Change of mind

Little Johnny had a little pet. A little white mouse, to be specific. But the little white mouse was sick … quite sick. Taking note of this, Johnny’s father thought it likely the little white mouse would die. So he thought he had better prepare little Johnny for the loss of his pet.

“Johnny,” the father said to his son, “Your little white mouse is quite sick, and honestly son, I don’t think he’s going to make it.”

Johnny’s expression immediately fell to one of great sorrow, so his father tried to soothe what he imagined to be the boy’s grief.

“Listen Johnny, if the little white mouse dies, here’s what we’re going to do … well, we’ll have to bury him of course but after that …” the father racked his mind as quickly as he could and sputtered out, ” … well, if the little white mouse dies, you and I will just spend a day together. We’ll get away and go out and have some pizza for lunch … and after that, we’ll go to Sea World and just spend the day there, feed the dolphins, do the fun things, and after that we’ll take in a ball game together. We’ll just get away and have some fun to put our minds on other things. So if your little white mouse dies, Johnny, that’s what we’ll do … how does that sound?”

The little boy lifted his downturned face to his father and said, “Let’s kill it!”

Hmmm, something tells me that’s not quite the response the father was expecting from his son! The father offered one thing, but the boy was stirred deeply by some ugly notions.

That’s something that happens to all of us. Look closely at what James writes in James 1:13-15, “And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, ‘God is tempting me.’ God is never tempted to do wrong, and He never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.”

We don’t need a celestial being peddling lies to lead us in the wrong direction, we’re quite capable of doing that ourselves. In fact, we don’t need anyone else at all to be tempted to sin, as our own lusts entice us away from godliness to things we shouldn’t pursue. In fact, our human inclination is not toward the things of God, so to fix this problem we need to be transformed, to have our minds renewed so that our desires are the same things that God desires.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:23, “Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes,” and to the Colossians he wrote, “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like Him.”

Our own desires are so warped they lead us to sin, and sin leads to death. But through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, our minds can be renewed so that we can become like our Maker. Let’s cooperate with the Holy Spirit in this process, so that we may see people and things the way God does, and value and treat them in the same manner He would.

Scotty