Our minds - playground or battleground?

II Corinthians 10:4,5

4: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
5: casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
We are surrounded by sources that constantly inject worldly ideas into our minds. These worldly themes and opinions are so popular that if we let those thoughts take root in our minds, they can easily influence the decisions we make day in and day out. If we keenly observe the various messages that we are bombarded with every single day, it's clear that although they don't seem ungodly at first, they are in direct contradiction to God's Word.

"Follow your heart" they say, but the Bible says "The heart is deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9); lean not on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5)". "Plan for the future" they say, but the Bible says "Do not worry about tomorrow, sufficient for today is it's own troubles". "My life, my rules" might seem like a cool motto, but we know that "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." The worldly philosopher might conclude that "Happiness is the chief end of man", but God's Word reminds us that "Holiness, is God's will for man" (1 Thessalonians 4:3). The fashion world emphasizes that your beauty is what you look like on the outside, but God's Word says, "the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, is very precious in the sight of God" (I Peter 3:4). The opportunist says, "Go for it now, for the future is promised to no one", but the Psalmist says, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him".

Our mind is not a playground for various thoughts to dwell and have their way; it's a battleground where there's a constant battle between these conflicting ideas (worldly and Godly) forcing us to choose one over the other, as we cannot serve two masters.

How do we overcome this battle? How do we choose to live according to God's Word? It may not be easy for us to discern the worldly thoughts, because they often seem very close to "good" thoughts, but when we open up to the Holy Spirit, humbly imploring Him to search our hearts and reveal our anxious thoughts, He will help us with the discernment and lead us in the way everlasting (Psalms 139:23,24). Once the Spirit enlightens us with the Truth of God's Word, there's another enemy that's waiting to pull us down - fear. What if the world does not accept what I believe according to God's Word? What if I look like a lunatic when I apply God's wisdom in my decision making process? What if I wait on God and His unwavering promises and miss out on the pleasures of this life? Someone said, "When fear knocks at the door, send Faith to answer". I John 5:4 says, "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith". When doubts and fears arise, let the Holy Spirit strengthen our Faith, to trust in God's Word, which is the ultimate Truth and Wisdom, to surrender our lives to Him who knows the beginning from the end. Amen.

Growing in the knowledge of God

Colossians 1:9,10

⁹ For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; ¹⁰ that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

I remember the childish desires I had when I was a kid. I was so obsessed with sugar that I said to myself, "When I become an adult, I'll make sugar syrup and use it instead of plain water". To me, heaven was a place where ice-cream keeps falling from above and there's glitter all around. As Paul says in I Corinthians 13: 11 - When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. Looking back at all those silly childish thoughts and behaviors, I know I lacked sense and maturity as a kid. And now, I appreciate the taste of plain water and am amazed at how I could drink lots of it without ever feeling sick. And I know that an excess of sweetness does not lead to more sweetness, but rather to bitterness. The change in my desires and needs indicates the growth and maturity I've had through life's varying experiences.

As a baby in Christ, we might be obsessed with little things, and might be always asking our Heavenly Father for materialistic blessings. It is perfectly okay to bring our needs to God (for God wants us to rely on Him for everything), but if all we ever do when we come to Him, is ask for something we need – that is an indicator that we need to grow spiritually. As we grow in the knowledge of God through the Holy Spirit, we begin to understand the bigger picture. We begin to realize that God didn't design our lives to be lived according to our whims in cushiony comforts, but rather to carry out His perfect will on earth, glorifying His Holy Name. Once we begin to spend time with God, knowing His awesome character and His amazing ways, our focus in prayer starts shifting from "my needs" to "God's will". We sense God's heart and we begin to know through the Spirit's revelation that we are called to live a deeper life, with godly standards, as a "light" and a "salt" in this dark world. Knowing God and loving Him is the ultimate reason for our existence. The more we know God, the more we can love Him. The more we love Him, the more we desire to please Him. So it all starts with knowing God through His Holy Spirit. Let's not allow life's busyness and self-obsessions to make us blind to the godly purposes of life. Life itself has meaning because of just one thing - GOD. There's no meaningful purpose of life apart from the Creator. Let's grow in the knowledge of Who God is, not just what He can do.

