CLEARING THE COBWEBS FROM OUR MINDS

We do well to stop and ask ourselves what cobwebs are clogging our minds, especially when we feel hurried, harried, or confused. God’s Spirit will reveal them to us when we ask and will remove them when we confess.

Eternal Perspectives               by Sally Bair

Sometimes I wonder if the cobwebs are bent on overtaking my house. In hours, it seems, they make their way across the windowsills, at the corners of the floor molding and above every door. It takes constant vigilance to keep them at bay. I fail miserably.

When I was a kid working nights at the local bean factory, my twin sister, a neighbor and I walked home after each shift. The country road was dark, too dark to see the old, dilapidated house tucked in the woods. But we knew it was there and always hurried past. I pictured it full of cobwebs too thick to walk through, imprisoning and choking the life out of anyone brave or perhaps stupid enough to enter.

Cobwebs can clog our minds, too, enough to hinder us from pushing through. We can be caught in the grip of anger, for instance. Or hopelessness. Gossip. Frustration. Unforgiveness. Selfishness, pride or a host of other destructive feelings. Such cobwebs can be like dirty windows, keeping us from seeing clearly.

Not only that, they can entangle us in a web of negative or false thoughts and beliefs. A wrong thought here and an angry thought are like cobwebs that prevent us from seeing the true picture.

God has much to say about our minds. Here are six examples worth remembering: “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) What we think matters to God and to others. And the Bible also warns us not to dwell on things about illicit sex, a subject which today is so prevalent and accepted in our society. “For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Romans 8:27)

“You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3) When we focus on God’s truth, love and blessings, our cobweb-like thoughts will vanish, to be replaced by His indescribable peace. We do well to follow the Apostle Paul’s example: “Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth.” (Colossians 3:2)

Followers of Christ have this wonderful promise: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16) In fact, Paul says we should be “transformed by the renewing of [our] mind …” (Romans 12:2)

Lord, thank You for sound minds. Show us how to remove the negative and tangled mental cobwebs that keep us from Your peace and hinder us from serving You and others. In Jesus’ name, amen.