State of Mind

State Of Mind:
Noun phrase
: a person's emotional state : mood 
// He's in a bad/good state of mind.

My son's school has a motto that they say over and over with their students and staff that states, "Make it a great day, or not, the choice is yours!" I really like this for a number of reasons, one of which is because it irritates my moody teen. I understand that on some level because it is annoying to have a Pollyanna in your ear when you are channeling your best Debbie Downer. Or in his case, Gloomy Gus. And dang, all of you readers with teenagers know Debbie and Gus, right?! Like, intimately. They sometimes seem like our constant companions, don't they? Sure enough. However, I read something recently from Oswald Chambers that I thought was worth sharing as we prepare for Thanksgiving this week.

November 23rd

"What we must beware of is not damage to our belief in God but damage to our Christian disposition or state of mind. “Take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously” (Malachi 2:16). Our state of mind is powerful in its effects. It can be the enemy that penetrates right into our soul and distracts our mind from God. There are certain attitudes we should never dare to indulge. If we do, we will find they have distracted us from faith in God. Until we get back into a quiet mood before Him, our faith is of no value, and our confidence in the flesh and in human ingenuity is what rules our lives.

Beware of “the cares of this world…” (Mark 4:19). They are the very things that produce the wrong attitudes in our soul. It is incredible what enormous power there is in simple things to distract our attention away from God. Refuse to be swamped by “the cares of this world.”

Another thing that distracts us is our passion for vindication. St. Augustine prayed, “O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself.” Such a need for constant vindication destroys our soul’s faith in God. Don’t say, “I must explain myself,” or, “I must get people to understand.” Our Lord never explained anything— He left the misunderstandings or misconceptions of others to correct themselves.

When we discern that other people are not growing spiritually and allow that discernment to turn to criticism, we block our fellowship with God. God never gives us discernment so that we may criticize, but that we may intercede."

So many brilliant points here.

"What we must beware of is not damage to our belief in God but damage to our Christian disposition or state of mind."

The differences of opinion among believers on, oh I don't know, everything our eyeballs come in contact with these days aren't necessarily salvation issues, right? But, they are most definitely witness issues. No one is attracted to the God you serve if you are big ball of distraction and contempt all the time.

"Until we get back into a quiet mood before Him, our faith is of no value, and our confidence in the flesh and in human ingenuity is what rules our lives."

This is a huge statement that Chambers makes and I don't want us to miss it. Our faith is of NO value when our confidence is in the flesh or human ingenuity. God is looking for a "quiet mood before Him" and that will mean working to let go of our most troublesome of worries. Remember, who has ever added a single moment to their life by worrying? (Matt. 6:27)

"Refuse to be swamped by “the cares of this world.”"

There are certainly plenty of these to go around. Pick your poison. Remote school? POTUS change? Vaccine protocols? Government shutdowns? Impending socialism? End of days? These are not small things and we should absolutely give a rip, but notice the word Chambers used above. Swamped. If you find that your cares, legitimate or not, have you all but completely submerged, it's time for a re-evaluation.

"Don’t say, “I must explain myself,” or, “I must get people to understand.” Our Lord never explained anything— He left the misunderstandings or misconceptions of others to correct themselves."

Why do we think our words are so important? And no, the irony isn't lost on me that I am in the process of writing words that I think are important, but I digress. Why is it so important to convince people that we are, in fact, correct? If we're all honest with ourselves for a change, is it really just pride that we're dealing with?

One big bombshell in all of this (to me of course) specifically regarding all of the end of days theories floating around is, what if the sky really is falling? What if a new presidency really means the ushering in of prophetic, end times situations? Exactly what benefit will one derive from being "in the know" about such things? Will less prophecy drop on the heads of the people with the knowledge because they incessantly discussed it? Jesus wasn't constantly looking for vindication from onlookers and neither should we be.

"God never gives us discernment so that we may criticize, but that we may intercede."

Even this statement, as simple and straight-forward as it seems, would be debated right now. We might be tempted to say, "See! I knew I was right. It's God who gives me knowledge and now it's my duty to intercede on behalf of others by telling them all about it." That's not all bad by any means. God certainly does impart knowledge to us, but let's just remember what Chambers was really about here. Who are we really interceding for? We are to intercede for those who aren't growing spiritually because they are swamped with the cares of the world, have gotten completely away from a quiet mood before Him, and are living in a state of mind of distraction. No seriously, read his words again.

Also, it's never appropriate to be critical of other believers for having seasons of stagnancy and when we are, it rarely works out well. I have had to do my fair share of repenting lately for trying to help God out by playing "I Spy With My Critical Little Eye." Shockingly He said, "No thanks." Are you guilty of trying to play the same game with Him?

In the end, no matter what our particular brand of "cares of this world" happen to look like, the following advice of Gamaliel has never been more appropriate and timely:

"For if this plan or this work is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even be found fighting against God."
 Acts 5:38-39

Raise your hand if you want to be the one found fighting against God. You there, in the back? No? Yeah, me neither. If the virus really is more than just a virus, if masks really are more than just masks, if a new administration really is more than just a new administration, if these really are the last days and it's truly God's timing for some seriously unpleasant things to come to pass, they're happening with or without us. That's why the gospel message and our personal witness to God are a billion times more crucial in these moments than the YouTube message and our personal witness to Joe Schmo the end times expert. Again, I'm not saying knowledge is bad for us or that we should have no cares about these things, but the priority must be straightened out.

This Thanksgiving week, let's all consider what state of mind we've allowed to rule our lives lately. Has it been a heightened state of agitation distracting our focus from God? If so, it's time to take some thoughts captive (2 Cor. 10:5) and return to that quiet mood before Him.

Doesn't that sound incredible? It sure does to me. Happy Thanksgiving!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

On the Ordinary Streets

CRT: The Works-Based Gospel

Speak up... an intro