What Does the Mirror of Your Mind Reflect?

A few years ago young people began wearing a bracelet engraved with the letters WWJD, meaning “What Would Jesus Do?" The bracelet reminded them to seek an alternative to temptation or to know what to do in difficult situations. Temptation can have a destructive impact on our lives when disguised as a playground for fun, pleasure or our perceived needs. 

 

The imagination plays a critical role in each person's mind and is indicative of what the future may hold. So the mind is the forerunner for either godly endeavors or self-centered behaviors focused only on personal need satisfaction. Therefore the mind reflects and exposes motives for a person’s choices, beliefs, and attitudes.

 

The mind is capable of being wounded but can be healed with God’s love and the care of professionals and loved ones. St. Paul noted that "the mind has not conceived, the eye has not seen, nor has the ear heard what God has prepared for those who love him." So let your mind be fixed on these promises from God.

_____________

If you hear [God’s] message and don’t obey it, you are like people who stare at themselves in a mirror and forget what they look like as soon as they leave. But you must never stop looking at the perfect law that sets you free. God will bless you in everything you do, if you listen and obey, and don’t just hear and forget.

~James 1:23-25 Contemporary English Version

______________

Subscribe to the Attitudes Answers podcast on your favorite podcast platform to hear this and other 2-minute features 3 days every week.

Golden Opportunities: Hard Choices - Part 3

Everyone has values for choosing how life should be lived. Jesus put our choices into perspective. "Enter by the narrow gate; for the wide is the gate and easy the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter it. Narrow is the gate and hard the way that leads to life and few are those who find it." What is your honest response to these words?

I asked a man in his late thirties if he could ask one thing from God, what would it be? After a long silence, he said, "A clean heart that’s been forgiven, one that absent of the guilt and shame I’ve brought on myself."

To enter the narrow gate requires examining your values. Put into perspective what's on the other side of the narrow gate that awaits you. "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, or can the mind imagine what lies in store for those who choose to love God." God creates in us a new heart when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Will you do that?  

Remember! God Favors You - Part 2

The pastor of a metropolitan church states unequivocally that God favors those who put their trust and faith in Christ Jesus. Do you realize how significant it is to be favored by God? We tend to forget and consequentially fail to appreciate the benefits of such a privilege. God's word assures us we can't begin to imagine what God has in store for those who love him.

Someone revealed how frustrated she felt because God seemed so distant. She felt frightened, lonely, and powerless because of the loss of God’s presence she’d known since childhood. Another person asked, "Why doesn't God cut me some slack and give me a break? I'm struggling and desperately need help that only God can provide!"

Search your heart, confess your sins, and repent by turning from every wrongdoing. God will forgive you and remember your sins no more. Do not forget, God favors you and will send resources to aid you when it is in your best interest for him do so. Seek God with all your heart and he will be found. While God may not be early, he will never be late.