State of Mind

"Our state of mind is powerful in it's effects. It can be the enemy that pierces right into our soul and distracts our mind from God." - Oswald Chambers

I don't know if you've noticed yet, but I love Oswald Chambers. I think all my quotes are from him. The man's a brilliant follower of Christ and he always says things exactly how they should be said.

Our state of mind is extremely powerful. It's what makes or breaks us. It's what sets us apart from non-believers, it's what makes us stand out in a crowd. It's what brings glory or brings shame to our Father, our Lord.

It's easy to get sucked into the wrong state of mind. I know, I think essentially this is my most constant and hardest battle in my spiritual and physical life. It's easy for one fleeting thought to set the tone for the rest of the hour, day, week, month, year. Your state of mind controls everything. Whatever state it is, everything you do, say, or think flows out of it. So if you're in a depressed state of mind, you're not going to want to go and preach the gospel to a random stranger. In fact, you probably won't even feel God's prompting to do so, because you're so wrapped up in your own pity party. Or you haven't even left the house, so there's no one to preach to anyway.

If you're state of mind is selfish in any way, whether it's a sexual state of mind, a depressed state of mind, a critical state of mind, a prideful state of mind, whatever it is, it is exhibited to everyone around you. So for you to be in a prideful state of mind and be telling people about how much God loves them, you're effect is negative instead of positive. Because those people you're talking to can see your pride and it's not matching up with what you're saying.

I think the biggest "killer" of the Christian faith are Christian's attitudes. Because we get too caught up in the ways of the world, too caught up in bills, in money, in love, in sex, in ourselves, in whatever...and it alters our attitudes, our thinking, our mannerisms, etc. When it should be the other way around, WE should be affecting the WORLD'S attitude.

If there is ANYTHING draining our spiritual walk with Christ, we are to get rid of it. That doesn't just include material things! That doesn't just include relationships we shouldn't be in! That doesn't just include jobs! In fact, I don't think it really includes those things at all because if we look at it closely we realize that the reason those things drain us spiritually is because they change our state of mind and our attitudes. But getting rid of relationships, jobs, or possesions will not necessarily change our attitudes for the better. The attitude may very well stay the way it is and just find a new way to fulfill itself.

Oh great and mighty One
With one desire we come
That You would reign
That You would reign in us
We're offering up our lives
A living sacrifice
That You would reign
That You would reign in us