MORNING MANNA          3-6-21

From the moment a person is saved it becomes apparent that he is engaged in a warfare and that life will be a struggle. Due to the fact that he now has a new nature his desires are different than before. He now wants to please God, but at the same time he is tempted to do otherwise. He is at war and the battlefield is his mind. To win he must guard his thought life so as to bring “into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”.

We have the awesome responsibility to control our mind so as to have the “mind of Christ”(Phil. 2:5). In light of the many things working against us this is not an easy thing to do, but it is possible – and therefore our duty. To do otherwise is disobedience and that’s costly. The question is, “How do we do this?”

In answering that question Paul first tells us what not to do in vs. 3-4. Then he proceeds to give us the answer in vs. 5. Alan Redpath called vs.3-4 “the law of exclusion” and vs.5 the “law of attention”. That’s a good way to look at it. That’s exactly what Paul had in mind when he wrote Phil. 4:6-9 “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” If you examine each item on this list you will see that it speaks of a characteristic of Christ.