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The Mind
by Janelle Goodwin THE MIND She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness Proverbs 31:26 The first youth group meeting made a serious impact on my life. We were all gathered around a table, we had to draw questions from a hat. Some of the questions were fun, some inquired about our personality and others asked about our relationship with God. "Did you do your quiet time today?" that was my question. As I sat there waiting for my turn, so many things went through my mind. What is a quiet time? What are they going to think about me if I didn't do it? Did everyone else do their quiet time? As my turn arrived I read my question. I was relieved when they came up with another question for me since I didn't know what a quiet time was. That was enough of a crisis to me to make me interested to find out what is a quiet time? A quiet time is a period of time set aside for prayer and meditation with just you and God. The bible tells us to pray without ceasing and to pray one for another. As long as we stay alert of what is going on around us and we are always continuing in prayer, then we will be able to escape all the sins that the devil throws at us and we can stand before God. God tells us not to worry about anything but to pray about everything. When our hearts are thankful and we offer up our prayers and requests to God, then he will bless us with a peace that no one can understand. This peace that only God can give us will control the way we think and feel. Meditation on the word of God is important because it tells us about Jesus Christ and how we can find eternal life through Him. The word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path and if we memorize the scriptures and talk about them then it is easier for us to obey them. God tells us that He will bless everyone who reads the Bible and everyone who hears and obeys it. Christ has shown us Himself in the word and we must remember to take advantage of it daily. God gave us life so that we could have life more abundantly. He is willing to do above all that we can ask or think. All we have to do is ask and we will receive; search and we will find; knock and the doors will be opened for us. God is more than ready to give good things to all who ask. God should be our intimate friend. Prayer needs to become more of a part of our life so that we can draw closer to God. Try it you'll like it. A true lady of virtue will guide her life and home by the word of God. We have a very important job of being the lady of the house. God has given us the ability to take care of a multi task environment. The climate of the home is developed, depending on how we handle the situations of the home. We are the thermostats to the atmosphere in the home. So how will you know how to guide your life and home unless you study the word of God? You have to have a relationship with God. Your relationship with Him is more important than any other relationship. In order to establish a relationship with anyone you have to spend time with them; therefore, we need to spend time with God in order to get to know Him. The best way to find out how to please God is to spend time with Him. Everyone needs to have a daily quiet time. How much time you spend with God all depends on you. If your desire to know God is strong spend as much time with Him as you can. The time with God needs to be quality time. You may think that you do not have time, but if something is important enough to you, you will make time for it. Remember, if we are faithful to God, He will be faithful to us. If we make the time for Him, He will benefit us with His blessings. Sometimes we have to sacrifice things we see as an importance. Our mindset is not the same as the mindset of God; He needs to come first in our lives. Doing a daily quiet time puts Him in the position He requires. This allows God to know that you have a desire to establish that relationship with Him. In order to get to know God, I needed to start spending time with Him. Not just time, but quality time. As I began establishing my time with God, it became so important to me. It just became a part of who I was. People who knew me knew I was dedicated to my prayer time. I learned how to organize my quiet time. When I started out, it was with just 5-10 minutes reading the scripture readings and answering the questions. Then I began to pray for the requests made at church and adding the praise reports as the requests were answered. As I became dedicated to my quiet time I realized the true meaning to the scripture, the effectual fervent prayer. I would begin to see all of my prayer requests being answered in someway. As I was preparing my things for Bible College it dawned on me that I would be sharing a bathroom with 30 girls. So I began to pray for a sink big enough to wash my hair in each morning. When I went to my assigned dorm, I was looking around, as I checked out the bathroom I noticed a huge wash basin in the corner and immediately God spoke to my soul and said that was the sink I had been praying for. As my time at Bible College went on and I went to each dorm with my friends I noticed that my dorm was the only one with a basin sink in the bathroom. And God reminded me of my prayers. I realized there is power in prayer. When we pray, God asks us to pray believing that He is going to give us the desires of our hearts. John 16:24 says to ask in the name of Jesus, and we will receive. He wants our joy to be full. As we cast our cares on God, He will care for us. Let God know what you want, but be willing change if He has something better in store for you. I began to find powerful scriptures to begin claiming and praying everyday. As I grew deeper into the scriptures I found so many wonderful things. I began to read 5 Chapters of Psalms and 1 Chapter of Proverbs a day. Then as I continued digging deeper to develop my quiet time with God I began to be very specific in my prayers. I would start each session preparing myself for the day. After all, the Bible tells us that we are fighting against the