t feel like doing it or because I was nervous. I didn’t trust Him to enable me and do whatever work He wanted to do through me.

This verse hit me a little hard this morning. You see, I love Him. I truly do. In fact, I love Him with all my heart. And I love Him with all my soul because I have entrusted my eternity to His hands. I have entered into a relationship with Him through faith in His promise and sacrifice in my place. I believe and have confessed that belief and my sinful human nature to Him. And I feel the gratitude of that down to my toes!

But I have not loved Him with all my mind. I try. I keep coming back asking Him to bless and help my mind. I stand on the promise that God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). I have claimed that sound mind when dealing with anxiety. But that was for me, for my benefit.

I’m realizing this morning that I do not always obey Him because I am not loving Him with all my mind. When I let fear or nervousness rule in my mind instead of faith that He can do whatever He wants to do through me, trust that He is able, then I am not showing Him love with my mind.

I am needing a holy transformation of the mind, a renewing that only He can do in me.

In Romans 12:1-2 we are told to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Roman 10:17 says that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

So, if I am going to trust God to work whatever He wants to work through me then I must have the faith to believe that He is able, which means my mind has to be set on Him (showing Him love with my mind). My mind can only be transformed by His Word.

Have I mentioned that I have not been in His Word regularly? There is a direct correlation between how much time we are spending nurturing our relationship with Jesus and how much love we are showing Him. It works like that in any kind of relationship. If I am not investing time in my husband and him in me then we would not still be going strong after 33 years of marriage. However, the past does not determine the future. I must keep investing that time and attention to keep that love alive for the rest of our lives. It’s like the story of the old man who stated that He did not need to keep reading the Bible because he had read it once. He felt that since he had read the whole thing through one time that was good enough. That stunted the man’s spiritual growth and hindered deeper relationship with God. It also kept Him from being useful for the furtherance of the Kingdom. If I had had one conversation with my husband on our first date and felt like I then knew everything about him, giving me enough information to make the decision whether to marry him or not then I would not have the whole picture of who he really is and continue to truly know him in depth as he grows and matures. In the same way, the Father is continually revealing more of Himself to us as we spend time in His Word. We can learn something new or grow in some new way even when we read passages in Scripture that we have read time and again. It’s such a beautiful thing about relationship!

I want to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind. I really do. I feel renewed when I spend time in His Word. I really do, even when He is telling me something that I need to improve on because He is a good Father who guides His children. The really wonderful part of this reality is knowing that He will help me. He tells me in His Word that when I am not strong enough that He will be my strength, that He will fight for me, that He will mold me like clay, if I will just let Him. Trust Him. Love Him. Seek Him. He promises that when I seek Him I will find Him. I have tasted and seen that every time I seek Him He reveals more of Himself to me. It’s the best thing!! His Word is better than honey to my lips, more precious than fine silver or gold. That means that I don’t have to keep struggling to fix my own mind. He says He will do it for me if I simply obey His command to study His Word. That is my spiritual food, which my mind needs to grow strong.

And the absolute best part? He does it all because He loves me with all of Himself. Enough to come down to earth and die for me. The least I can do is to fully love Him back in gratitude.

So, today I am going to seek more of my Father in His Word and let Him transform and renew my mind. I need a revival in my mind, and He’s the only One who can give it to me.

Have a blessed day and be renewed!