This past Sunday, a friend and I worked on my wife’s car. It needed front brakes, cabin and engine air filters cleaned, sparkplugs, and an oil change. The job took us a few hours to get done. During the process, we noticed that the axle boots on both sides had torn and needed replacing, and a few hoses and the serpentine belt also needed replacing. So my job, while done for the moment, requires more work in the near future. The car is 10 years old and so it is starting to need some work done on it. This is life. Things break down and end up needing fixing. If I am being honest though, I have put off some of these repairs. I knew that some of them were required and kept meaning to get to them. But inevitably time, money and brain power all seem to be missing in order for me to act in the best possible way. Now the fear is that without proper attention and care over a long enough time, the car would break down to the point where it would become unusable.
How many times in our lives do we find these same analogies popping up? It doesn’t matter in what areas. Physically, we can eat whatever we want, and in the short term this seems to be ok, until over many years things start to break down. This will be true in any area of life that we want to observe. And none more so than in our spiritual lives!
What we do in our spiritual lives plays so much into our physical lives.
In a book entitled, “As A Man Thinketh,” by James Allen, he starts the book with:
“Mind is the Master power that molds and makes, And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills, Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills:— He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass: Environment is but his looking-glass.”
This sentiment is so true. I believe this is why the Bible states many times that we can only have one mind.
Matthew 6:22-24 says: “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
A powerful indictment by Christ here: If you see that your light is only slightly better than the “light” of the people of this world, then darkness is creeping in, it’s there!
In James 1:2-8, we find a slightly different way of phrasing it, but it reveals the same result: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
The effects of double-mindedness are emphasized here—of not being able to really and fully put ABSOLUTE confidence and faith in God for ALL THINGS.
Hebrews 4:12 states: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Again and again we are told that the basics, namely prayer, Bible study, meditation, drawing close to God, occasional fasting, and putting on the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) will create our thinking, which will eventually create our reality! The reality is that without Christ leading in our lives and without properly learning how to submit to Him, we will fully embrace our own thinking, leading to our own paths.
David lovingly asks God often to help him find the way—to put in his life the things he needed so he could focus on finding God to lead. He wrote in Psalm 25:4-6: “Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day. Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses, For they have been from of old.” This is how David thought a lot of the time.
What is it that we are neglecting in our lives? What outcome will that have now and in the future? Everything in life compounds. Do we want a running car? We have to do maintenance. Do we want a healthy body? We have to take care of it. Do we want a relationship with others? We have to foster respect and love and care. Do we want a relationship with God—the One who promises to help and take care of EVERYTHING in our life if we have faith and trust? Then we must do what it takes to build that relationship with Him. Like many things in life, it is not complex, but it does take dedication, perseverance and mental strength to stay on this path.