principalities of this world to be ready for battle. I began by dying to myself daily. It is very important that I lay my selfish desire aside and follow the path's God has for me. I literally picture myself lying dead. Then I ask God to create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. I picture Him wiping my heart clean of impurities then I picture Him filling me with His spirit as if He were filling a glass, from my feet to my head, and I allow Him to fill me up to overflowing so that I can spread the spirit to others. Then I pray to put on the whole amour of God so that I can stand against the fiery darts of the devil. I picture putting on my helmet of salvation, my breastplate of righteousness, my belt of truth, and my shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace. I take up my sword of the spirit which is the word of God, and above all I take up my shield of faith. The next thing I pray for is to walk in the spirit so that I won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. I ask for love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, gentleness, temperance and faith. Then I pray for my mind. I pray to think of the things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, good report, praiseworthy and virtuous and STOP all other thoughts from coming into my mind. As I continue, I pray to have ears that hear not and a mouth that doesn't speak the ungodly things of the world. I pray to seek first the kingdom of God, for God to be a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. I pray to let my light so shine before man that they will see my good works and I will glorify my father in heaven. I ask to be in the way so that God will lead me in His direction. I remind myself that even though satan comes in like a flood, God raises the standard. And finally, I remind satan that even though he has come to steal, kill and destroy; Jesus came to give us life and life more abundantly. As I cover these items I begin to pray generally for my family, friends, and church. I lift up the unsaved in the world to send someone to tell them of salvation. I pray for missionaries that they may see the fruit of their labors. I pray for schools and the government and different specific items that are extremely important to me. Then I flip over to the date and I pray for the specific items I have for my family, friends and church. Then I conclude by writing in my prayer journal just some things that are on my heart. But there is one major thing that I cannot forget to do, it is very important to me, and that is to fill in my praise reports. I want to make sure that I give credit back to God for answering my prayers. As I look back through the journal of my life I can see just how good God is to me. When I began the youth group, I had obviously not been having a quiet time with God. Getting involved with this youth group required us to do a daily quiet time. The organization provided us with spiral bound journals, broken down into daily scripture readings that corresponded with the topic we were studying for the season. It was designed with a portion for prayer requests and praise reports as well. Each day brought with the scripture readings a question to help apply it to your life and dig deeper into the topic. At first, I wasn't involved with the Christian living aspect of our youth group. I enjoyed grouping with my friends and going to the planned events. If I did the quiet time journal, I would quickly read the scriptures and fill in the answers with any comments usually just hours before our meeting would start. There were times that even my brother and I would do it together and copy each others. As I continued with the program, God continually purposed in me the desire to get closer to Him. Since the time of salvation, we must renew our minds to the mind of Christ. So, how do we renew our minds? By the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Ghost, who was pored out on us through Jesus Christ our Savior. When we are justified by the grace of God, then we are acceptable to God and given the hope for everlasting life. Because of this justification and hope through the Holy Ghost our minds become new. When we find something that is dirty the only way to have it come clean is by washing it. In order for us to be washed and renewed we must be ready for the changes. We are supposed to follow after Christ as our example. So what kind of mind do we need to have to have the mind of Christ? One that is meek and lowly puts others before themselves the way that Christ did. Christ never sought His own way, even on the cross he said, "Thy will be done." Even though we are in the flesh we do not have to walk after the flesh. The Bible tells us that the weapons of this warfare that we are in against the devil are not carnal, or fleshly, but they are mighty through God. Our weapons are used for the pulling down of the strong holds that the devil places on us. We must throw down our wrong thoughts and everything that we put above the knowledge of God. As we do this we bring obedience of God, then how can we keep our focus on God? We must keep our thoughts and minds on the mind of Christ. In order to have a renewed mind of Christ we must stop the negative thoughts, even before they happen. We need to let the peace that God gives to us control our thoughts, as we use it to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. We need to do the thing that we have learned and heard that Jesus did, and then the God of peace will be with us. We are told to think on these things: whatsoever are true, honest, just, pure, and lovely, virtue, good report and praise worthy. As long as we have our minds filled with these things there will be no room for satan to come in and try to destroy us. The only way we can make sure that our thoughts are right is that we have to make sure that we put the right thing in our minds. The Bible is the best thing to have in your mind. The only way to get focused on the Bible is to read it. Meditation on the word of God is part of a quiet time. After you have made sure that your life is