"Now I see who I am. Loved by you. The object of your long affection. Identity established. Future secured."
This will be more meditation than persuasion.
First, let me persuade you
Here’s the small piece of persuasion, then the meditation.
#1 Who matters to you will determine who you allow to influence you. This will directly—without fail—impact the quality of your life.
#2 So make sure the person whose opinion matters most is the most praiseworthy person you can find. That person has tremendous power to shape the soundtrack of your mind.
Some examples:
• If your boss’s opinion of you matters most, work will be a treadmill.
• If your kids’ opinion of you matters most, you’ll chase respect.
• Social media has convinced us (and we’ve agreed) basic strangers' opinions matter most.
#3 The gospel truth is that what Jesus thinks about you is what’s most important. Is there anyone more praiseworthy?
Underline and highlight those two sentences.
They will change your life.
#4 What you think about you will determine the direction your life goes. This is where the challenge is.
#5 Sanctification (the Bible’s word for the act and process of being made holy) is in significant part the work of allowing what Jesus thinks about you to become what you think about you.
Underline and highlight that sentence.
It will change your life.
I would love if I could persuade you to allow yourself to fall fully into the good intent of the Apostle Paul and let “God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23
In other words, surrender to the process of letting Jesus’ thoughts become your thoughts. This is a way of expressing what the Apostle Paul means when we tells the Corinthians that “we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2)
The mind of Christ is the new, deeper, richer, better way to think about your life available to you through the grace of God.
Now, meditate
How you talk to you matters.
This isn’t about “manifesting” or “speaking things into existence”, it’s about what you say to yourself. No one can influence you more than you, because no one talks to you as much as you.
For a good part of my life, what I said to myself were words I wouldn’t say to my most bitter critic or worst enemy. They were devastatingly brutal. If what I said to me were put on a digital billboard on the busiest road in my town, I’m not certain I would have been allowed to be a pastor anymore.
This is why we need sanctification happen through our meditation. Christian meditation is a cleansing of our self-talk. A renewal of our thinking about ourselves. A change from what we think about us to what Jesus thinks about us.
Instead of the toxic, traumatic, and troubling world of our self-talk, the mind of Christ leads us to meditate on the admirable, lovely, excellent talk of Jesus. (see Philippians 4:8)
What is that?
The excellent talk of Jesus are the truths in God’s word about what God has made—you and I, God’s crowning creation God says is “very good.” (Genesis 1:31)
Meditations are what you put on repeat until the thought becomes the default.
Try it. Repeat Genesis 1:31.
I am made very good.
Look yourself in the mirror and say it.
Say it enough and you’ll rewire how you think.
Think about it like this.
God’s truth is
heart language
that becomes
mind language
that becomes
life language.
Here are three more.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14
I was made with awe, oh God. My body is an object of awe—my skin, my fingers, my eyes, my ability to heal from a cut. All of it, the study and definition of awe. I was made with wonder. That I can feel touch, smell scents, hear birds, see sunrises, taste sweetness, and experience being loved is the embodiment of delight and wonder. My enjoyment of that goes back to you Lord as gratitude and praise.
You have crowned me with glory and honor.
Psalm 8:5
My very existence has a weight and substance to it no one can accurately count but you. My life and my meaning and the purpose for which I was put here are substantial. My reason for being here is bright and full of hope. My life has dignity and decency, majesty and consequence. No one can take that away. You, God, placed this on my head like a crown, cementing my status as a person of consequence, hope, and vision.
You redeem my life from the pit and crown me with love and compassion.
Psalm 103:4
Life’s pits don’t define me. I may have been in one, but I wasn’t left in one. The pit tried to name me as hated and worthless. And it almost succeeded in defining me forever. But you, Lord, picked me up and bought my life back. Now I see who I am. Loved by you. The object of your long affection. Identity established. Future secured.
The heart asks, "how can this be true of me?"
Beloved, it’s because “no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.”
2 Corinthians 1:20
- Pastor Scott Marshall, Wichita First Church of the Nazarene
Here’s where we’ve been in this series on the mind of Christ
Part 1 | The mind upgrade you missed
Part 2 | You’re one thought away from peace
Part 3 | Your logic can't love you back
Part 4 | What Jesus thinks is important