What kind of lifestyle do you want? We can use our minds to develop a mind-style for a new lifestyle. Here’s what I mean. There is a chain of reactions to all we do. If we are going to have a new lifestyle (in Christ) we need His mind-style to make it happen. What goes on in our minds ends up in our real lives. Our lifestyle and our character are formed in our mind. So it’s always mind-style before lifestyle.
The Completed Chain of Reactions of Lifestyle
Mind –> Brain –> Body –> Actions
As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. [Proverbs 23: 7 KJV]
We literally become what we think (believe). Pause and absorb this pivotal fact of life. Having the mind of Christ means we will live like him. We will have his effectiveness and his attractiveness if we have his mind.
We are what we eat. Oops!
We are what we think (believe)!
Mentally masticate on that one!
A Guide to a New Lifestyle
The New Testament validates this principle in the letters of Paul where we find a pattern. First, he seeks to influence our beliefs in his letters; and then, he draws conclusions for our behavior. Mind came before actions in Paul’s philosophy of life.
Change Your Mind; Change Your Life
Here is an example of how the mind changes the life.
2 Corinthians 5:17, the new lifestyle: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
Philippians 2:5, the new mind-style: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:…”
Happiness First in the Mind
Happiness and unhappiness can impact our lives dramatically. They are both produced in the mind and their effects are registered in the chemistry of the brain. When we say they are produced in the mind, it is the same as saying they represent a mental choice we can make.
I have learned how to get out of bed and choose to be happy. Have you? It’s a great way to start the day! In fact I am responsible for my own happiness because I can make the choice to be happily related to my circumstances or unhappily related to them. Which would you choose when in your right mind?
Next up: How to Change Your Life
Our first and most important task in a world-changing mission is to learn how to think straight (and teach straight thinking) and combat the insurgence of crooked thinking in our culture and in our world today. If we become passive victims of this crooked way of thinking, we promote it. If we remain silent, we also give it credence. In Who Am I?, the reader progresses from how we have become “crooked thinkers” to how to break out of this prison of the mind (which is enslaving us) to become instruments of change for a better world by recognizing from where our value as humans is derived. “Build a straight and powerful mind.” ~ Ray W. Lincoln
DISCOVER THE TRUTH OF WHO YOU ARE!
Lean into the whole truth. Discover the truth of who YOU are — the “Real You” — and who your children truly are. Discover how to best engage your children in finding the whole truth. INNERKINETICS, Your Blueprint to Excellence and Happiness, is a great resource.