The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Today's blog was contributed by David Trotta:

You’ve probably heard the saying before – “The mind is a terrible thing to waste.”  It was a very effective slogan used over the past few decades to raise awareness and help provide scholarships to young adults who could not afford to go to college.  It is certainly a very true and powerful statement.  Any mind not used to its potential is a tragedy.

Well, that same tragedy is also playing out every day in the body of Christ.  As Christ followers, when we exchanged our old life for our new life in Jesus, we were given a new mind - the mind of Christ!  1 Corinthians 2:16 says “For, Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”  God has empowered us to think differently.

But, tragically, many of us live defeated and unfruitful lives because we don’t choose to think like Jesus, but instead we allow our minds to be conformed to the thought patterns of this world, which are contrary to the will of God and powerless to produce holy living.

When we surrendered our life to Jesus, the power of sin and death was broken (Romans 8:2), but we still have to partner with God by choosing to think like Jesus, and not only on Sunday mornings, but throughout our week.  In order to flow in the mind of Christ, we have to make a conscious effort to consistently substitute our negative, unholy thoughts with positive, Christ-like thoughts from the Word of God.

For example, substitute “I am unlovable” with “God loves me with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3) or “nothing seemed to work out right today” with “God will work all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28) or “Lord, I failed you again today and don’t deserve your forgiveness” with “God has forgiven all my sins in accordance with the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).  You get the idea.

As children of God, we have been given an incredible resource – the mind of Christ!  Let’s determine to fully utilize that which God paid such a high price to provide.  After all, the mind (of Christ) is a terrible thing to waste.