Philippians 3:8
8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ

Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life's problems fall into place of their own accord. - J.I. Packer

Disciple vs Follower

Jesus had 70 followers, among whom 12 were His “disciples”. Disciple is someone who’s disciplined, is a matured imitator of his Teacher. A follower is more casual in his approach of following the teachings of the Teacher. As I meditated on it, I felt that we can be either a disciple or a follower at any point of time – a disciple is a matured Christian having a close relationship with the Teacher (Jesus), while a follower lacks maturity. We reflect the characteristics of a disciple when we follow God whole-heartedly, and the moment we lose focus on God, we tend to become a mere follower. It’s the spiritual maturity that defines a “disciple”.

Let God work in us as we become His favorite disciples, as He molds us into the image of His Son Jesus.

Just outlined some attitude differences below:

Disciple vs Follower

- Disciple - Lord, teach me how to pray.

- Follower - Can someone pray for me?

- Disciple - Lord, make me more like You.

- Follower - Lord, please help me become like this, or like that

- Disciple - I trust in You, no matter the cost

- Follower - Desires to trust in God, but cost and the risk seem too high, keeps backups

- Disciple - Marvels at God's character and His ways

- Follower - Marvels at God's power and His wonders

- Disciple - Accepts God's chastening as it is God's love that disciplines His children

- Follower - Assumes God is punishing for their actions

- Disciple - God is his only priority, at all times

- Follower - God is one of his priorities in life

- Disciple - Loves spending time with God, as a close and intimate friend

- Follower - Spends time with God occasionally, more like a formal meet-up for placing requests

- Disciple - Neither worldly success, nor religion makes sense

- Follower - Sees worldly success as a gift from God, and religion as a way of paying back to him

- Disciple - Values the fruits of the Spirit

- Follower - Values the gifts of the Spirit

- Disciple - Loves God with all of his heart

- Follower - Loves the concept of God, and how He "fits" in his life

- Disciple - Knows and acknowledges human weakness; transparent with what he feels

- Follower - Rebukes human weakness and relates it to being unbelieving

- Disciple - No masks, brutally honest with God as with a close friend

- Follower - Thinks it's a sin to question God

- Disciple - Matured enough to not judge people by their outward appearance

- Follower - Criticizes people merely by seeing what they do or by hearing what others say about them

- Disciple - Set apart from the world; unable to tolerate the sinful and ungodly spirits

- Follower - Finds it quite amusing to mingle with the world and still stand for God

- Disciple - Learns to be led by the Holy Spirit, day by day

- Follower - Not much aware of how the Spirit leads and so takes decisions mostly by himself or by listening to others

- Disciple - Overwhelmed with emotions seeing God's directions and timing; Answerer excites them more than the answer

- Follower - Excited about the answers received from God; answers excite them more than the Answerer

- Disciple - Knows that he is highly valued, not by works, but by grace

- Follower - Often feels he needs to do something for God

- Disciple - Knows when it’s his time to fight, and when he is to stand still and let God fight

- Follower - Not really sure when to fight or whether to even fight

- Disciple - Is able to differentiate Holy Spirit's conviction from Devil's condemnation

- Follower - Unsure whether he's convicted or condemned; leading to rebellion or shame

- Disciple - Is loving towards his critics and says, "Lord, forgive them; for they know not what they do!"

- Follower - Is not able show love, to someone who hurts him and says, "Vengeance is from God"

- Disciple - Learns from the Holy Spirit to be like Jesus

- Follower - Learns from disciples or the people around to be like someone they admire

- Disciple - Knows that brokenness is valuable and it lets God's light to shine through

- Follower - Equates brokenness with weakness

- Disciple – Carries the cross and follows Jesus

- Follower – Does not think needs to carry the cross, as Jesus has already done it!

Patience pays

James 1:4
But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Patience, is waiting with good hope for something better than what you can get in the "now". In a world where everything is geared towards instant gratification, it's hard to see people who are willing to wait and not give in to temptations to act according to their whims. It's always hard to wait, be it in a long queue at the grocery store, or at the traffic or for a promotion at work that you feel is long time due. It's painful, but patience is one of the fruits of the Spirit that God desires to produce in His children. To make matters worse, we often see that people all around us are “prospering” even without having to wait! Well, the Psalmist knows how that feels and asks us to be patient even in such situations (Psalms 37:7 - “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way..”)

