Yesterday we looked at the basic characteristics of the unbelieving mind. If you've made Jesus the Lord of your life, things are different. The Bible says, "the old has gone, the new has come!" The new has come to your mind, as well!According to Romans 12 you have
A transformed Mind, And A Renewed Mind
According to Romans 8:6 You A Spirit-Controlled Mind
And a Mind of Life and Peace
2Corinthians 10:5 says that you have a Mind that captures every thought making it obedient to Christ
1Peter 4:7 says you have A Clear Mind
2Timothy 1:7 says you have A Sound Mind
Philippians 4:7 says you have A Guarded and Protected Mind
Revelation 17:9 Calls for a Mind of Wisdom
Philippians 4:8-9 Calls for a Mind of Right-Thinking
Ephesians 4:23 says You need A Mind Made New In It's Attitude
Colossians 3:2 says you need A Mind Set on Things Above
1Peter 1:3 tells you to have A Mind Prepared for Action
1Corinthians 2:16 says you have The Mind of Christ
Let's look at 2Timothy 1:7 again. "Sound Mind," can be translated as self-control, good judgment, and discipline. The Amplified says it this way - [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well balanced mind and discipline and self-control.
Maybe there are so many ways this phrase is translated because it's like a process. When I tried to find out what this phrase means, I kept tracing back the Greek words to their roots, and the dictionary kept saying this word is based on another word. So I looked that one up and it was based on yet another word.
sophronismos - discipline, i.e. self-control:--sound mind.
sophronismos is based on sophronizo which means to make of sound mind, to discipline or correct.
sophronizo is based on sophron, which means safe (or sound) in mind, i.e. self-controlled (moderate as to opinion or passion), discreet, sober, temperate.
But finally sophron is based on two Greek words, sozo, which means to save, deliver, heal and preserve, and the word phren, which means the mind or understanding.
The Good Progression!
Put all this together, and it means first, God saved, delivered and healed your mind, which lead to your mind being safe and sound, in the sense that you could now be self-controlled, and moderate in your passions. In other words, by the Power of his Spirit He gave you back the control of your mind! You can now choose to have a disciplined mind, you can choose to let God complete the work in your mind, that he started when he saved delivered and healed that mind. Your mind at this point had potential! This is where you can say the mind is a terrible thing to waste! See, before you could only say, my mind is a terrible thing... and it’s wasted! But now you can have mental training. And that is the next thing that happened, as you got into his word, listened to his voice, obeyed the Word of God, became his disciple - He put you in mental boot camp!
Not Academic - But a Spiritual Mind!!!
This isn't academic, intellectual boot camp. God is not trying to turn you into Dr. Science (A conventional parallel opposed beam irradiation system consisting of two pairs of vertically arranged bilateral units, considering the level of the thermal flux...)
He is wanting to take your brain to boot camp to retrain, all the garbage you’ve been thinking all your life - Negativity, doubt, unbelief, lust, rage, hatred, bitterness. He wants to fill your mind with His Thoughts! He made you of sound mind in discipline and correction. He is the active one working in your life! Finally when you’ve been through all that process, you can say, God gave me a spirit of a sound mind, a self-controlled mind, a disciplined mind!
Interesting posts! Who knew?
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