Golden Nugget - How to Love the Lord with your Mind & Worship with Terry MacAlmon

Jesus said in Mark 12:30: And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

So far we’ve been looking at loving the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul.  You may read it by clicking on the relevant links.

The mind is actually part of the soul, but because Jesus mentioned it separately in this passage, we’re discussing it separately.  Our mind is the main thing that determines our actions.  Everything we do begins with a thought and thoughts have a number of sources.

             1.   Thoughts could originate from us.  We get an idea.

             2.   Thoughts come through what we see and hear.

             3.   Thoughts could be an idea another person shared with us and we then

                 think about it.

             4.   Thoughts could be suggestions from Satan.

             5.   Thoughts could be a prompting from the Holy Spirit.

    What we do with our thoughts is what determines our love for the Lord.

 Our thoughts could be an idea that would result in something good or a temptation to sin.  Or it could be about yourself and what you want to accomplish.  Everything we think determines where we stand in our relationship with the Lord.  It’s no use we say we love the Lord, but what we think is actually disgusting to Him.

     James 1:14-15 tells us the following: Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.  Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.  King David was a good example of the consequences of such thoughts.  He saw Bathsheba bathing and instead of resisting the thought right from the start, he cherished the thought until it gave birth to sin, the sin of committing adultery with her and murdering her husband.

     Where did this thought come from?  It came from what David saw, but also from what Satan suggested to him.  He was probably set up through a number of suggestions to be in the right place at the right time for Satan to accomplish his purpose.

     What could Satan’s purpose have been?  The Lord sent Nathan the prophet to David.  You can read the entire account in 2 Samuel 12:1-15, but Satan’s purpose became clear in verse fourteen.  After Nathan has conveyed to David the Lord’s punishment for what he had done, David immediately repented and then Nathan declared God’s forgiveness and the withdrawal of some of the punishment, but what Nathan said in verse fourteen was very profound, actually aimed at you and me as well.  He said: “However, because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the child who is born to you shall surely die.”  Another translation uses the words “because by this you have given the enemies of the Lord great occasion to ridicule Him”.

     Why are we tempted then?  Is it really about us?  In a way it is, yes, because sin does affect our peace, joy, and fruitfulness.  Satan wants to kill, steal and destroy these things.  But what Satan really aims for is having a go at God.  He seeks opportunities to ridicule God and show contempt for Him.  He wants to be able to say: “Do you see what Henry has done.  He claims to be a Christian and having everything you promised, but look how he behaves.  Is that what your children are like?”

     When we cause that to happen to God, as a result of what originates in our thoughts, do we love Him?  Shouldn’t we sacrifice in our thought life and the resulting actions to the honour and glory of the Lord?  These could be sinful thoughts leading to sin, but it could also be self-centred thoughts leading to self-centred behaviour, such as own ambitions, too much attention to hobbies and sports, occupying the mind with earthly and worldly interests instead of God-centred interests, etc.  A good Biblical example here is the story of Martha and Mary.  You may read it in Luke 10:38-42.  This world is not our home, and our life is not our own.  We are Kingdom citizens on a pilgrimage to represent the Lord on earth.  His interests should actually take all our time and energy.  Yes, we need to relax and a little entertainment and sport activity are necessary, but we really do need to love the Lord with ALL our (our entire) mind.

   

Sacrificing our appetites, our desires, our self-gratifying thoughts and behaviour for the sake of the Lord’s desires, and thinking about what He wants, is what loving Him with our entire mind is about.  Meditating on His Word and His will all the time is how we love Him with all our mind.

    But how do we do that?  Won’t we be too spiritual doing that?  In whatever you do, consult the Lord and think about how He would feel about what you’re about to do.  If you love your wife, your children, your parents, and your friends, you involve them in your life, don’t you?  Similarly, if you love the Lord, involve him in your thinking and your resulting actions.  Ask Him what He thinks and wants, tell Him of your joys and struggles, think about how He perceives things and the behaviours of people (including yours), and avoid having Him ridiculed by His spiritual and human enemies.

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