Mind & Heart

Mind and Heart
2/10/06
Activity is born of thought and in turn begets more thought. A man with a busy life learns how to navigate his thoughts like a ship on the sea. He becomes skilled at making decisions and setting priorities. His skills bring him joy, and it becomes grievous to him to be still. In inactivity his skill of thought lies untended and he watches it become dull. It is hard to warrant the sacrifice of a skilled mind, and harder to justify unfulfilled labors. What good does inactivity do?

One period of inactivity in a man’s life is sleep. It brings refreshing of the mind and body. But what does inactivity in day-time accomplish? It restores the soul (Ps 23:2,3).

We hear our soul speaking to us in the mind through thought. But the soul speaks in more subtle ways from the heart and spirit. Stress, is one way, and indicates that the heart and mind do not agree. Fear is another way, and indicates the heart and spirit do not agree. And weariness indicates that the spirit of a man, which brings him conversations from the Holy Spirit and angels, both good and bad, is not being served by the mind. All 3 of these situations warrant restoration by the Lord. So God brings peace . . . “at-one-ness” as one definition reads. It is a peace which passes, or by-passes the understanding of the mind. When the mind catches up to what the Lord has done, it becomes renewed (Rom 12:2).

The mind was not created as our leader; it was created to be our servant. The mind will drive the body into the ground. The mind will lock the heart in a cage. We were designed to have the influence of the heart, to temper the mind. The mind will not take risks that cannot come to a logical conclusion. The heart has courage, and therefore can take risks for an unseen benefit. This is how we are able to marry, and other such ventures of the heart. The logical man finds comfort in his mind. He knows that fools do not develop the skills of knowledge, and common sense. Yet good judgment, discernment, and wisdom are a gift imparted to the spirit of a man, teaching him to apply spiritual principles to life-situations. One way the heart enters into this process by loving justice and hating evil. Without the heart and spirit involved, the mind would cause us to be legalistic, cold, and living within such narrow parameters that those things we once loved would become excluded.

In quietness and stillness a man’s love becomes deepened, endurance is lengthened, and patience grown. Though the mind in itself would not set a high value on these things, the heart that loves excellence values them. And the issues of life come from the heart (Prov 4:23 & Lk 6:45).

Sometimes we are afraid to listen to our heart, often expressed through emotions. We value the controls set on us by a skillfully trained mind. We assess our worth by the end-products of our mind; actions successfully carried out. The worth of the heart tried in fire may be over-looked in our busyness. But the heart has a special place with God. He works graciously with our issues, even pardoning us when our conscience is over-active (1Jn 3:19,20). He has plans for us, plans to prosper us, to give us a hope and a future (Jer 29:11). His plans for us are good because God has a heart and loves us. We can trust in His heart. His redemptive work in our hearts causes us to love also. Since we are created in His image, I believe our hearts will one day be as His, just as we gain the mind of Christ little-by-little. I’d like to encourage you to not put your trust in your mind, but in the redemptive work of Christ in our entire mind, heart, and spirit; our soul. As we enter into the rest which trust brings, our labors will come from a restored soul. Amen.