Who Controls Your Head?

REFERENCE: Romans 8:6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.

Observation: Sounds like a good deal!! Who doesn't want life and peace instead of death? But how? That's the rub. We want our minds to be controlled by the Spirit but so often they are not. How do we do it? We know what doesn't work; live like we want to, fill our minds with junk and then wonder why we can't control our thinking when temptation comes along.

The key is to start by getting out minds in line with the Spirit. It means each day giving our thinking over to God by pursuing Him in prayer, meditation and His Word before our sinful nature has a chance to lead us astray. It means, when temptation comes along, running to Him, asking Him, with all we are, for His grace instead of trying to "fight" the sin. Yes, we have to say "no" but only He, by giving us the gift of self-control, can give us the power to do so.

Application/Confession: Too often I let my mind "wander". I need to recognize sooner when it is beginning to be controlled by my sinful nature. I want life and peace and I know how sin can bring just the opposite--death and anxiety. The key is in my head.

PRAYER: Lord, take my mind and let it be controlled and directed, today, by Your Spirit and not by my sinful nature. Help me, grace me, to think thoughts pleasing to You and to be open to hear what You have to say to me--today!