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HOW TO BE SPIRITUALLY MINDED

Being spiritually minded is a matter of life and death. Paul said in Romans 8:6, “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” The phrase “set the mind on the Spirit” translates a noun phrase, phronēma tou pneumatos—“mindset of the Spirit.” There is no good one-word English equivalent for phronēma. It is not just “mind” but also “attitude.” And not just “mindset” but also “attitude-set.” It is the frame and disposition of our mind. To say that we have a “phronēma of the Spirit” is to say that the Spirit is shaping our mind-attitude-set according to his own. It exalts Christ and values God and cherishes the Word of God and sees people and things with a relentless God-consciousness.

Realize your outer nature is wasting away and inner nature must be renewed by setting your mind on things that are above.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

Take radical steps to keep your mind pure.

You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. (Matthew 5:27-29)

Make God the gladness of all your joys.

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. (Psalm 43:4)

Remember Jesus’ warning about what chokes spiritual life: cares, riches and pleasures of life.

Those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. (Luke 8:14)

The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. (Mark 4:19)

- John Piper

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