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Seeking a New Groove

12 Monday Feb 2024

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Hello Readers!  It’s a new week and time for a new post on Renaissance Woman!

I am continuing in my study of the Whole Armor of God described by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:10-18a and am finally moving on from the Shield of Faith to the Helmet of Salvation.

With simply a surface look at the Helmet of Salvation, a few things come to mind.  First is that the helmet protects the head and Christ Jesus is described as “the head”.  Paul does so in the same letter to the Ephesians: “but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ-” (4:15) and again in Colossians 1:18: “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.” 

As I began studying the word “salvation” I also started making a list of scripture passages that stood out to me.  The Old Testament makes the point that salvation belongs to God, is of God, and is God Himself.  2 Samuel 2-3 says, “…The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence.”  Psalm 3:8 states, “Salvation belongs to the Lord.  Your blessing is upon Your people.”  Psalm 27 opens with “The Lord is my light and my salvation…”  Psalm 62:7 says, “In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God.”  I’ll quote just one more: “The Lord has made known His salvation; His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations” (Psalm 98:2).

My study up to this point has caused me to completely agree with those who say the Whole Armor of God is Jesus Christ.  Therefore, He is our Helmet of Salvation just as He is the head of we who are His body and the head over we who comprise His church.  I don’t yet have a clear picture of what this means but it feels significant.  It is an observation I will hold close as I proceed in the study.

The second observation I make is that the helmet protects the head and thus the brain which is the seat of all thought.  I am fascinated by the scientific studies on the brain and how the mind comes to exist.  Our thought patterns are just that: patterns in the brain.  Our thoughts form grooves in our brain and the more we entertain a thought, the deeper the groove thus our thoughts are of paramount importance.

The New Testament agrees.  Thought is a crucial component of Spiritual Warfare.  I’ve already quoted 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 but must do so again: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”.  Verse 6 continues with, “and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”  I’ve linked some articles below that speak of our thoughts forming grooves in our mind.  Changing our thought habits, or forming a new thought groove, is not a simple undertaking.  I don’t know if you have ever tried to actually change your mind but it is difficult.  It can actually hurt.  I wonder if this isn’t what verse 6 is referring to in such harsh language.

I find this to be a difficult verse to understand.  I’ve quoted it from the New King James but other versions aren’t any clearer.  The King James says “And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”  The Amplified does attempt to do just that-amplify-with, “Being in readiness to punish every [insubordinate for his] disobedience, when your own submission and obedience [as a church] are fully secured and complete.” As I look at this verse as a continuance of the one before, I like the idea of considering thoughts as my subordinates because it oftentimes feels as though I am under their control.  There are many Christian Teachers who refer to “The Battlefield of the Mind” and I can’t help wondering if this passage is not speaking of demonic powers but is rather speaking to our thoughts and the deep grooves (strongholds?) they form in our mind as we allow them to repeat as well as the difficulty in redirecting our thoughts from these easy pathways and forming new grooves as we bring all of our thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Whether the passage does refer to thoughts or not, there are many other passages of scripture that stress the importance of our minds-and thus our thoughts-being renewed.  These very words are used by Paul in Romans 12:2: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”  In an earlier chapter of this same Epistle, Paul writes; “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (8:6-7).  Paul’s letter to the Ephesians says this: “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Verses 17 & 18).

Philippians 2:5 says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”.  As I consider all of these passages, I must return to a scripture passage that has been of such great importance to me since my first study on John 3:5.  That passage is Ezekiel 36:26-27: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”

The Greek word translated as “salvation” in The Helmet of Salvation is soterion (G4992) meaning “defender, defense” and is related to soteria (G4991) meaning “rescue, safety, deliver, health, salvation, save, saving.”  Is this the picture the Apostle Paul is intending to convey with his Helmet of Salvation?  That Christ Himself not only rescues and delivers our minds but defends them against thoughts that would seek to destroy our knowing God?  Is he saying also that Christ Himself is our very mind?

I hope to have answers to these questions, and many more, by the end of this particular segment of my study.  I hope you will stay tuned in the upcoming weeks.  Until then, May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, guard all of our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References     

How the Mind Emerges from the Brain’s Complex Networks | Scientific American

How to rewire your brain – Center for Healthy Aging (colostate.edu)

Create New Habits: Cut a New Groove – Bryan Nichols & Associates Psychological Services, Inc. (drnicholsandassociates.com)

The Comparative Study Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers, The Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1984

Strong, James, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 1990

Being of Two Minds

16 Monday Aug 2021

Posted by in Walking in the Way

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I haven’t finished reading Hannah Whitall Smith’s The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life.  It’s not a book I can race through and be done.  There are sentences that arrest me and I have to think on them for a time before I am ready to continue on.  One such is a quote Hannah Whitall Smith included from another book.  She doesn’t give the name of the author nor the book she got it from but writes; “Years ago I came across this sentence in an old book: ‘Never indulge, at the close of an action, in any self-reflective acts of any kind, whether of self-congratulation or of self-despair.  Forget the things that are behind, the moment they are past, leaving them with God’.” 

She goes on to say; “This has been of unspeakable value to me.  When the temptation comes, as it mostly does to every worker after the performance of any service, to indulge in these reflections, either of one sort or the other, I turn from them at once and positively refuse to think about my work at all, leaving it with the Lord to overrule the mistakes, and to bless it as He chooses.”

This paragraph in particular struck me because I found I was indulging in reflections at the end of last week.  Hannah Whitall Smith says these reflections are of two sorts: “either the soul congratulates itself upon its success, and is lifted up; or it is distressed over its failure, and is utterly cast down.”  I tend toward the latter and such were my reflections.  I rehashed every word I’d said, pictured the faces of those I’d spoken to, and tried to decide how my words had been received, whether I’d said things I oughtn’t, and whether or not I’d been a worthy living epistle.  If such thoughts weren’t exhausting enough, I began to think about things other had said, sidelong glances I was sure I’d caught, became convinced I was being talked about behind my back, and was certain what was being said wasn’t positive.  Not that I’d heard anything myself, but I had a feeling…

Looking back, I am struck by how all this felt.  The more I dwelt on what were no doubt my own shortcomings and the little betrayals from so called friends, the smaller my world got.  I felt everything constricting around ME and my body reacted.  Muscles got taut, a band tightened around my head, and my mind was trapped on a hamster wheel of “what if they said this” and “you shouldn’t have said that” and ultimately, “why do you even bother at all?”

I thank God that there does come the “wait a minute” moment.  First, I had to take myself in hand regarding being talked about.  I did not know for certain that what I was thinking was even the truth.  My Mom tells a story of how she was once having similar thoughts and her mentor said to her that no one thought about her nearly as much as she thought about herself.  Harsh words, perhaps, but they stayed with Mom and I have found them of great use in my own dealings with other people.  Chances are I am not nearly as important to people as they are to themselves and the odds of them thinking about me enough to be talking about me are slim.  Even if my feeling was correct and I was being talked about, it isn’t any of my business.  Others do not decide my behavior: the leading of the Holy Spirit decides my behavior so, no matter what, I am to love others with the same love that is freely poured out into me, forgive as I am forgiven, and put everything in His hands. 

And so, this was not a pleasant evening for me but it was educational.  I was astonished at the difference in feeling when I am focused on myself as opposed to living in the flow of the Holy Spirit.  The first is, as I’ve shared, constrictive.  If I’d continued to wallow in it, my life would have become stagnant whereas life lived within the flow of the Spirit is expansive.  I noticed a change in my body the moment I turned my focus from myself and onto Jesus.  My posture improved, my chin lifted, and what was promising to be a raging headache disappeared.

Joyce Meyer has a book called The Battlefield of the Mind.  I haven’t read it but the title has always stuck with me.  I have been thinking of how a battle does take place in my mind.  Romans 8 is one of my favorite chapters in the New Testament.  I return to it over and over and always find something new there and ended up looking at last week’s experience in light of Romans 8.  I hardly know where to start quoting and where to finish because it all flows together so beautifully!  For the sake of space, I will quote verses 5-7: “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.”

Here is warfare indeed.  I have a carnal mind but I also have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).  I choose which mind I am going to have at any given time.  Will I set my mind on things of the flesh or will I set my mind on things above, not on things on the earth? Because I have been raised with Christ Himself, I will seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.  I will remind myself that I have died and my life is now hid with Christ in God.  (Colossians 3:1-3).  I will not worry about what others are thinking about me or what they may or may not be saying about me.  No, I will cast all my cares upon Him knowing that He cares for me (1 Peter 5:7) and not forgetting that He cares for them as well and desires that they too come to know the love of Christ.

I will choose to live a life of trust because, as Hannah Whitall Smith says, “having committed ourselves in our work to the Lord, we shall be satisfied to leave it to Him, and shall not think about ourselves in the matter at all.”  Lord hasten it!

Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from:

The New King James Version of The Holy Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

All other quotes are from The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith, New Spire Edition published 2012 by Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan, “Service”, Chapter 15, Pages 183-194.