| Think of God Often “Pray, remember what I have recommended to you, which is to think often on God, by day by night, in your business and even in your diversions. He is always near you and with you. Leave him not alone. You would think it rude to leave a friend alone who came to visit you. Why then must God be neglected? Do not then forget him, but think of him often and adore him continually. Live and die with him. This is the glorious employment of a Christian. In a word, this is our profession. If we do not know it, then we must learn it.” |
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| – Brother Lawrence 10th Letter, The Practice of the Presence of God |
In our bible study one evening, we were talking about how to be heavenly minded as we live in this world. It’s difficult trying to live in and walk in two worlds at once. We talked about how starting our day with a morning bible study is necessary but it is not nearly enough to enable us to be spiritually minded in a physical world.
I saw an illustration once that really put this into perspective for me. It was a drawing of a sink with two facet heads. One of the facet heads was turned on full blast full of cold water. The other faucet head containing the hot water was merely dribbling. What temperature is the water going to be in the sink? Cold. This is the reality of our dilemma. We live in this world constantly. The faucet cannot be turned off. It can barely be turned down a bit. If we want a sink full of hot water, if we want to become heavenly minded instead of worldly minded then the other faucet containing the hot water must be turned up much more then a mere drizzle into our lives. We have to turn it on as high as we can to overcome the cold water. This means more then just going to church on Sundays. It means more then a weekly bible study. It means more then a morning bible study. This mindset takes a constant inflow to overcome the inflow of the world.
We need constant prayer. Prayer that begins in the morning and then continues throughout the day as we direct our thoughts back to God formally and informally.
We need constant worship. Worship that begins with a sincere and growing appreciate of who God is and enjoyment of him that fills our hearts and minds. We must have a sincere love for him and feed it by meditating on his attributes and benefits continually, through listening to worship music, or meditating on a verse or passage and trying to understand it fully.
We need constant relationships. This means we need to surround ourselves with friends and family who encourage us in our walk with God and pursuit in understanding him more. This means the people we call with our daily problems and concerns are other Christians and we are constantly receiving Godly counsel and accountability naturally throughout the week by our relationship with them. They direct our thoughts to Gods ways through their emails, letters, telephone conversations, passing conversations. When we are with them, we are with God since Christ abides in them as Christ abides in us.
We need constant re-alignment. Left to ourselves, each one of us has a severe alignment problem. The moment we take our eyes of Jesus, the moment, we begin to relax our grip on the steering wheel of our flesh, the moment we get sleepy, we begin to naturally drift. Our walk with God is a long journey, a very long drive, a lifetime even that requires persistence, constant watchfulness to make sure we are continually being guided by him. For some of us walking with God is new and requires our full attention, our full strength in order to steer straight. For others who have matured and walked beside God for many years, walking with Him can seem as natural and as unconscious as driving becomes.
Satan loves to distract us with things alongside the road, all intended to deceive, distract and detain us and ultimately destroy us. We must constantly guard ourselves against these and against sleepiness. Our journey is long and as on all long road trips, weariness sets in. It’s always good to rest when we can and when we can’t to have a friend nearby who can poke us, encourage us, talk to us and help us stay focused and alert during those dark times when we start to drift. They remind us where we are going, they can spot the distractions and needless detours and keep us aligned.
To be worldly minded is simply to be worldly minded. Our attention is always on the world 90% of the time. To be spiritually minded is to walk in the world with the mindset of Christ, the eyes and heart of Christ. He changes our worldview. Everything appears differently once he opens our eyes and teaches us how to truly see.
