Focus Scripture
“I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
— 2 Timothy 1:3–7 (KJV)
Introduction
This fear that Paul is talking about in verse seven is not the fear or the reverence of God, but he is referring to being cowardly or being timid. But he is encouraging Timothy, who was the young pastor, to be bold in the power and the love and the sound mind that God has given him. And this power that Paul was encouraging Timothy—and encouraging us—to walk in is so we would be able to face the challenges.
When Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, it was because he knew that Timothy was facing challenges, and he was encouraging Timothy to know that because of the Spirit of God in him, he had the power to do the assignment that God had given him.
The Daily Battle of the Mind
Every day, from the moment we wake up, our minds start processing. We think about our failures of yesterday, our victories, the tasks of the current day, how much time we have to do each activity, what we will be doing after this activity. What should I eliminate to eliminate the anxiety of the day, the cares of the day? The list goes on.
How am I going to deal with this challenge that is before me today? What can I do to have a different outcome? These are some of the things that go through our minds. But like Pastor Rod encouraged us to understand, we are told to think about what we are thinking, and most of all, we have to make sure that it is aligned with the Word of God.
The Armor of God and a Sound Mind
The Bible lets us know that we are in a spiritual war, and that we must put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the enemy, Ephesians 6:11. Part of the armor of God is having the helmet of salvation on. It protects the mind and gives us sound thinking.
So just as the helmet of salvation that Paul wrote about in the book of Ephesians, Paul encourages Timothy from prison to remind him of what God has given him and all of us believers. Paul writes: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
And some translations do not say “sound mind.” The New King James Version says “sound mind,” but the ESV will say “self-control,” or the NIV will mention “self-discipline.” This sound mind helps us to walk in the Spirit and not to fulfill the lust of the flesh. This sound mind helps us to differentiate between right and wrong, and know what is beneficial to our soul and what will cause us to drift away.
Protecting the Gift God Has Given
So we have to fight. We have to shift to protect this gift, because this is a divine gift from God. And just like any gift that somebody who we love, who we care about, gives us, we value it. And God has given each one of us a sound mind.
This is something that each believer has, because if you have acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit indwells you. The Holy Spirit will enable you and me to have a sound mind. This sound mind speaks of a mind that is stable, that is focused, that is sober, and alert.
And even in the book of 1 Peter, it tells us that we have an adversary, the devil, who walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But Peter encourages us to resist him, and how do we resist the enemy from making our minds unstable? We have to resist him with the Word of God, the blood of Jesus, and in the name of Jesus. We have to be steadfast in our faith.
A Sound Mind and Spiritual Stability
A sound mind is an emotionally stable mind. It will not be double-minded, as James mentioned in James 1:8. It speaks about the person who is asking for wisdom, in faith, not in doubt, because when we have doubt, that means there will be a division in the mind. Here is what James said:
“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.A double minded man is unstable in all his ways”. — James 1:6-8 (KJV)
So when we have a stable mind, we are emotionally stable. We will not be led by feelings, we will not allow our feelings to be our guide, but the word of God will be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
Guarding the Mind and Resisting the Enemy
The enemy comes to destabilize us in our emotions, with worries, anxiety, fear, doubts, lies, unforgiveness, bitterness, resentment, not letting go of offenses, anger, but it is because the Spirit of God dwells in us. We have the power to exercise self-control, to have sound judgment, to make wise decisions, and again, to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
A sound mind, this is the gift that God has given, is a peaceful mind. It will do like what Isaiah 26 encourages us to do: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You.” When we have a sound mind, our mind will be peaceful, but we know we have to fight to protect it. We have to shift because the cares of life and the challenges we face can cause us to become unstable, become too doubtful, like as Peter was walking out on the water. All was well until he started looking around, and that’s when he started to sink. So we have to keep our mind on God. We have to set our affections on things a sound mind would think according to the Word of God.
You and I have to discipline our mind to study and to meditate on the Word of God so it can guide us. The Word of God says, trusting the Lord with all of your heart, leaning not unto your own understanding, but in all of our ways acknowledging Him, and He will direct our path.
