Our minds are rarely in neutral. There are 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week and over 700 hours in a month. With the exception of when we are sleeping our minds are usually clicking. We are thinking, planning, remembering, among other things. But what are we thinking about? What is being hatched in your mind? What is passing through your mind? What are you dwelling upon?
Our computers employ a helpful tracking device to enable us to better interact with websites. Many of us are familiar with ‘cookies’. For those who are not, cookies are:
“parcels of text sent by a server to a web browser and then sent back unchanged by the browser each time it accesses that server. HTTP cookies are used for authenticating, tracking, and maintaining specific information about users, such as site preferences or the contents of their electronic shopping carts.” (wikipedia)
If I open up my folder of web cookies I can see that spend a lot of time on this site, Amazon.com, Westminster Books, Boston.com (New England Sports), ESV.org, among others. This is helpful for me to catalog online trends and patterns.
However, what do my spiritual cookies look like? How shocked would I be to open up the file of my mind, which I share with God himself, and examine what I think about?
Who is the hero of my meditations? Who’s glory do I aim for? How much time is spent in prayer? How many times do I return to site of God’s simultaneous explosion of holiness, righteousness and love? I am speaking of the tear drenched soil of Calvary.
We can learn a lot about ourselves when we inspect this file in our minds. We know of our priorities. We learn of our view of sovereignty, for if we do not pray then we do not believe he is sovereign (we think we are). We learn of true contrition, for it is demonstrated by a bemoaning of sin and a delight in Christ. We learn of our love or disdain for the word; for if we love it then it will be racing across our minds like a CNN ticker. We learn of our love for others as we either pray for or neglect them. We learn of our true anticipation of heaven, for we long for what we love. We learn of our thankfulness or our pride, in the presence or absence of thankfulness in prayer. And on this list could go.
I invite you today to be intentional about your thoughts. If you have truly been raised up with Christ then your thoughts should be arrested and affixed to Christ:
Colossians 3:1-4 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Time is ticking, you and I have less time to make much of Christ then we did yesterday. Let’s arrest our thoughts (2 Cor. 10.5-6) and affix them upon that which is today and forever will be infinitely glorious.
