April 7 – Feed the right dog.

“Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” - 1 Peter 1:13

An old American Indian tale recounts the story of a chief who was telling a gathering of young braves about the struggle within. "It is like two dogs fighting inside of us," the chief told them. "There is one good dog who wants to do the right and the other dog always wants to do the wrong. Sometimes the good dog seems stronger and is winning the fight. But sometimes the bad dog is stronger and wrong is winning the fight."

"Who is going to win in the end?" a young brave asks.
The chief answered "The one you feed."

Proverbs 4:23 TEV tells us to “Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts.” God is far more interested in changing our minds than changing our circumstances. We want God to take away all of our problems, pain, sorrow, suffering, sickness, and sadness. But God is interested in working on us first. Transformation won’t happen in our lives until we renew our minds - until our thoughts begin to change.

Why is it so important that we learn how to manage our minds? Rick Warren gives us three reasons.

Manage your mind, because your thoughts control your life.
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts” (TEV). The power of our thoughts has tremendous ability to shape our lives for good or for bad. Maybe when we were growing up someone had said to us, “You're worthless. You don’t matter.” If we accepted that thought - even though it was wrong, it would inevitably have shaped our lives.

Manage your mind, because the mind is the battleground for sin.
All temptations happen in the mind. Paul says in Romans 7:22-23, “I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin” (TLB).

One of the reasons why we get mentally fatigued is because there’s a battle going on in our brains 24 hours a day. It’s intense, It’s debilitating. It’s intense because our minds are our greatest assets. Satan wants our greatest asset!

Manage your mind, because it’s the key to peace and happiness.
An unmanaged mind leads to tension. A managed mind leads to tranquility. An unmanaged mind leads to conflict. A managed mind leads to confidence. An unmanaged mind leads to stress. When we don’t try to control our minds and the way we direct our thoughts, we will have an enormous amount of stress in our lives. But a managed mind leads to strength, security, and serenity.

“Letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace” (Romans 8:6 NLT, second edition).

Remember the Chiefs advice to the young brave, and take care to always feed the good dog.

Music today, “I've got my mind made up” with lyrics – a taste of Jamaican gospel. Click here to listen.