Page 43 Notice that the mind has something to do with discovering God’s moral will. Remember that under the New Covenant, the Law of God is written in our minds (Heb. 8:10). However, our minds need to be renewed. If we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to the Lord, and we renew our minds, Paul says that we will know and approve the perfect will of God. As natural creatures, we have a certain way of thinking. We have a way of reasoning that we inherited from this world. The Lord’s thoughts are not man’s thoughts. In fact, they are directly opposed to the thinking of this present world. Yet as we renew our mind, we begin to think the way He thinks and our spiritual instincts become sharper. Our understanding and our judgment become shaped by the Lord’s mind. And His will becomes obvious to us. We become intuitively aware which actions are pleasing to Him and which are not. This is maturity. Again, I’m speaking of the moral will of God. Paul made mention of this process when he spoke to the Corinthians. He told them that because they were living like natural people in the world (unsaved people), they were spiritual babes and couldn’t understand the things of the Spirit. But the spiritually mature are those who are able to exercise spiritual discernment and judgment (1 Cor. 2:6-3:3). To put a finer point on it, instead of giving us orders and commands, the Lord desires for us to have a mind. ,Let this mind be
Augustine rightly said, 'Fear is the response of the human heart when its one thing is threatened.' God has blessed all of our lives with many good things. We are to enjoy them and acknowledge God in gratitude, but we dare not make these good things our 'one thing', for in doing so, they become idols in our hearts. Like Augustine said, when we foolishly make these good things our one thing, fear will result when they are threatened. As a matter of fact, fear, worry, and anxiety are a good indication that we have created idols and feel in danger of losing them. Therefore, Christ's goal is to pull our heart away from these false gods and place our heart on the true God. Do you remember how Jesus praised Mary over Martha? Why? Because she chose God as her one thing. 'But the Lord answered and said to her, ';Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things [and they were good things!]; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her ';' (Lk. 10:41-42). So when God is our one thing, we never need to fear because our one thing is never threatened nor will He ever be removed from our presence.
Randy Smith