Loving God with Your Mind

Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind.’

My fingers tapped across the screen rapidly as I responded to her message. I had been feeling this familiar unease creeping back in, and it led me to reach out to a friend. I caught myself running back into the kid’s rooms after laying them down to ensure that they we’re sleeping safe and sound. I was having these weird dreams, and waking up randomly in the middle of the night.

I don’t like feeling scared. I like to believe that the Lord has brought me through that season of fear regarding the safety of my children. He’s given me a promise to cling to and friends to speak truth.

In spite of this, ever so often something triggers inside of me. I start to fall back into those old habits that are rooted in fear. I know the truth in my heart that fear is NOT from the Lord. I know that His perfect love even casts it out.

“What do you do when it’s keeping you awake in the middle of the night?” I asked her. She responded with such an earth shattering revelation. One that reminds you God’s people are the hands and feet of Jesus. And goodness YES, our words do have the power of life inside of them!

“You can pray that God would protect your mind while you sleep. The battle between the enemy doesn’t rest just because we are sleeping.”

Wow right? There’s a war, but God’s word is the exact armor that we need to combat. And it’s no wonder God commands us to love Him with our minds too. In all His heavenly wisdom He knows that where love is fear cannot be.

The battle is a lot less like what comes to mind when I envision war. The battle really rages on inside my thoughts. It creeps in and whispers it’s faint lies. If. I’m not vigilant, combined with the perfect amount of emotional trauma, it can bloom into fear. However, if in our minds the love and protection of God reigns the enemy is cast out. Praise God.

Sometimes it’s easy to know the truth of God’s word, but truth without application is just truth. So I want to give you three tips on the practical things I did to combat the reappearance of fear that I mentioned above and some ways you can love God with your mind.

First, figure out the trigger. Then get RID of it. In this specific circumstance my social media consumption was astronomical in comparison to my time in the word. Whatever you feed the most will be the strongest when the battles come. We have to starve our flesh and feed our spirit so that when the attacks come we are prepared. If you’re feeling extra anxious and see fears resurfacing be brave enough to check that screen time, and measure it against your time in God’s word. After all if you truly love someone you’ll spend lots of time with them. Love God with your mind by protecting it from too much media and filling it with the truth of God. Maybe a fast is in order like in my situation.

Second, find a godly friend who will speak truth. The Bible says kind words of a friend are sweeter than honey. In my story, my sweet friend offered me some new insight to the schemes of the enemy so that I could be aware of how to prepare. I’m sure she gained that knowledge from a similar struggle of her own. So thank God that she leaned on the Lord and someone gave her that nugget of truth. It gave me life and hope and was just what I needed. While it’s great to have godly friends, if you don’t that is okay too. Pray that the Lord would bring you someone to speak truth over you and encourage you. Get involved in a church or bible study where people can pray for you. We were created to be the body of Christ. We love God with our minds when we can lean into His body and glean wisdom from past storms of our brothers and sister in Christ.

Third, I took my friend’s advice and I prayed that God would protect my mind while I slept. When God gives you a nugget of wisdom from His spirit through a friend we would be wise to revere it and apply it. There is SO much power in prayer. God uses our pain to help us realize our need for Him. His power is great in our weakness and He knows all my guards are down when I’m asleep. He is faithful to take up residence where I literally can’t. We can love the Lord with our mind by inviting Him into our mind to take captive our thoughts. Pray to Him friend. He is faithful to answer.

So to recap loving the Lord with our mind is a command that Jesus knew we would need in our battles against things like fear. There are three practical ways that you can love God with your mind. One, get in God’s word more than you fill your mind with media. Two, surround yourself with godly friends who will speak truth. And lastly pray for God to fill the gaps as He is made strong in our weaknesses. Now go to battle against fear because you already have the victory in Jesus.