“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” says Colossians 3:2. Just what does the word “set” really mean? According to my Strong’s concordance, the one Greek word is from the English phrase “set your mind.” It seems to mean to exercise the mind, or to entertain a sentiment of opinion. Perhaps another way of putting it is to intentionally place our thoughts into a specific direction; we pick up our thoughts and place them into a certain bucket, in this example, we are to place our thoughts into the bucket of Christ. Colossians three goes on in encouraging us to shed our old ways, our old habits and thought patterns and to instead deepen our knowledge of our new identity in Christ. Verse 12 encourages us to “put on” different attributes of Christ; attributes such as tender mercies, kindness, humility and meekness.
So when I look at the phrases “set your mind” and “put on” I see that a good part of our walk in the Lord is to intentionally control our thinking in ways that are godly. We are not to just let our minds run amok or be controlled by a materialistic and sex-crazed media. We are not to let our thoughts dwell on the negative but instead we are to purposefully force our thinking into areas that are above the muck of the world and in the realm of Christ.
Is it really this simple? Can we just flick a switch and stop worrying, coveting, and complaining? If it is this simple, I have a long way to go. Thankfully, our God is a patient God and will work with us right where we’re at. So perhaps a good place to start is in prayer by admitting to our Heavenly Father our weakness in controlling our thinking. Then next we begin observing where our thought patterns go during a typical day; which thoughts are contrary to God and which thoughts are honoring to God. In doing this, we equip ourselves with a deeper understanding of what we’re thinking about. And as we start thinking about our thinking, we can then start isolating our problem areas one by one.
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