clean and you have made your requests known to God, find out what He wants you to know about Him. Your chance to listen to God is His time to talk during the meditation of His word. You never know, He might answer the biggest question that you have if you would only give Him a chance. One day, my husband and I were talking about our pasts, there was a time when I wasn't living for the Lord I was doing things that corrupted my mind. I was not careful what I allowed my ears hear and my hands to do. Even after I received Christ as my savior I would allow these corrupted things to press on my mind and they would cause me to become very angry. I couldn't understand what was happening to me. Then Chad realized what was happening to me. He helped me to realize how important it was to keep my mind clean. I had opened the door to my mind. My past was oppressing me and keeping hold of my mind. I knew I needed to shut the door to my mind. The next day at church I prayed for God to shut the door to my mind because I wasn't going to live like with this corruption anymore. I still remember seeing Him shut the heaviest door that I've ever seen. Since that day I have not been bothered with the memories that once haunted me and I have been able to live a much happier life. After you have finished praying during your quiet time, stop for a while and meditate on God. Give Him time to respond to you. He may have some important information for you. We get in the same hurried stage that the world is in and we do not give time to the things that deserve our time the most, such as God, home, family and church. Remember not to lose your focus of becoming a Lady of Virtue. How can a Christian make it through life without God? We need a quiet time to help us keep our focus on God. We need a prayer time so that we cast our cares on Him, so that we will have no need to worry. We need the meditation time so that we can learn the will of the Father. And we need the Bible study time so that we can hide the word of God in our hearts so that we will not sin against God. We can not forget to spend time in the word of God. He gave us the Bible as another means of communication with Him. He anointed men to write down the words that He had laid on their hearts or revealed to them in different ways. He has the infallible word that never changes. It is important for us to study to show ourselves approved unto God. He cares about us and has given us a tool to help us live our lives to the fullest. The whole Bible has been given to us by inspiration from God. It is supposed to be used by us to teach us the truth. We must use the Bible to set the standards for our lives so that we can realize what is wrong in our lives. The Bible is the way that God prepares us and makes us fully equipped to do good to everyone. In Psalm 119:1-18 we learn that all of those that follow after the words of God are happy and blessed. All of those who search for God and who always do the will of God are happy and blessed. So, in order to be happy we must reject any compromising evil, negative things of this world and walk fully in the path that God has laid for our lives. I do not know about you, but my desire is to constantly follow the way that God has given in the teachings of His word. I want to have a clean record, so that I will not be a disgrace to God. God has sacrificed His own son for me, so I want to thank Him by living the best that I can for Him. I do not want to go back to the person I used to be before salvation. I want to be constantly changing to be who God wants me to be. We must meditate on the Bible and give it our full respect. As we obey His instructions we will begin to see the happiness in our lives. We must study His teachings and follow His footsteps. We can open our minds and discover the wonderful things of God. A true lady of virtue will guide her life and home by the word of God. We have a very important job of being the lady of the house. God has given us the ability to take care of a multi task environment. The climate of the home is developed, depending on how we handle the situations of the home. We are the thermostats to the atmosphere in the home. So how will you know how to guide your life and home unless you study the word of God? You have to have a relationship with God. Your relationship with Him is more important than any other relationship. In order to establish a relationship with anyone you have to spend time with them; therefore, we need to spend time with God in order to get to know Him. The best way to find out how to please God is to spend time with Him. Everyone needs to have a daily quiet time. How much time you spend with God all depends on you. If your desire to know God is strong spend as much time with Him as you can. The time with God needs to be quality time. You may think that you do not have time, but if something is important enough to you, you will make time for it. Remember, if we are faithful to God, He will be faithful to us. If we make the time for Him, He will benefit us with His blessings. Sometimes we have to sacrifice things we see as an importance. Our mindset is not the same as the mindset of God; He needs to come first in our lives. Doing a daily quiet time puts Him in the position He requires. This allows God to know that you have a desire to establish that relationship with Him. Your quiet time with God is your personal time. You might not need to start out with such an intense program, but rather just starting is making the all important first step. Begin by starting a prayer list, a praise report. Find a bible study from the bookstore with a topic that interests you. As you begin your journey God will guide you in the direction and organization of your quality quiet time with Him. Lady of Virtue Ministries started as Janelle Goodwin attended Bible College in upstate NY. Janelle became burdened to see souls saved from eternal condemnation. Upon returning home from Bible College, she also became burdened to see women of the world develop characteristics of a Proverbs 31 Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |