You Have a Sound Mind! (3)

“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”        2Ti 1:7 NKJV

You say, “What is this ‘sound mind’ that God says He has given us?” The original Greek word means “sane, rational, logical, realistic, and reasonable.” It includes qualities such as: (1) Being self-controlled. It’s not controlled by anyone or anything outside of itself—including people, circumstances, impulses, emotions, intellect, and especially not fear. It stays in control at all times. Even when faced by problems with no easy solutions, it remains anchored to the truth as defined by God and His Word. (2) Being discerning. It distinguishes wisely between alternatives. It discerns between reality and fantasy, good and evil, effective and ineffective, worthwhile and worthless. It’s the faculty that enables us to make good decisions in difficult situations. (3) Being focused. Like a laser beam, it has the capacity to lock in on a desired target. Like a finely tuned receiver, it can minimize distortion and resist competing sound waves. It limits interference, uncertainty and confusion. Once it’s “set on task,” a sound mind will help you concentrate your energies on fulfilling the important priorities in your life. (4) Being orderly. It is a process-oriented mind, operating with cause/effect logic. It’s concerned with getting you from A to B—goal to realization—by a series of orderly steps that contribute to the fulfillment of your purpose. You are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps 139:14). And the God Whose mind created you is reflected in the mind He gave you to use. Knowing who you are, now go forward and experience “life…more abundantly” (Jn 10:10).

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