Lesson 21: Let Your Mind Be Filled With Christ - Part 1

You just can’t explain it! You have just been to the supermarket and what would normally have been a 45 minute shop has taken two hours! You have a shopping list but as you were pushing your trolley, your mind started wandering off task and you slowed down and turned inward becoming lost in your thoughts. You are saying things like “I am such a loser. I am feeling so down. I am really disappointed in how I am doing and just have to do something to turn things around. What if I go and buy that new self help book that I saw on the TV? I need to get a grip on myself or things are really going to be serious!” You didn’t even notice your friend waving at you and later they reminded you at church that your mind must have been elsewhere. That’s true! You are intensely listening to your thoughts as if it was the most important podcast on the planet!

But now, you have just read in scripture: “Pull down all strongholds... Cast down every imagination... Bring every thought into captivity... If there is anything worthy of praise, fix your minds on them” That message keeps coming to mind. As if you had a TV remote control, you need to change the thought channel of your mind to Jesus. You ask for His grace to enable you to switch channels. As you start meditating on godly truths your heart is affected. You think, “Jesus removed my sin! He took my punishment! He removed God’s wrath from me! He was crucified for me! He was buried in a tomb for me! He rose for me! He ascended for me! He gave the Holy Spirit to me! I am His adopted child. God smiles on me when He looks upon me. I am accepted! I am who He says I am. He gave me the mind of Christ and I am filled with power, love and a sound mind.”

Now you pray and ask God to keep you at the foot of the cross. Keep you receiving love from Jesus. Keep the power of the Holy Spirit flowing to you and through you. And enable you to cast aside your self focused dwelling in your thoughts and start talking to yourself about God’s praiseworthy truths. You thank God for Holy Spirit power! For victory that came at such a cost to Jesus, at such a sacrifice by Jesus and by such love from Jesus! Then exchanging and giving good for evil as Christ did for you at the cross, you ring the friend you ignored in the supermarket and ask them over for coffee to catch up, as Jesus takes you from victory to victory.