Hebrews 6:15
And so, after he (Abraham) had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 
Abraham had to wait for the fulfillment of God’s promise even after all the circumstances became humanly impossible. Joseph had to endure humiliation for extended periods of time, before he rose as a ruler as his God-given dreams came to pass. Moses had to wait till the strength of his youth faded, before he became the promised Deliverer of Israel. Mary and Martha waited for their brother's healing even until his death. But we know that all those seemingly "end-of-story" turned out to be the beginning of their breakthroughs. The Bible is full of such stories that shows that God's favor didn't come by in an instant to the heroes of faith, but it took years for the fulfillment of the promises, and in this painfully slow process, theylearnt to patiently wait for God to come through in their difficult and often impossible situations.

Here's a story from the internet:

Once, a king had announced that he wanted to appoint a new minister to serve in his kingdom. The people of the kingdom, who envisioned themselves as capable to be in the king's service, gathered in the palace, eagerly waiting to know what would be their test. The king led all those candidates to a small pond and said, "Whoever will fill this pond's water in this pot will be chosen as my minister. But remember, there is a hole in the pot."

Some people who wanted to merely test their luck, left without a single try, as they thought it's not worth the effort. While some people, who thought they were capable of accomplishing the task, tried for once, and some others for a couple more times before they gave up in exasperation saying, "The king has already chosen someone else. This must be an eye wash. Let's better quit this contest and save our time and energy."

But there was one man, who kept filling the pot with the pond water patiently. He filled the water in the pot to the brim and upon reaching the ground, he saw that the water was draining completely. He kept doing this again and again till there was no more water in the pond, to fill his pot! The man found a diamond ring in the empty pond and he gave it to the king. At this the king said, "This ring is a reward for your patience and hard work. You are fit for the job."

In the same way, we might think our test is to perform well in the area of life we often find ourselves struggling in, like "filling the pot", but who knows, the real test could be something else - maybe it’s a test of patient perseverance, or a process that God uses to produce in us the fruits of the Spirit, to make us more like His perfect Son, Jesus.

- Patience with family - When someone in your family asks for your help all the time without even being grateful, and you show your patient kindness through your actions, that's love.
- Patience with self - When you don't perform well, but you know that there's always a second chance and that you can do better next time through God's grace - that's confidence.
- Patience with others - When someone hurts you, and you don't hurt them back but you wish them well, and you show love to your enemies, that's respect.
- Patience with God - When you are waiting for God's help and you've been praying about your situation for years or decades now, and you still patiently trust His timing, that's faith.

Lessons I learnt on Humility

James 4:6
God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.

I had been meditating on this virtue called “Humility” for some time now. I knew that I’ve been a person who has had constant struggle with walking in humility as I was known (at least at home) to be someone with a high self-esteem, someone who is quick to judge others and someone who would grumble when asked to help with boring chores. I knew I needed help in this area and I looked up the Scriptures on humility and diligently noted them down for some in-depth study. But God knew this weighty matter was not something learned through notes, but through experiences, and was orchestrating some situations that brought out my arrogance and pride.

Here’s a backstory of how God helped me learn some of the most difficult lessons I’ve learnt in life:

  It was a wonderful night, when we engaged in some casual discussions as a family, talking about how God has been faithful in the past and how God can turn around the circumstances that we were going through. The reminiscence of God's marvelous ways and sharing of perspectives and opinions with each other has always reinforced the family bond. At some point during this lovely time, my mom asked me to lookup a word in the dictionary. Not wanting to take my phone, open Dictionary app, type the word and then lookup its meaning, I let out a sigh and said, "Do we need to lookup this word right now?" and added that "it just wasn't worth the time and energy". My mom, who is always brutally honest and unhypocritical, criticized me for acting so selfishly. I started debating that I saw no urgency that warranted the immediate lookup of the word. And then followed a stream of harsh words that I didn't want to hear, explaining how I was behaving like a spoilt child who's too focused on comforts and never thinks about others. To an outside person, I was always behaving well and was helpful, but inside the four walls of my home, there were occasions when the rays of my selfishness and pride had escaped through the crevices (and I was blind to see that!), as I sometimes vent out suppressed stress or feelings of hurt on the very people God had placed in my life to love and cherish. Every such instance was cited and my unpleasant behavior was questioned. Mom went on to emphasize that my writings on “overcoming self” were utterly futile, as I wasn’t putting them into practice. Although I didn't talk back audibly, I was resisting everything that was being said, in my mind. That beautiful family moment halted right there!