Because we have the mind of Christ, we have a sound mind, and we have to endeavor—we have to fight to keep that mind, because even as Joyce Meyers, who wrote a book called The Battlefield of the Mind, states, the enemy is always fighting you, he’s always planting lies, but we have to bring those thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ. We have to recognize the lies of the enemy, and we can only recognize the lies of the enemy when we know the Word of truth, when we know who we are in Christ, and what God has said about us. And how Paul was encouraging Timothy, I encourage each one of us: we have a gift. It’s a precious gift. We have to protect it. And sometimes, because of carelessness, because of lack of discipline, because of so many things, we can open a door.
I was mentioning something to my cousin, and he was asking me what door have I left open, and I didn’t understand him, but he was talking about spiritual doors that we leave open in our lives that the enemy can come in. And he was talking about anger, and fear, and doubt, and so many things that we allow to come into our lives. But we have to ask the Lord, “God, is there a leakage in me today? Is there a door that I have allowed?” Because the enemy likes to get a foothold, then it becomes a stronghold in our lives. But we have to tear it down with the Word of God.
And so now, like I said, we have to be renewed in our spirit, and the cares are so many challenges. You know, the enemy is relentless. He is relentless, and he wants to tear it down, but we tear it down with the Word of God.
The Word of God encourages us not to be weary in well-doing, knowing that we have a reward if we faint not, and we have to protect our mind. No matter what the challenges that you are facing, that I am facing, we have to encourage ourselves. We have, like Paul says, to stir up the gift, stir up that fire, that flame. Remind yourself, when we have a sound mind, we remember the faithfulness of God. Remember the faithfulness of God, how we have heard testimonies about how God did it for others. So God will do it for me, because He is no respecter of persons.
So when we have a sound mind, we believe, we trust in the faithfulness of God, we believe in the character of God. So I just want to encourage you, that even as we are in this season where Pastor Rod is encouraging us toward the mind shift that he spoke about on Sunday, that we won’t allow the challenges of our lives to steal our joy, that the joy of the Lord will be our strength, that we will ask God to give us a song in our season, and that we will put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. We will encourage ourselves, even when we can’t pray for ourselves.
Encouragement in Community and Holding Fast to a Sound Mind
God has put us in a community. Some of you are in care ministries. Some of you have your own personal prayer partner. That’s someone who will pray for you, because sometimes—many times—people make it seem like we are always on the mountaintop. But many times we are in the valley, and sometimes we get wounded.
You get blindsided, and you get sideswiped, or something, and you lose your focus. But that is when you come back to the body of Christ, and you enter the gates, enter the house of God, and you are around like-minded people. You are encouraged, and they are encouraged, to know that this is a momentary affliction—it is just temporary. And that many are the afflictions of the righteous, but God delivers them out of them all. And this too shall pass, that God is with you, even when you don’t understand, even when you don’t see the way, that He is at work in you. He is preparing you.
He’s doing a work in you that eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, neither has entered into the heart of man. So know that you have the mind—we have the mind of Christ. God has given us not a spirit of fear, but of power, to face whatever challenges we are encountering in our daily lives, and of love, that we love God with all of our hearts, soul, mind, strength—everything—and that we have a sound mind. We have the mind of Christ, and that greater is He that’s in us than he that is in the world. And if God be for us, who can be against us? So be encouraged. We have this gift of a sound mind, and we have to shift to protect it at all costs. Amen.
Prayer
So, Father God, we thank You this morning. We thank You. This is the word we already know, but we thank You for the reminder that we have the mind of Christ, that, God, this is what You have given us—a sound mind, God.
And Father, when our minds are aligned, when our minds are fixed on You, when we look beyond our limited vision, God, and see from Your perspective, God, we would be encouraged, God, that this too shall pass. So, Father, we pray that no matter where we find ourselves, God, we’ll tell ourselves that we have the mind of Christ. This is what You have given us, God, and every good and perfect gift comes from You, God.
So we thank You for the mind. We thank You for the whole armor of God. We thank You for the helmet of salvation that will protect our minds. Oh, God, that we would fortify ourselves with the word of truth, oh, God, so we can dispel every lie of the enemy, God. So we thank You, and we praise You. We thank You for hearing our cry. Thank You for being our burden-bearer as we lay our requests at Your feet, and we thank You for the grace to wait until You answer them.
In Jesus’ name, I pray with thanksgiving. Amen. Amen.