Loving God with Your Mind: Finding His Peace

Loving God with Your Mind: Finding His Peace

We know we are supposed to love God with all of our heart, but we are also supposed to love Him with all of our mind. What does it mean to love God with our mind? How is that different from loving Him with our heart? And what happens when we do love Him with all of our mind?

The Promise of Perfect Peace

Loving God with your mind and finding His peace isn't just a nice idea, but a promise. Isaiah 26:3 tells us,

"You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You."

We will be kept in perfect peace. How will that happen? When we have a mind that is "stayed" on God.

Stayed here means to be settled, established, lean on or rest on; sometimes this word is translated as sustained. It is not our heart but our mind that must lean on God. How is it that people can be settled or established in their minds on God? Isaiah says because we can trust God.

Trusting God’s Steady Hand

When you go about your daily life, what do you find that sustains you? What does your mind lean on? When we trust someone completely we want to keep our mind stayed on Him. As children trust their mother to be there for them, to protect them and love them, in a similar way, we as God's children can also be settled on our Father because above all humans, He is the most trustworthy.

The New Testament Call to Mindfulness

From Isaiah we move to Christ's command. Jesus tells us to love God with all of your mind (Matthew 22:37). Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 2:16 and Philippians 2:5 that we can actually have the mind of Christ! In Philippians 3:19, Paul tells us not to set our minds on earthly things and in Colossians 3:2 he tells us to set our minds on things above.

Cultivating the Mind of Christ

1 Corinthians 2 explains what the "mind of Christ" is like, that we as Christians have. We can have a wisdom that is not like the wisdom of the world. This wisdom is revealed to us through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. This mind of Christ is impossible for people in the world to fully grasp. It allows us to have spiritual discernment. The mind of Christ is a Spirit-led way of living.

Paul tells us in Romans 12:1-2 that our minds must be transformed. This renewed mind is something we gain through cooperating with the Holy Spirit. We find peace through the Holy Spirit's presence. We can be satisfied where we are or we can seek more of Christ. Some of us are following Jesus and some are not.

Paul himself is an excellent example of this. His conversion on the road to Damascus was miraculous and powerful, but Paul didn't instantly go out to teach people. In Galatians 1:18, he tells us he spent three years in Arabia where he received his gospel through a revelation of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:11-12). Those three years were a literal training ground for Paul that set his mind on Christ.

If we do love God with all of our minds what does that really mean? It means we will understand Him and what He has done for us. We will know what He expects of us. Now, will we fully know Him? Of course not, we are only human. But our desire will be to learn about our Father. How do we do that? We learn by reading, studying, and praying.

When you get up in the morning, what do you think of first? Is it God? When you go about your busy day, where do your thoughts take you? We should be centering our thoughts around God. We should be trusting Him to be with us in everything we do. When we truly know how faithful and trustworthy He is, then we will know His perfect peace "that passes understanding" (Philippians 4:7).

We may have difficulty staying our mind on God due to the distractions of the world we live in like social media, YouTube, or TikTok. When you see this happening stop for just a moment and say a quick prayer. Ask God to help you focus on Him and His will. Maybe try a three day break from social media and video distractions. This refocusing on God can open you up to His peace, in spite of the negativity around you.

Philippians 4:7 explains that we are not to be anxious or worry about anything. If we have needs, we should pray with thanksgiving. We send our supplications to God. Supplication is expressing to our Heavenly Father our deepest needs and desires. These needs and desires certainly don't always have to be about us. We are expressing urgency and dependence on God as our provider. We should always be thankful people.

When we do this, Paul tells us the "peace of God will guard our hearts and minds." By this, Paul means that, because of God our circumstances won't change the peace He has given us. In the midst of turmoil, we can be calm, both in our heart (how we feel) and in our minds (what we think). In God we find our hope and peace.

We often believe that our emotions tell us how much we love God and certainly they are a part of loving Him, but our mind needs to know Him to love Him. Without knowing Him those emotions won't go very far. I have an example.

Lessons from Camp and Romance

Many young people have the opportunity to go to summer church camp or youth rallies for Jesus. These are usually very emotional experiences. They often return filled with fervor and excitement for the Lord. They want to "do" something for God. There is nothing wrong with this, but what often gets forgotten is that along with our emotional response to God we need to have knowledge of Him.

Just as camp fervor fades, so does romantic excitement without deep knowledge. Think about falling in love. Falling in love is certainly an emotional experience. We love someone with our heart but we really also need to love them with our mind.

As the excitement of falling in love starts to wear off due to the cares of the world and the fact that we aren't perfect, we come to know our loved one much more deeply. It is this love that sustains us when things aren't going well. It is this love that grows over the decades between two people in a truly loving relationship.

Zeal without Knowledge—or Life and Peace

Romans 10:1-4 addresses this problem. Here Paul discusses people who have a zeal for God but sadly no knowledge. In these verses Paul is talking about Israel, the Jews. Since they were ignorant of God's righteousness they were trying to "establish" their own righteousness. Are we today "ignorant of God's righteousness?" Are we trying to be good enough to earn salvation or do we know that it is a gift?

We have two paths we can take. 1 Peter 1:13 explains our mind can be set (stayed) on the flesh, which leads to death, or the Spirit which leads to life and there it is again, peace. You see, we often think of peace as only being present when we are happy and carefree and everything is going our way, but God's peace brings more. God can bring peace in times of sorrow, pain, and heartbreak. Why? Because we know He is a trustworthy and faithful Father.

A mind set on the flesh doesn't ask what God wants us to do. It doesn't concern itself with reading the Bible or listening in church. Absolutely we can go through a routine of looking like a Christian. We can talk like one and go to church and be a nice person, but like the Israelites in Romans 10:1-4, we may not really know God.

It is like a teenager taking a class in school they hate, just because they have to. Many times they learn very little. Often people pretend to be a Christian, but their minds are focused on the world, not on God.

God is not saying we all have to be learned theologians to love Him with our mind. What He is saying is that our minds should be focused on Him more than the world. We should desire to become closer to Him. We should want to be transformed.

Conclusion: A Call to Fully Love

If you find yourself really not caring about the things of God that much, or more concerned with worldly things than loving Him with “all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind" (Matthew 22:37), then remember Jesus said this is the greatest commandment. This should be at the heart of our lives as Christians. Do you have peace? Today, who has your heart, soul, and mind?

Enjoy "You Shall Love the Lord" by Maranatha! Music