  I spent the night in tears, not reflecting on my arrogance and selfishness, but on thoughts that were motivated by self-pity - recalling how I did not deserve the harsh scolding for something as trivial as questioning the urgency of looking up a word in the dictionary. I found myself innocent, and couldn’t see that deep down, I was falling prey to my biggest enemy (pride), which was the first and the worst sin ever committed and was also responsible for the hurling down of Satan from the Heavens in the first place!

And it was the next day and last night's incident was still fresh in my mind, and I didn't want to discuss it with anyone, not even God. Dad called me a couple of times when I was at work, to check on how I was doing and if I felt better. I kept an indifferent attitude and restrained myself to not let out a single word in response to his questions, and bluntly responded with a "hmmm". Being compassionate towards me, he said that he had been praying for me the whole time, that I would perceive the whole episode of last night, as God's chastening. I was being too cold to care about anything he said. He also asked me to pray as God would teach me humility. I resolved that I wasn't going to ask God for help in this matter, thanks to my adamant belief that there was nothing wrong with me. I knew I was hardening my heart in the process, convincing myself that there was nothing to repent of, and was constantly rationalizing my behavior.

Looking back upon all this now, I learnt these important truths:
- Justification and self-righteousness are symptoms of pride.
- My pride can shut out God, even at a time when all I needed was only Him.

I suffered a loss of peace and a loss of focus at work. With no other option, I slowly let go of my pride and began mumbling a few words in prayer, pleading God to help me understand what went wrong and how I should've reacted in the situation where I was being scolded for something that I thought, was not worth being yelled at. After much struggle, I gave the reins of my thoughts to the Holy Spirit, and God began to reveal those subtle hints of pride, in all those instances when I was being nasty and arrogant. These then, are the lessons I’ve learnt:

1. Humility is love in action - thinking of others first

Philippians 2: 3-8
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

   Jesus, who is our ultimate example to live by, was ever ready to reach out and help the needy people; He was available at ALL times to all who sought Him. Although He was the King of kings, He didn't restrict access to Him by asking His disciples to setup appointments when people wanted to meet Him or when they sought His help. If God - the Son, who had the responsibility of the most important mission ever commissioned on earth (saving mankind), was not too busy to stop by and attend to people's needs, no one else has the luxury of blaming "busy-ness" as the reason for not reaching out to people who are in need. At the very core of this servant-like attitude is Love. When you truly love someone, you don't mind what time of day it is, what kind of favor is being asked of you, and you instantly extend your helping hand with a smile on your face. I learnt that pure love is always ready to dive into action to satisfy someone's need (no matter how trivial it might be) without asking questions to validate the urgency of the need.

2. Humility does not seek self-validation

I Peter 2:21-23
For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin,
Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;

  Jesus, the innocent Lamb, stood in trial before the Pharisees and the people. Some bribed witnesses were setup for false accusations, but Jesus’ humility radiated through His meek and gentle demeanor, infuriating His adversaries all the more. He did not retaliate or even make an attempt to politely respond in His own defense, against those baseless claims. When Jesus (who is the epitome of true humility), who was the only truly innocent Man, sought no validation for Himself and never attempted to act defensively, how much more should we, who are indeed flawed, need to embody humility in our words and actions and not seek self-approval. It’s important to remember that God approves us because of Jesus, and not because of our good works.

3. Humility opens our eyes to our own flaws

Psalm 19:12,13
Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.

 The biggest problem with pride is that it makes us blind to our own flaws. It's a sad truth that when pride manifests in us, everybody else can see it, except us. When being criticized for our actions, it's easy to get defensive and play the blame-game, but it takes genuine humility to bring down that wall of defense, to allow ourselves to see our faults and to fix it through God’s strength. It's humility that paves the way for conviction of sin through the Holy Spirit and leads us to true repentance through grace.
 

Fill your void before your adversary does!

Colossians 3:2

Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

With all the booming technology around us, there’s no lack of distractions today, that can instantly carry our thoughts into the things of the world, conditioning our mind to think as the people of the world think and to keep us engaged in thoughts that have minimal or no value. We are living in a world today where technology has made itself a master over people’s lives, tempting us to frequently check our mails where there’s a load of marketing, and to scroll through social media feeds that promote online socialization, meaningless and shallow relationships and narcism. I believe that it’s an everyday struggle to keep our focus on God and things that really matter, as I’ve felt that my mind wastes no time in constantly prompting me to check the news website, to follow trending hashtags to stay updated, to keep checking my phone for notifications! Satan’s crafty plan is to keep every mind busy – with the thoughts of the world, and to take away the seed of the life-giving Word. As goes the saying, “An idle mind is the Devil’s workshop”. There’s therefore a need for us to intentionally fill our minds with Godly thoughts. Of course, our flesh will rage against it to pull us towards the worldly things, but that’s when we reach out to God and ask for His grace to focus on things that really matter, on things that are eternal.

