<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Untitled Document • A Ready Mind
• Is Your Mind Prepared To Serve God?
• How Do We Get There?

• Introduction:
• Our “mind” is an important subject in our everyday conversations:
• We can have a “narrow-mind” or “a very open mind”.
• Something can “blow our mind” or “bore us out of our mind”.
• We can be “absent minded” or most things easily “come to mind”.
• We can “bear in mind” or we can “get a load off our mind”.
• We can be “out of our mind” or “in our right mind”.

• Introduction:
• How many times have you heard, or used, those common idioms?
• Our mind is our center, our will, our inner-man, and our capacity of reasoning.
• We know that the mind is, in normal situations, the control center for all that we do.
• What we do with our mind is truly important to our spiritual success in this life.

• Introduction:
• We must not allow our mind to be corrupted or become debased; knowing that such would not be pleasing to God.
• We have been blessed with God’s directions for our mind, body, and soul;
• And our mind is our awareness and direction-center for all three;
• So, let’s search out God’s advice for our mind.
• Controlling our thought processes doesn’t have to be difficult;
• We can make the proper decisions and discover true success.
• Let’s open the Scriptures to consider these points about directing our mind.

• We Need to “Ready” Our Mind
• There is always a beginning point; and in this discussion, we must ready our mind to receive the direction of God.
• Paul records that the brethren in Berea were more noble-minded, because they received the word with readiness (Acts 17:11).
• There is a certain preparation of mind that is required when it comes to obeying God’s will.

• We Need to “Ready” Our Mind
• The decision to follow the direction of God, through Jesus Christ, requires some readying.
• We must be determined to leave behind sin—to repent (Luke 13:3).
• The direction of self-will must be yielded (Matthew 16:24).
• The days of being directed by the whims of our flesh, must be abandoned (Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 4:17-23).
• The reality of needing help must be understood (Romans 5:6-10).

• We Need to “Ready” Our Mind
• We must prepare our minds to make the great confession (Matthew 10:32).
• We must tune our hearts to the evidence we have been given, so we might believe (John 20:30-31).
• Become willing to state our belief like the Ethiopian man (Acts 8:37).
• We must submit to God’s direction (1 Peter 5:6);
• Knowing that obeying God is not about “Look at me”, “Look at what I have done”—like so many of the accomplishments of this world.

• We Need to “Ready” Our Mind
• Obeying God is about humble-submission to the will of our Creator (Matthew 7:21).
• When we prepare our minds this way, we will be ready to obey God and to continue obeying God.

• We Need to “Set” Our Mind
• This is one instance where stubbornness is a valuable characteristic.
• We must be stubbornly determined to do God’s will and get to Heaven.
• The Scriptures motivate us to achieve Heaven.
• We are taught that Heaven is our home prepared (John 14:1-3);
• Our everlasting dwelling in the presence of God (1 Thessalonians 4:17);
• And a place beyond comparison with any of this world’s beauty (Revelation 21:10-27).

• We Need to “Set” Our Mind
• The Scriptures also direct us in the way to get there:
• Jesus is the way (John 14:6)
• And His pathway has been revealed, for us to follow (1 Peter 2:21-23).

• We Need to “Set” Our Mind
• To be “set” is to be determined and unmovable.
• Endurance on the way is necessary to achieve success (Hebrews 10:35-39).
• We must not allow this world’s distractions to turn our eyes away from the Lord (Hebrews 12:1-2).

• We Need to “Set” Our Mind
• There is a tremendous difference between starting and finishing.
• It is one thing to begin obeying God, but we must be determined to stay the course—this is the where we set our mind on doing God’s will”.
• There are some important exhortations concerning our mind, found in Colossians 3:1-10.
• Paul first exhorts us to “seek those things which are above” (v.1).
• Then to “set our mind on things above; not on things of this earth” (v. 2).
• Paul, through inspiration instructs in both what to do and what to avoid.

• We Need to “Set” Our Mind
• If our heart is set on the world, our plans will come to destruction (Matthew 6:19-21; 1 John 2:15-17).
• We need to be determined to “seek Heaven”.
• When we set our mind this way, we will resist worldliness and with determination we will push ahead toward Heaven.

• We Need to Go Forward, “Focusing” Our Mind on the Task
• The Apostle Peter, in 1 Peter 1:13-15, talks about maintaining the focus that our hope requires.
• We are to “gird up the loins of your mind”.
• To “gird” means “to gather and tighten”;
• And in this case we gather and tighten our thoughts.

• We Need to Go Forward, “Focusing” Our Mind on the Task
• We are also to “rest our hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ”—
• Meaning that we focus on our hope of reward and refuse to let anything distract our hold on that hope.
• We are to be “as obedient children”—“being holy as He is holy”;
• In this, we listen, learn and live the holiness of Jesus, our Savior.

• We Need to Go Forward, “Focusing” Our Mind on the Task
• A requirement of having good things is maintaining them.
• We must maintain and renew what we have, in order to keep its value.
• We need to maintain relationships:
• Our marriage (“nourish and cherish”—Ephesians 5:28-29);
• Our family (Ephesians 6:1-4);
• And certainly our brethren (Romans 12:9-16).

• We Need to Go Forward, “Focusing” Our Mind on the Task
• We also need to maintain our material possessions, to enable us to use them well (1 Timothy 6:17).
• Most importantly, however, we also must maintain our hope of salvation (Hebrews 2:1-4).
• When we focus our mind this way, we will maintain our hope of salvation and one day we will find our hope realized in Heaven.

• Summary
• There are many exhortations to direct us toward life and living.
• We have considered just three that help us align our minds with God’s will.
• There is only one thing that resists any further progress.
• Whether or not you will you make your mind up to do what is required today?

• Conclusion:
• What’s on our mind does matter.
• We need to ready our mind to receive God’s will.
• We need to set our mind on doing God’s will.
• We need to go forward with a focus on continuing the doing of God’s will.
• Use your mind today to desire, accept, and maintain the hope of salvation.
• The opportunity is yours right now.

By Carey Scott from an article by T. Sean Sullivan

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