A Kingdom Mind

A Kingdom Mind

I want you to understand what really matters. Philippians 1:10

IF WE ARE GOING TO SEE WITH KINGDOM VISION, we will have to retrain our minds. Our thought patterns, after all, have been shaped by worldly ways and negative influences from day one. We’ve been well trained in flawed relational dynamics, distorted perceptions, and degrading earthly values. Much of this has been modeled for us by well-intentioned but imperfect human beings, and much of it has been embraced by our own willful and self-oriented hearts. We need to learn new patterns, and they won’t come easily. Like water flowing down a mountainside, our habitual thoughts have dug deep trenches in our brains. And neurologists have confirmed how difficult it can be to establish new pathways. The old thought-threads in our brains perceive new threads as threats and actually seek to subdue and suppress them. If we want lasting change, we will have to be stubbornly persistent. Willfulness is not always a bad thing. We will have to insist—again and again and again—on godly ways of thinking.

Immersion in Scripture is one way to do that. We have to marinate in the Word for it to infuse us with truth and vision. When we do, we see how great people of faith—like Paul with his relentless joy—responded to the situations around them with hope rather than discouragement, faith rather than fear, positive rather than negative expectations, and love rather than bitterness and strife. The more we absorb these response patterns, the more we begin to walk in them. We start to think in new ways. We learn the language of the Kingdom. We find that we thrive in a culture of gratitude, faith, hope, and love. We begin to defy our old thinking, and whole new possibilities open up in front of us.

If you want to radically reorient your prayer life, insist on this process of change. These are skills that will upgrade your vision and faith, without which prayers seem empty and powerless. Immerse yourself in the Word, and wherever possible, surround yourself with faith-filled people. Give your mind permission to think outside of its limited, negative, earthbound ways. Those thoughts no longer serve you well. A Kingdom mind will change you forever.

Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate.