“You (God) will keep him in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you” Isaiah 26:3 (NIV).

What is the mind? You would be surprised that there is no single, agreed upon and  unified definition that captures what exactly the mind is. Those in the medical professions (Psychiatric and Mental Health professionals) have their own functional definitions. Some in the field of Psychology have coined the mind to be ‘the seat of human consciousness”. Others have argued that there are some semantic problems when we refer to human self-consciousness as the mind. The reason they say is simply because consciousness is only a small portion of mental processes, and therefore, consciousness and mind are thus not synonymous. However, my goal in this article is not to join in the psychological argument of what the mind is or not, but rather; to expose us to the biblical purpose of the mind as documented in the word of God.

The mind of a man is one important part of "Man" that God is really interested in. In the beginning, God made Man a spirit being, which has a soul, and lives in the body (1Thessalonians 5:23). So basically, man is a tri-partite being comprising of his spirit, soul and body. There is a fundamental misconception however in the world today about who people think they really are. The Bible says that God is a Spirit (John 4:24) and if God is a Spirit, and He made Man in His own image (Genesis 1:26), then it would be true if we call man a spirit being. The soul of man on the other hand is the seat of a man’s awareness. After God finished making man a spirit being, He actually wanted him (man) to find expression by living. So, God formed the body of man from the dust and put man’s spirit and soul in it (the body that was formed from the dust). The point here is this, the body of a person is not actually who they are. This is why when a person dies; his body remains lifeless forever because what actually gives that body expression (spirit and soul) had left such a body.

Let’s quickly examine the composition of a man’s soul. This aspect is also made up of three distinct parts which are: the mind, the will and the emotion. The mind is actually the thinking faculty and it also houses every thoughts of man. There is a positioning that God wants our minds to be in at every point in time. The reason there are lots of wickedness on the earth is simply because people have allowed their minds to drive them crazy. They have not allowed their minds to take the necessary posture with God Who created it. As a result of this, all manners of evil and wickedness crept in unawares. Romans 1:28 was explicit enough about those kinds of minds. It says “And so, since they did not see it fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave them over to base and condemned mind to do things not proper or decent but loathsome..” (Amplified). Let’s get this Scripture straight here. The first reason God gave man a mind is first and foremost to know Him (God).

Any mind that does not know God or acknowledge Him is set for destruction. The mind is given man to love God with it. Look at the way Jesus Himself said it “and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with your entire mind and with all your strength”.  (Mark 12:30, ESV). One of the functions of your mind is for loving God who is the Maker of it. Your mind cannot be full of the love of God and also be full of hatred for a fellow mankind. This is why Apostle Paul admonishes us on the things to engage our minds upon. Philippians 4:8 says, think on whatever is true and honorable, whatever is just and pure, and whatever is lovely and commendable. The truth of the matter is this, the human mind is designed to always think about something at every point in time. Just like a computer system, whatever you feed into it is the output you will also get. When you input jargons into your mind, the feedback you get would not be different from jargons. “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come…” says Jesus in Mark 7:21 (NIV).

So, perhaps you are reading this article; and you have not completely taken charge of how you use your mind, or probably you want to start exercising your mind to stay put on positive thinking and concentrate more on God, the solution is simple. Isaiah 26:3 says “You (God) will keep him in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you” Isaiah 26:3 (NIV). Learn to think more about God and his goodness towards you. Always retain God in your consciousness and your thoughts. Your mind is created to retain God in it and therefore, be God-filled. All you need do is to renew your mind to think correctly. To renew the mind simply means - to re-teach, retrain the mind to begin to think in a different way. Always re-evaluate the things you know and think upon. I know there are thousands of motivational books out there that have addressed how human minds can be engaged positively. However, the best book that can so much help in the line of helping the mind is the Bible (the word of God through which the mind was created).

Finally, you can take charge of the thoughts in your mind by the word of God. Apostle Paul admonishes that one can put every thoughts that may not want to retain the knowledge of God in control through the same word of God. 2^nd Corinthians 10:5 “says we can take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (NIV). The one and only true way that the mind can know absolute peace is when it is established in Christ, allowing the peace of God to reign in it. One of the greatest man that ever walked the face of the earth documented in proverbs 4:23 that a mind that is kept with so much diligence brings forth the good things of life. Whatever a man put his mind into actually becomes successful - that is how powerful the mind is. It is not possible to have a negative mind and a positive life. Cultivate the habit of retaining God in your mind and consciousness and you would experience everything working out for you in the positive way.

Thank you for reading.