Paul instructs that as children of God, as we walk in the light of God’s Word through God’s grace, we are to guard our thought life in Christ. It’s easy to be carried away by the wind (The ungodly are… like the chaff which the wind drives away. – Psalm 1:4) – but it sure does take a lot of effort to swim against the current, to take our steady stand on our Rock (The righteous... shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water – Psalm 1:3) and to say “No” to the worldly distractions - every single day. Taking time to shut off all these distractions and to spend time with God, pondering on His Word, His mighty deeds and His incredibly amazing character – is so vitally important in our spiritual growth towards Holiness and to become like Christ. Let’s be reminded today that our mind is a battleground and let’s pray for God’s grace to overcome the world through the One who overcame! Let the Holy Spirit lead our thoughts today towards what’s right, what’s pure and what’s noble and in a word – what’s Godly. Let our heavenly attraction be stronger than the earthly gravitation.

Philippians 4:8

⁸ Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

Decisions that matter along the way to the Celestial City!

Matthew 7:13,14

The Narrow Way

¹³ “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 

¹⁴ Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Sharing a few thoughts from the Pilgrim’s Progress

There’s a lot of different places that Christian goes through in his journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. I believe that the spiritual journey of our lives, can be related to “decisions” that we make every day that can either glorify or disappoint God.

Just pondering on two instances where Christian was led astray through his own (silly) decisions, much like how we mess up life through some hasty decisions! In this temporary life, as we live “in the world” and at the same time being NOT “of the world”, there are some distractions that can keep us out of God’s best. The two key things that Christian learns in these instances are as below:

1.      Don’t settle where you are - Keep moving!

When Christian climbs the Hill of Difficulty, he finds a "shady resting place" that the King had made for the traveling pilgrims to rest for a while before continuing on their journey. Christian decides to rest for a while and then dozes off in that refreshing, comforting place and ends up missing his scroll (the seal of the Holy Spirit). We read on to see that Christian realizes that his scroll was missing only after crossing the Hill of Difficulty. He's then forced to go through the Hill of Difficulty once again to find the lost scroll!

The world is no permanent resting place for us. When we settle for the comfortable lifestyle, finding our sweet spot where there’s no risk involved, being hesitant of any changes that can throw us out of our comfort zone - it's easy to lose the zeal for God's kingdom and the desire for His will to be done in our lives, and settle for mediocrity! This is a dangerous condition where Christians can lose the Holy Spirit in their life and the Light inside them is put off. At times when we tend to settle where we are, let’s not forget that there’s a Holy calling – an adventurous journey up ahead of us, as we do life with God, learning to trust Him along the way.

Philippians 3:13,14 ..but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

2.      Sticking to the King's Highway – At any and every cost!

When the two pilgrims Christian and Hopeful come to a sidetrack called the By path meadow, which ran parallel to the "straight and narrow path" and they saw that the by path meadow seemed a lot easier to walk along than the path they were already on. They decided to take the easy alternative that ran “alongside” the Highway. This was a distraction setup by their adversary, the Devil to lead them away from the highway and lead them into the Doubting castle where the giant called "Despair" captures and chains the pilgrims and Diffidence (Shame/Shyness), the giant's wife asks him to beat the pilgrims without mercy. They finally use the "Key of God's promise" to escape the prison and the giant, and they made it back to the "King's highway".

There’s just ONE way to our Celestial City (Heaven), which is along the straight and narrow path shown by God’s Word (Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path - Psalm 119:105). Sidetracks and shortcuts do not lead to our destination. Anything that seems like a better alternative to “God’s way” will lead us into prisons of doubts where Despair and shame capture our souls! Nonetheless, we have the Key of God’s promise to get out of such prisons!

There are times in our lives when we seem to wait (forever?) on God to come through, for a situation to change. These are the times when the Devil suggests an “easy” alternative and tricks us into thinking that we will still be on a “parallel” road to God’s will if we choose the “easy” way out to the problem we’re facing. When we yield to that temptation, we miss out on God’s best and find ourselves in places God never intended us to be in! Let’s pray for the strength to overcome such distractions in our lives right now and God will help us make Godly decisions that glorify Him! Amen.