Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--
-- this is true worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:1-2
Sometimes I wonder if Jedi mind tricks or hypnosis would work on me. I've questioned whether I could end up drinking the Kool-Aid or dying in a burning compound due to brainwashing. I'm terrified of being weak-minded and of losing control of my faculties. I'm uncomfortable when I don't understand what's happening around me or of being at the mercy of other people. I hope that if I lose my mind it goes quickly, with no glimpses of reality to trouble me.
In spite of these concerns, I also recognize my vulnerability to other kinds of mind control: I'm more pliable when flattered; I trust what I read too much; I'm lazy about researching, so I tend to believe "experts" and scholars; I'm enough of a pleaser that I have difficulty living out what I say I believe in hostile territory, and, I'm prone to be guided by guilt.
God's answer to these double-minded dilemmas? No cunning, no flattery, no puppetry, no brainwashing: He says outright, "Give Me your mind completely and I'll mold it into a mind that knows My good, pleasing and perfect will. I'll give you peace."
You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Isaiah 26:3
Lord, we allow ourselves to be pinned by opinions when Your Voice is all we need to hear and follow. Protect our minds with Your salvation. Keep Satan's darts of doubt from penetrating our hearts and minds. Steady us in Your Word. May we delight ourselves in Your Hands shaping our thoughts and wills.
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