A Sound Mind

        Well, I just finished the AARP driving course that was 8 hours of online activities. It told me some new things, and also told me some old things that I already knew, like my mind is changing and I may have the tendency to forget things more and more. I may have known that but forgot about it. It did remind me of the importance of the mind and how it has to multi task things as you drive taking in information from sight, sound, feeling and how all of this can be affected by your emotions. You are the greatest advisor on things concerning your own mind. God has made some statements about your mind through the writings of the Apostle Paul. Second Timothy 1:7 says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

        The word that is translated here as “sound mind” also has the meaning of “sobriety, self control and discipline.” When you put the thoughts together, you come up with a “sound mind.” We used to use a term about other people called, “scatterbrained.” It meant that you never knew what they were going to do next. We might also say that they had bats in the belfry. In other words, as God has said, they were not in possession of a “sound mind.” In this case, it is God that is doing the evaluation of your mind. We should be concerned about our minds status, of course, but God has done something wonderful for us and as Paul has mentioned to young Timothy, He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a “sound mind.” Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ should have an attitude of self control and discipline in their lives. There are some people who go through life continually joking or playing the joker or always being the showman or the center of attention but when trouble comes to another or there is a catastrophe people who know the joker will not go to them for help or for counsel or for advice and certainly not for prayer. Those will be the times you search out a person who has the qualification of a person with a “sound mind” or one who is in control and well disciplined. It should be our desire to be that type of person. When I want answers to life's questions, I go to a person who manifests the characteristics of one who is in possession of a sound mind or self control or of Christian discipline. So, how do you get to be a person like that? You begin and maintain a regular input of God's Word. John MacArthur once said that you should be in the Bible so much that when you are cut, you bleed “Bible.” You get the idea. Our lives here are short when compared to history and certainly short when compared to eternity. You probably have less than a hundred years to use your “sound mind” for the things of God. My Father, though not a preacher, seemed to always get it right when a decision had to be made or when someone came for help or when he discipline an unruly son. I mentioned before that I had found his Pocket Testament League New Testament with his name in it. The name was placed on the decision page in 1933. He was a man that exhibited “sound mind.” His last thoughts in death were, “Who is going to take care of Mom.” His life, more in his latter years, was filled with an input of God's Word as he would sit in his chair with the earphones on listening to God's Word for hour. May our lives be filled with the input through reading, listening, meditating, memorizing and even hearing God's Word. In the end, you will become more and more a person who possesses that sound mind. Praise god today for the wonderful gifts that He has given to us, especially the power of a sound mind.