Now set your mind and heart to seek the LORD your God.                   1 Chronicles 22:19

What does it mean to actually set our minds on God? The Bible says, “as a man thinks in his heart, so he is” (see Proverbs 23:7). This means whatever you are thinking about is going to eventually show up in your actions. We can’t help it! God made us to become like whatever we behold. The word “mind” in the Greek is the word phroneo meaning “to think, to consider, or to ponder”. It carries the idea of intense reflection.*

I’ve heard it said, “Your thought life is how you talk to yourself.” When we go after having a renewed mind, we understand that what we think about, consider, or ponder throughout our day needs to change. Our “stinking thinking,” as Joyce Meyer says, needs to stop. We can’t renew our minds if we are not willing to take responsibility for our thought life. We can’t always help what comes into our mind but we can control whether or not it stays there. By the power of the Holy Spirit working in us, we can change!

Let’s take a quick look at what it means to make up our minds on things above as the Bible describes it (see Philippians 4:8). Have you ever stopped to consider that your mind has a mind of its own? We have to learn to set our minds. What do I mean by that? Just like it says, we have to take our thought life to a higher place. We have to settle into a comfortable place where we’re actually reproducing healthy thoughts. It’s like when you’re learning to make bread — it takes practice to get it right, to get in the groove, so that the dough has just enough air with just enough strong gluten strands. You can’t knead it too much, but you also can’t neglect the process either.

* Renner, Rick. Sparkling Gems (Page 19) Published 2003. Print.