Day
2
Loving
the Lord With All My Mind -- Veracity
Loving the Lord
with all our minds has to do with aligning our minds and lives with God’s
truth. Eugene Peterson, in his amazing book Eat This Book, has identified what he
calls the “New Holy Trinity” of Holy needs, holy wants, and holy feelings. Mostly, disciplines of alignment have to do
with combating our tendency to live by the arbitrary authority of our needs,
wants and feelings. Peterson writes,
It is important to observe
that in the formulation of this new Trinity that defines the self as the
sovereign text for living, the Bible is neither ignored or banned; it holds, in
fact, an honored place. But the
three-personal Father, Son and Holy Spirit is replaced by a a very
individualized personal Trinity of my Holy Wants, my Holy Needs, and my Holy
Feelings…If the culture does a thorough job on us—and it turns out to be might
effective with most of us—we enter adulthood with the working assumption that
whatever we need and want and feel forms the divine control center of our
lives…Without this text, firmly established at the authoritative center of our
communal and personal lives, we will founder.
We will sink into a swamp of well-meaning but ineffectual men and women
who are mired unmercifully in our needs and wants and feelings. [1]
Alignment is
centered around reading, hearing, studying, memorizing, meditating and applying
God’s Word. Hearing and living Scripture
is really central to all the disciplines because this is how we learn of all
else related to loving the Lord. Some disciplines of alignment are:
Bible Reading – It is essential that we have
a regular intake of God’s Word.
Bible Study – We go beyond merely reading
to seeking understanding and application.
Bible Meditation – Praying and reflecting upon
the Bible to increase understanding and application.
Bible Memorization– Hiding the Word in our
hearts.
Mind Renewal – This is where we combine the
disciplines of Bible reading, study, memorization, and meditation with the
disciplines of renouncing error and confessing truth. It is identifying errors in our thinking and
combating them with the truth of God’s Word.
Which of the
above disciplines do you practice and how?
Which have you practiced in the past?
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Did you grow more attached to the Lord
through these practices?
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Which one would you like to start practicing
with greater intentionality?
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Prayer: Reflecting specifically on this
devotional, write out a prayer to God.
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