The Garden of Our Mind

I love gardens. I love the beautiful flowers. I love the delicious vegetables. Guess what! I don't love the work it takes to have a wonderful garden, but the payback is huge and well worth the effort. Even as a natural garden is planted and designed for beauty, so our mind, like a garden, was designed for beauty. If we work the fertile ground of our mind God's way, then it will be a beautiful thing, with delectable fruit for all to behold and partake of. Whatever we do with our mind is evident to all>Prov 23:7 "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." With stress, pressures, and thoughts coming at us in this information age like a machine gun, we need to know that God's way of dealing with it all is our only true consolation. It's awfully weedy out there and those weeds are aggressive and strong! We can take pills (only a temporary fix), cling to a therapist or barrage our family and friends (don't get me wrong, we do need to talk to someone sometimes), but God has given us some keys to success in keeping our mind beautiful. In Ps. 131 we see the exhortation to quiet ourself like a weaned child: "...surely I have calmed and quieted my soul (mind) like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me (ceased fretting). In 2 Cor 10:5>We then see the A. Paul saying to take every thought captive to Christ and focus on Him. Phil 4:8-9 says to only allow yourself to think on good things. That's not to stick your head in the sand and deny the occasional ugliness of reality. But, it's to essentially have faith and hope in every situation. Thoughts are tools that we are to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They are to be used as we so choose for the glory of God. Are our thoughts glorifying God? The thought life is private and hidden from view initially. But, our prominent thoughts will eventually be seen by others. Our thoughts are seeds that become plants. The bad thoughts must be plucked up and rooted out, and the good thoughts must be nurtured and cared for continuously, like in a garden. The fruit from the garden of our mind can be so so, contorted and twisted( I had weird deformed cukes one time...Uck!), wilted, dead, or beautiful to behold. It's a fact, the garden of our mind will bear fruit in our life evidenced by blessing or cursing. In John 14:27, Jesus says not to allow ourselves to be anxious or troubled with cares. In Matt 6:25 (Amp), He says emphatically to stop being uneasy about our life. We've been given a mind, and we've been given the responsibility to care for our mind. As we do, it will serve us well. In Gen. 6:5-6, God said that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually, that He was grieved in His heart, and He regretted making man. What do we do with this dilemma? If we go with God's remedy for the evil condition of our heart, we will be pleasing to Him! I want to please Him! God's remedy> #1.) Eph 4:22-24>Forget your former nature and manner of life, corrupted through lusts>put on the new (God's) nature and be constantly renewed in your mind, by the washing of the water of the Word> Eph 5:26 (get brain washed!). #2.) Rom.12:2>Don't conform to the world's social and moral standards, BUT be transformed by the renewing of your mind, THAT you may prove what the perfect will of God is. #3.) 1 Pet. 1:13> Brace up your mind and be sober or discreet and guarded. #4.) James 4:8>Come close to God and let Him purify your mind. I am so very grateful that my Father in Heaven wants me to be His child and wants to help me become more like Him because He is perfect and wonderful! It's my heart's desire to be more like Him everyday! It is His desire to bless us with an abundant life>Jn10:10-11, Jesus said that He came so those who trust in Him will have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance or to the full. He is the good Shepherd. I always thought as I grew up in church that most Christians were miserable and struggling. This passage now makes sense of it all! Trust Him! Love Him! Stick with Him! It will be worth it all!