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⁵Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; ⁷the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
Romans 8:5-8

What channel is your mind tuned into? Is it the local or international news channel? Maybe it’s the daytime soaps channel, or the nighttime equivalent? Dare I ask if it’s the cable porn channel?

The Apostle Paul puts it simply – whatever channel our mind is set on determines how we’ll live our lives. If our minds are tuned to anything but God, we will live lives that are controlled by everything but God. And that’s called sin. And sin leads to death.

When we tune our minds to God’s channel, we experience life and peace.

When my mind is tuned to the channels of this world, Scripture says “it does not submit to God’s law…[and it] cannot please God” Everywhere I turn, I see obedience as an integral part of saving faith. Without obedience, there is not true faith. That’s a strong statement, but the more I read, the more I believe it is an accurate statement. I believe that God is merciful and gracious and I don’t know how much obedience is required to be considered a child of God. But I do know that reciting a simple prayer isn’t all that’s required (as we evangelicals are so prone to teach).

Living for Christ and not for myself, my husband or my family is what we are consistently called to in Scripture – keeping our minds tuned to God’s channel and obeying Him. That’s how to please our loving Savior.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 at 6:11 am and is filed under Christian Living, Obedience, Spiritual Maturity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.