/mīnd/ : the faculty of consciousness and thought.
In the creation of man, God gave us the capacity and ability to think. From the very beginning, Adam and Eve had the ability to reason before they acted, to fixate their thoughts on what they chose and to compute internally. Not long after, God gave an instruction that required them to surrender the same mind He had liberally given them, back to Him in worship. He gave them instructions on what to indulge in, and what not to. God did not restrict them from good and evil themselves; He restricted them from the knowledge of good and evil(Gen 2:16-17). They were challenged to surrender their minds to Him from the jump, and the demand has been the same ever since.
At the heart of worship is curated attention to a thing or being that subsequently finds expression in or through our lives.
Worship… we hear this word so often, but what does it truly mean? At the heart of worship is curated attention to a thing or being that subsequently finds expression in or through our lives. It begins with the orientation of our minds and the posture of our hearts before it manifests in the work of our hands. The result is surrender and devotion but it starts with the centering of our minds and hearts on the one whom we have deemed worthy in that moment, intentionally or unintentionally. In like manner, at the core of true worship to the Lord is attention to Him birthed from a holy fear, awe and reverence. And so, if we cannot truly worship Him without attention, it means we cannot worship Him without our minds.
Attention is currency.
The thing is that the real estate of your mind is fair game, and there are several contending for that space. If we are not intentional about engaging it rightly, we are at risk of others doing that for us. The seemingly harmless ads that threaten to frustrate your wind-down time are proof of that. Influencers making a living off of their ability to increase engagement is further evidence. The billions of dollars that go into a running an ad at the Super Bowl couldn’t make the war any clearer, and while it may be obvious to many, few know what is at stake. Most business moguls understand that attention is currency, and they employ this knowledge as they ought to. Sadly, too often, we pay for what detracts from us… but that’s another blog post. This is more so about how we as believers ought to engage our minds in this holy walk. What we give our minds to has the ability to reshape our lives, negatively and positively.
The battle for attention isn’t merely cultural, it’s deeply spiritual. You may have heard the saying, “worry is misplaced worship” before. That is because when we worry, we allow the problem (or potential problem) to be the object of our meditation, and subsequently the motivation behind our activity (or lack thereof).
“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Mat 6:31-33 NLT
The NLT translation explains it so plainly – “don’t worry”, instead “seek the Kingdom”… It clearly highlights that such worry is born out of fears dominating thoughts. Other translations say “For after all these things the Gentiles seek.” The original word there : zeteo, refers not only to seeking on the surface, but to seek in order to find out by thinking, meditating, reasoning, to inquire into. Yet again, God calls us to surrender and engage our minds. To instead seek His kingdom, and to trust that in doing so, everything else will fall in place. A few verses prior, Jesus tells us not to worry about our food, drink or clothes, but it doesn’t stop there. He tells us what to do instead – consider the birds of the air… consider the lilies of the field. THINK about them. Provoke your mind to ruminate on truth. He gives a picture to displace the one we’ve mounted in our minds. He calls us to engage our minds.
This is such a vital topic because God does not call us to be mindless worshippers. I think the idea that walking in and by faith means ditching reason at the door is more prevalent than we care to admit amongst believers, but what the Bible preaches is not dismissal but submission. Much of our effectiveness as believers is attributed to knowledge and the stewardship of our minds. We are called to bring our minds under the authority of God’s Word, rule and reign as we worship and serve Him. Paul implies that it is in renewing our minds that we are able to test and prove the Lord’s will (Rom 12:2) and that it is in the renewal of our knowledge of God that we can adequately reflect Him(Col 3:10). He implores us to pray with an alert mind ( Col 4:2). In the first and most important commandment, God calls us to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind (Mat 22:37). It is because we know that the testing of our faith produces perseverance that we ought to count such opposition as joy (James 1:3). In the pursuit of peace, we are exhorted to pray, think (Phil 4:6-9) and fix our minds on Jesus (Isaiah 26:3). Scripture is replete with emphasis on knowledge and mindfulness, our whole belief system is predicated on it. In fact, Proverbs and Romans tell us that zeal without knowledge can be dangerous (Pr 19:2, Rom 10:2), so we must go beyond feelings and employ intellect as well.
When a body of believers gather together in corporate worship or for any holy function, there is one thing to be desired above all – the presence of God. We long not just for His omnipresence, but for His manifest presence. A major issue however is that we often look to our emotions as a litmus test… and when we don’t “feel” a high, we leave disappointed. To put it plainly – In some ways, for many, sensation and emotion has become an idol. We yearn mostly for an emotional reaction as though that is the singular proof of the move of God. To sum God’s presence solely and merely to a feeling is to sensationalize Him. Leaving our growth as believers to sensationalism alone reveals immaturity and is a precursor to stuntedness. Surely, there are many times where our feelings bear witness to the manifest presence of God. We love the goosebumps and the gentle cool breeze that leaves us excited and stimulated. Heck, I personally love it. But to accuse God of absence because your physical senses weren’t stimulated is to deny the truth you know – “know”. Even when we don’t feel, we must be led by what we know. It is the knowledge of truth that sets us free.
A devotion to walk with God will require disloyalty to feelings.
A devotion to walk with God will require disloyalty to feelings. There are times where we will not feel God as we crave to, but we know by His Word, promise and principles that He is there. To relegate our love and worship of God to emotionalism is to chart dangerous territory. And quite frankly, if that is the case, can we truly say we are worshipping God and not a feeling? Instead, when we sing to Him and our senses feel dulled, we get to engage our minds and see Him high and lifted, exalted, majestic and reigning. When lies feel more trustworthy than the Word of God, we get to engage our minds and meditate on the truth. When suffering for Christ feels pointless, we get to engage our minds and remember the privilege it is. The feelings just might follow, they often do, but even if they don’t, the truth that we know is sufficient. It is up to us to accept the invitation into stability derived from unchanging truth and not fleeting feelings.
Perhaps one of the closest human pictures we have of this kind of engagement is the early stages of affection. When you first meet someone who captures your interest and the realization dawns on you that you might actually like them, something begins to happen in your mind. Sleep may suddenly become a little harder to come by. You lie awake replaying conversations, thinking about the way they spoke, the things they said, the small details that stood out. Your mind lingers there almost involuntarily, returning again and again to the same thoughts. In that quiet space of contemplation, affection begins to deepen. What started as a simple interest gradually grows into something more substantial because your mind has remained fixed there. In many ways, loving God with our minds functions similarly. The more we allow our thoughts to dwell on who He is, what He has done, and the truths He has revealed, the more our affection for Him grows. It is in this meditation that the gap between the head and heart is bridged. Love, after all, rarely flourishes where the mind refuses to linger.
The Christian life is not a call to abandon the mind, but to consecrate it. And when the mind is surrendered to God, it becomes one of the most powerful instruments of worship we possess.
“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.“
1 Pet 1:13-16
More Scripture References
“ So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.” 1 Pet 1: 13 NLT
“Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.” Col 4:2 NLT
“Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.” Mat 22:37 NKJV
““You will keep in perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both inclination and character], Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation].” Isaiah 26:3 AMP
“But if from there you will seek (inquire for and require as necessity) the Lord your God, you will find Him if you [truly] seek Him with all your heart [and mind] and soul and life.” Deut 4:29 AMPC
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Col 3:1-2 ESV
“As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts…” 1 Chr 28:9 NKJV
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