Part V: The Product of Right Thinking 19 Sound Mind and Self-Acceptance

Part V The Product of Right Thinking

19 Sound Mind and Self-Acceptance

We began this journey together by looking at the problem of right thinking. We understood that mankind does not have the capacity for right thinking. And then we moved to the preparation for right thinking, followed by the process for right thinking, and then the practice of Christian thinking or meditation. Now we want to close out with the product, or fruit, of right thinking.

Remember that our thesis has been this: the quality of someone’s living can never rise above the quality of their thinking. We can only alter our quality of living by altering the quality of our minds. Right thinking brings both sanity and sobriety to a person’s life. So, we’ve looked at how to get our thinking right, which is the root. Then our living can be right, which is the fruit. Let’s now look at the fruit, the product of right thinking.

Before we begin this final section of the study, let’s look at God’s productive, profitable, and fruitful Word to set the stage for the product of right thinking. Isaiah 55:6–11 says,

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Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Don’t Lose Your Mind

Allow me now to summarize the story of Jesus healing a demon-possessed man in Mark 5. Before Jesus healed

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this poor man, he was violently possessed. He wandered among the tombs and mountains, was loud, and would often hurt himself. He had been bound in chains but had broken free.

When the tortured man saw Jesus, he cried out that he was possessed by many demons. Jesus healed the man and cast the demons into a nearby herd of pigs that then drowned in the Sea of Galilee. Word naturally got out about this amazing incident, and the people nearby took notice: “When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid” (verse 15).

We see here that conversion is meant to bring both sanity and sobriety to a person’s life. When the people came out from the town, they saw him “dressed and in his right mind.” So, here we can see both the root and the fruit. Jesus was dealing with the root when He cast the legion of demons out of the man and put him in his right mind. The fruit was that he was no longer naked. He was clothed because he was now in his right mind. No longer was he hurting himself and living a life of self-destruction, but he was clothed and living a life of sobriety.

The word in Greek for “right mind” comes from two Greek words. The first is sozo, which means “to save,” and is the root word of salvation, and phren, which means “understanding” or “mind.” It literally means to

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have a saved mind. This is what salvation does. It not only saves the soul, it saves the mind. Our mind needs redemption, and so this demon-possessed man’s mind was saved by this ministry of Jesus Christ.

What the Bible calls the sober mind or the right mind or the sound mind is what we’re referring to here. For other examples, look at Romans 12:1–3, 2 Corinthians 5:13, Titus 2:6, and 1 Peter 4:7 on your own.

The sound mind is that mind of Christ that we receive the moment we are born again. When we take on this mind of Christ, it leads to a transformation of behavior. The man was clothed because he now was in his right mind. His mind had been saved and healed. This is the great need of humanity today, because until someone’s mind has been healed, they’re not really ready to have correct or sound thinking.

The Paralysis of Analysis

Right thinking also brings a life of self-acceptance. It’s no secret that humans have a great tendency to be self-destructive. We’re constantly trying to destroy ourselves in many different ways. The story from Mark 5 was an extreme example. No longer was the healed man destroying himself. When we come to have a sound mind, it leads to a self-acceptance that results in tranquility and a life of learning to live in accordance with Jesus’ example.

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Psalm 139:23–24 says this: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” When Isaiah saw God (Isaiah 6), he began to have a realistic assessment of who he really was. Today, there are many popular routes toward self-acceptance where people try to find themselves.

How do we learn to live in self-acceptance? Here is what not to do. We need to avoid the trap of introspection or self-examination. Satan is constantly seeking to get us to turn in on ourselves and relentlessly analyze. If we get turned in on ourselves, we are not able to focus on Jesus. As we previously looked at 2 Corinthians 3:18, we are “being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory.” We cannot have our minds focused on Jesus at the same time we are focused on ourselves.

Satan’s tactic of getting us to pick ourselves apart always leads into what I call the paralysis of analysis— and it is never healthy. We begin to go into these deep, moody, introspective recesses of our mind and soul. We have changed the focal point from Jesus Christ to whom? To ourselves. When we turn in on ourselves, we are not capable of focusing on Him and thereby walking the Christian life. It leads to paralysis, immobility, and the Christian walk coming to a screeching halt.

Don’t let Satan get you caught up in introspection! He will constantly try to do this. He will come in and get you to start analyzing your motives, why you’re doing

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this, why you’re doing that. He will try to bring condemnation and to get you on a guilt trip.

Get God’s Perspective

To be clear, God’s Holy Spirit does minister to us in areas of sin, but He never comes to get us caught up in guilt and condemnation, because “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). However, if you turn in on yourself, you will always find many things in there that will breed disillusionment, despair, futility, and depression.

If we’re really honest about ourselves, if the outside world knew what we looked like on the inside, we would probably deserve hanging ten times over! However, we are not to focus in on ourselves and exist in the paralysis of analysis. We don’t get to know ourselves by analyzing ourselves. We get to know Him, so we need to keep our focus on Him.

Go to God when you want to know something about yourself—don’t turn in on yourself. Ask God as David did to search your heart and your thoughts. Ask Him to reveal things you need to know. Open your life to the searchlight of heaven through the Holy Spirit and through God’s Word.

What you shouldn’t do is sit around and constantly take you own pulse, picking yourself apart and analyz-

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