P4E.152 The Best Safety Device is a Careful Man - Part 13

Construction Site Sign

A safe man is careful with: His thought life (cont'd).

In the last post I spoke of needing help. There's good news and bad news. The good news is that with God there is always help and hope. The "bad" news is that to maintain that hope it takes hard work. Many times I am unwilling to put in that hard work.

"Work" has a bad rap in the community of Believers because we get hung up on the "salvation by grace and not by works." Understanding that we do no work to obtain salvation, I'm talking about the work that bears spiritual fruit as a result of knowing Christ and desiring to become more like Him.

Jesus said, "My Father is always working even to this day and I Myself am working."

So, here's the "work" I'm talking about:

My natural tendency is to be friendly with the world, its ways and its values. The connection I finally made is that when Scripture talks about "the flesh" it's talking about the physical world that I experience with my senses. So, the hard work I undertake is to resist my natural tendency toward my flesh and to change the way I think, act and talk so that I am systematically rejecting worldly values and embracing Godly values. This is an internal conflict and if I'm to be careful with my thought life it needs to be addressed.

Scripture puts it this way:
"...do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit, For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God...those who are in the flesh cannot please God...if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live."

My wife naturally feels safer when my mind in set on the things of the Spirit than when they are set on the things of the flesh.

Be safe, Kim