One of the most effective ways for me to calm my anxious
mind and refocus my thoughts on Jesus is to meditate on the verses I found and
wrote down back in 2004 that speak truth to my soul. During my quiet time recently,
I wrote down a few; and as I wrote the words, I meditated on their meanings. I
used my NIV Hebrew-Greek Study Bible Lexicon to gain even more insight. You can
do this online here.
Here’s my example: Romans 8:6 “The mind of sinful man is
death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” (NIV84)
Life—zoe (Greek)—Life, the element or principle of life in
the spirit and soul. Distinguished from “bios”, life, the course of life, the
business and affairs of life. Zoe is used most often in connection with eternal
life. This life is the very life of God of which believers are made partakers.
Peace—Eirene(Greek)—peace, tranquility, repose, calm,
harmony, accord; well-being prosperity. It denotes a state of untroubled,
undisturbed, well-being. Such a state of peace is the object of divine promise
and is brought about by God’s mercy, granting deliverance and freedom from all
the distresses that are experienced as a result of sin. Hence the message of
salvation is called the gospel of peace, for this peace can only be the result
of reconciliation with God, referring to the new relationship between man and
God brought about by the atonement.
After reading about these two words and how they relate to
Romans 8:6, I applied it to my life: The mind controlled by the Spirit is God’s
life for me. It’s eternal life, life to my spirit and soul. It’s true life: it
keeps me alive to Christ and dead to sin. And it’s deliverance--freedom from
the distresses caused by sin in my life or by sin in others’ lives. It’s calm,
tranquility and harmony in my thought life. No fear, no striving, indecision,
anxiety, disorganization of my thoughts. No despair or dismay. No judging
others or thinking negatively about them. Only peace, a sense of well-being, thoughts
aligned with God’s Spirit. A mind
controlled by the Spirit is a praying mind—a mind stayed on God.
This is the kind of mind I want, but it takes yielding to
the Spirit and not insisting on my own way. That’s something we can pray about—asking
God to help us yield to the Spirit's control so that we may have His life and His peace.
