Setting Our Minds on things Above

I had one of those moments today where one minute I was completely immersed in a podcast, mentally assuming glorious heights with Jesus, just to come toppling all the way back down to earth by a depressing visit to a shopping store where nothing fit correctly. Do you ever have moments like that? I am always amazed at my capacity to completely disregard whatever amazing soul work the Lord is doing at the slightest shift in my transient, physical nature.

Setting Our Minds on things Above

A couple of months ago, I started studying Eve. I had no idea why at the time, but it ended up being a God-thing. As most things in life are, I am finding. Perusing verses over her life, I realized how in the New Testament, the most defining factor about Eve is that she was deceived.

In 2 Corinthians 11:3, Paul says; “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” 

And later in 1 Timothy 2:14 Paul says; “And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.”

I puzzled over that verse, and to be quite frank, I’m still puzzled. Why was Adam not deceived? Where was Adam? That’s actually my biggest question but its still unanswered so I’ll save it for another time. The point, however, is that Eve was deceived. She knew God in a way none of us ever will on earth, and yet she still succumbed to temptation. She questioned God’s heart towards her in a single, pivotal moment. 

Setting Our Minds on things Above

As I was leaving the store today, downtrodden in heart and bemoaning all of my flaws, a single weighted truth rose to the surface: this is not what is eternal. This is deceptive. It was like in a moment I saw the whole world before me like a beautiful, glimmering mirage. Like a huge curtain that was pulled before all of us, seemingly so real and absorbing, when in truth, it will be swept aside in one movement by our God. And then what stretches before us will be revealed, and it will be REAL. Sometimes I can be so passive about the struggle for my heart. But, the struggle is real.

Like 1 Peter 5:8 tells us; “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

I refuse to live cowering in fear of him as if he is some all-powerful enemy who is in equal proportion to my Master. He is defeated. He is not God’s equal. Jesus saw him fall like lightening from heaven the minute his heart strayed, there was no epic struggle. But he is not passive about stealing my attention. So I need to be on alert, lest I, like Eve, am deceived.

Being deceived is a horrible feeling. Nobody wants to have the wool pulled over their eyes. I certainly don’t, and when I read those passages about Eve, my first thought is, “I’m glad I’m not deceived.”

But the truth is, every day I succumb to deception too. I forget my purpose, my real purpose, and I become a slave to sin and my earthly desires and I let them wage war within my heart. I believe the lie that life is all about what I accomplish, how well I play my part, what I look like, what I think like, etc. I race alongside everyone else, headed nowhere, making mountains out of things that will topple in the blink of an eye.

Setting Our Minds on things Above

I’ve been meditating on Colossians 3 lately. It pops into my mind at random times, and when I pray out loud for my family, its one of the first passages I’ve been praying. It has special significance for what I went through today, “ Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” 

Those verses are so big I cannot even begin to explain them, but I can obey the commands in them.

It’s a simple shift, really. It’s one upward glance of my eyes, that moment when I realize that the picture the world is painting before me is on a canvas that flaps in the wind, forever subject to the will of God. The demands the world makes on my attention are not the same demands the Father makes, and I have to guard my heart from running after the wind, along with the world.

It reminds me of that beautiful hymn, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

Let’s say like David did in Psalm 119:37; “Turn my eyes away from worthless things.”

And let’s fix our minds on the True One.

What steps can you take to make sure that your mind is set on things above?

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