Mind Set (Colossians 3:2)

Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

Colossians 3:2

As I read this verse this morning, I finally caught that setting my mind on something is what produces mt mindset. If I set my mind on pessimistic things, then I will have a pessimistic mindset. If I train my thoughts on the positive, then I will have an optimistic mindset. Better than the best of human mindsets is the Heavenly mindset — the mind that is set on the things of Heaven.

The Bible has a great deal to say about what is in Heaven. The one feature that every description has in common is this: God. The thing that makes Heaven is the immediate, uninhibited, persistent presence of God. This means that the mind set on things above is the mind set on God. Heaven is where God is regularly and freely praised. Heaven is where the prayers of the saints are offered up as incense before the throne of God. Heaven is where service to God is unfettered by the constraints of fatigue and hunger and where obedience to Him is finally complete and easy.

Who would not want to think about that?

Paul exhorts the Colossian believers to set their minds on these things because he knows that the world is full of distractions. As a Californian, I have a great deal of experience with distractions. We have billboards — some of them digital and regularly changing — about every quarter of a mile (maybe less) along some sections of freeway. It is an easy thing to be distracted. Add in the bizarre things people do with their vehicles (some of the things seen painted on vehicles and in stickers affixed to same makes one wonder if the person is not in violation of one law or another), the strange things people can be seen doing in their vehicles (I have seen men shaving with electric shavers, women doing makeup, and all manner of other thing), and the parade of poor decision-making that is the Los Angeles freeway system and the freeways are rife with distraction. The goal is to set my mind on what needs to be done and in that way arrive safely at my destination. Likewise, Paul exhorts me to set my mind on the things above — God Himself, praising God, praying to God, obeying God freely and fully — and make those the goal that leads me through the distractions of this world.

The world is a mental minefield of distractions. My mindset will either send me walking right over those mines and becoming distracted or will guide me safely through.

Let my mind be set on God and the things above that the distraction minefields not waylay me.