All through the Bible, we see that God is very clear about the state of our mind, after we receive Jesus as our Savior He said, “We have the mind of Christ.” [1 Cor. 2:16b]. He also stressed, “Let this Mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.” [Phil. 2:5]. So it is our responsibility to accept what He has paid for and what He has let us know belongs to us.
We know that the words of the bible are seeds and they are to be planted in the soil of our hearts. “The preparation of the heart belongs to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord” [Prov.16:1]. In first reading, that seems strange or appears as though God just takes over and makes us say what He wants us to no matter what we did. That is so far from what the truthful meaning is here in this passage. He is showing us that if we want Him to always have the right answer ready for us to speak at any given moment; we first prepare our heart and mind to receive His answers.
“Every way of a man is right in His own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart” [Prov. 21:2-16:2].
This is all the more reason for the heart of man to be prepared through the hearing of the word. When a child hears parents say things a few times, the child will begin to say the same words. When a child of God hears the words of God over and over, they begin to say the same things.
As they grow up, they began to believe those words. This is a biblical principle, hear, say, believe and do. “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus” and, “The preparation of the heart belongs to man.”
Then — the answer of the tongue will be from the Lord. God gave us instructions to help us live the life of victory and peace. No, the word does not say we will have a life with no conflict. We can have Peace in conflict, knowing we have victory in Christ Jesus if we don’t give up. Also the victory may not be the victory we imagined.
“Finally, brethren whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there is any praise, think on these things” [Phil. 8:4]. The mind is the spiritual battle ground, we can take charge of our mind and think on these things or we can let the flesh rule our mind and worry over things that make us sick. Most of the bad things we worry over never happen. The devil just torments us with fear of the unknown future. Our Precious Heavenly Father has given us everything we need to fight our battles of life. He has given us His Name, His Blood and His Word. He is His Name, His Blood and His Word.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” [2 Cor. 4-5]. We have weapons through Christ that give us authority to pull down, cast down anything that tries to set itself up stronger than the word of God and to bring our thinking into the control of Christ, of what Christ would think.
“We have the mind of Christ,” but we have to, “Let that mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus” It takes effort on our part to make our mind change over to the things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of a good report. “Think on These Things.”
