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Q1. Set Your Mind


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We can get bogged down in our feelings and be buffeted by the many trials that come our way. If we keep looking at these we can get sort of depressed and that affects our relationship with God and our relationships with people. I like Phil. 4:8 & 9--this is how we should be thinking.

No, relationships should be first and right-thinking is key.

We become unuseful to others & to ourselves when we do not control what we think & what we meditate on.

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To set our minds on heavenly things is to focus on God and His Kindom. We ought to let the matters that relate to God be our main interest. We should thing about such and do what God wants us to do. This does not mean we will not think about our jobs, businesses, families etc. But even in thinking about these other things we should do so by the leading and help of God through the Holy spirit.

If we allow ourselves to be too occupied with the things of the world, we will loose focus of heaven and drift away from God

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Q1. (Colossians 3:1-2) What does it mean to "set your heart/mind" on the things above? Does this mean that we're "too heavenly minded to be any earthly good"? If not, what does it mean? What happens when we don't take control and direct our thinking and meditating?

For me, it is a daily, conscious renewing of my mind, that I'm a pilgrim passing through this life, and that my real home is in Heaven where scripture tells me I'm already seated with Christ. While I love my country, and pray for my leaders, participate in jury's when called, vote, pay taxes, etc, this is a temporary stopping place on this journey, and I'm to live here without sinking my roots too deeply, while serving the Lord and working to accomplish the works He has preordained that I do while here.....or in other words, seek to fulfill the destiny He planned for me before I was born....which includes loving Him, loving His people, loving the unlovely, remembering that I'm a sinner saved by His grace, worshipping and glorifying Him, seeking to know Him more each day.

With all that is going on in America and the world since the last election, I got depressed for a couple of months and realized I was allowing my thinking and the daily round of news and and more bad news to affect my spirit. I turned off the t.v and have been praying more. I realize that our system is not the system any longer that the Lord gave to our founding fathers, and it is going to crumble....it has to, because we've left our first love as a nation and the government has "become God" to more people than I can imagine. But in that, He has promised to take care of His children, so I'm no longer frightened or depressed, and am praying and seeking diligently His Word and His Will, all the more as I see the day drawing near....while looking for opportunities to share His good news with those who still see the government as their source and their deliverer, and to introduce them to "The Way, The Truth and The Life"...the only deliverer and Savior.

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Q1. (Colossians 3:1-2) What does it mean to "set your heart/mind" on the things above? Does this mean that we're "too heavenly minded to be any earthly good"? If not, what does it mean? What happens when we don't take control and direct our thinking and meditating?

This means that every day we have the choice to focus our mind and thoughts on God. We do this by reading His Word and taking time to talk to Him and then listen to Him speak to us. We also can praise Him in song and with thankfulness throughout the day. The opposite of setting our minds on things above is to set our minds on things of the world. Satan wants to use the things of the world to take our focus off God and to lead us into sin and away from God's will for us. It is important to guard our hearts each day, for "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

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What it means to "set your heart/mind" on the things above is to think about God and Jesus.

This doesn't suggest that we should be so heavenly minded,we are no earthly good. What it means is, the more we set our minds on Christ and things above,the easier it becomes to resist the temptation to sin.

What happens when we don't take control and direct our thinking and meditating is,we allow sinful thoughts to enter and eventually we act on these thoughts.

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Q1 Paul has called us to make a conscious decisions about the way we think. He

also reminded us of our baptism with God and to allow God's Spirit to work in us

so that our minds may be of heaven and God's way.

Not necessarily. We are asked to be in the world but not of the world. We were

given free choice. Paul has asked us to decide where our minds will go and where

they won't.

Each one of us is to take control of our own life failing which one will bare

the consequences that will lead one to ruin in our spiritual life which one has

built with God.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Q1. (Colossians 3:1-2) What does it mean to "set your heart/mind" on the things above? Does this mean that we're "too heavenly minded to be any earthly good"?

This means that our thoughts tends to move in the direction of following God. The heavenly traits which come from above consist of joy, love, peace, patience, long-suffering, etc. These heavenly traits make us become more Christ-like and the world should notice a positive difference in our lives. The world will somestimes ask a Christian, "why are you so calm" over a stressful matter. A positive explantion is given by the Christian who can take this opportunity to lead the individual to Christ.

Does this mean that we're too heavenly minded to be any earthly good?

We must display BALANCE in our Christian walk to non-believers. In other words, the world should see a difference in us as a Christian, but at the same time, when trouble arises in their lives, we want non-believers to feel comfortable enough to approach us to inquire about prayer or to repent of their sins.

Look at Jesus. He did not follow the world system, yet those who needed a change in their lives (e.g., prayer, healing, etc.) felt comfortable enough to approach him. Jesus always had an answer for their situation. In fact Jesus angered the religious leaders during his time because they accused him of hanging around with sinners. Jesus reply to them was that the sick needed him more than those who were healthy. Jesus mission on earth was to save the lost and to reach the lost he went among them without compromising his principles. He knew how to mingle among sinners and yet distance himself from the world system. He identified with the down trodden and showed enormous compassion to those who sought after him. Like Jesus, we have to learn how to balance mingling among non-believers without compromising our beliefs. For example, in the work place, many of our co-workers are non-believers, but do they know that we're Christians? And if so, would they feel comfortable enough to approach us concerning the things of God? Do we show ourselves friendly on the job? We don't have to join clicks and gossip about fellow co-workers to show ourselves friendly. Again, we must learn how to balance our treatment towards non-believers without a spirit of arrogance. I do realize that at times trying to balance our actions so that we are not pulled into the world can be difficult.

What happens when we don't take control and direct our thinking and meditating?

Our human nature is that if we do not take control of our thinking, we will perform fleshly deeds in the body that is not Christ-like. Traits such as anger, bitterness, unbelief, unforgivenss, etc., can show up in our lives.

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In elementary terms it means to set your heart on being with Christ. It does not mean that we are too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good, in fact our attitudes should encourage others to be followers of Christ. If we fail to take control and direct our thinking and meditating without control there is chaos.

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  • 1 month later...

Q1. (Colossians 3:1-2) What does it mean to "set your heart/mind" on the things above? Does this mean that we're "too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good"? If not, what does it mean? What happens when we don't take control and direct our thinking and meditating?

http://www.joyfulheart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=977

Answer:Paul reference to setting our minds on things above is,about renewing our mind.We are ,all bombarded by the worldly things as we continue our walk with Christ.And if the enemy cannot steal the Word in our heart due to IGNORANCE,he will try other means to make the Word of God,be of no effect to the believers by occupying His mind with ****,deceitfulness,and all other his wily deception.

Our mind is the window of our Spirit, that all thoughts are being formed and pass into our heart( Proverbs 23:7-For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.,)..it is the things that we think through our mind,that words comes out from our mouth,that is why David has prayed in Psalm 19:14-Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

If we don

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Q1. (Colossians 3:1-2) What does it mean to “set your heart/mind” on the things above? Does this mean that we’re “too heavenly minded to be any earthly good”? If not, what does it mean? What happens when we don’t take control and direct our thinking and meditating?

To set our mind on things above, simply means to make conscience decisions in your life,mind and heart, decisions to do things according to God's way.Leave earthy things alone and desire the path of righousness. No, being to heavenly minded can only lead to one doing more earhtly good, God's way!

Meaning of Decision according to Dictionary.com: the act or process of deciding; determination, as of a question or doubt, by making a judgment: They must make a decision between these two contestants.

We must decisively choose to follow God always!

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cool.gif a)Probably to chose with mind to follow his purpose for my life to serve him with body,mind & heart by helping others,showing them Jesus' love in actions& words honourable to Jesus, rather than having attitude of focusing on self &worldly ambitions

.b)No c)We need to keep close to Jesus &his word, and not get distracted away from it by temptations of flesh &mind that occur each day in life. Let spiritual blessings of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, patience show through us,& chose to make right choices of ways of thinking & actions.Letting unbelievers see a difference in us by the way we may react to tough situations. If we don

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To set one’s heart and mind on things above means to keep focused on God and heavenly things, not on worldly things. It means taking control of our minds and thoughts. It’s not that we’re too heavenly minded to be any earthy good, but we must keep in mind that this is not our home and we must live on this earth according to the Spirit of God. We are citizens of heaven and must submit to God’s law and not the world. Not controlling our thinking feeds the flesh and can open us up to all sorts of temptations that are not of God. As Paul stated, we are no longer of this world; we have changed and now live a different life from what we did in the past because we belong to Christ.

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