Motivation for Doing What You Ought to Do: Part Three

Romans 7: 22 – 25

To develop a Biblical worldview you have to view the world through the Bible. Too many of us are like the report given by Brit Hume, ABC White House correspondent, on our President’s trip to South Korea: “He was the very picture of an engaged commander-in-chief standing with his men on an outpost watchtower to gaze at the enemy territory just across the way. Whoops! Those field glasses do work better with the lens cap off.”

Preset your mind set. All of us do without realizing it. Most often it is done unconsciously. For example, are you an optimist or a pessimist?  How did you get that way? Likely you evolved into it.

The brain is sophisticated and complex. Here is an elemental insight. Negative thoughts produce certain chemicals in the brain. Positive thoughts produce other chemicals. In turn these chemicals tend to attract thoughts that produce them. Therefore, if you have been thinking negatively, you have a negative chemical flow. This causes more negative thoughts. If you have been thinking positively, you have a positive chemical flow and will tend to continue to think positively. You have a preset mindset.

The matter of doing the right and not doing the wrong comes down to mind over matter. “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin.” (Romans 7: 25)

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”

Is this a time when our Lord would have you reset your mindset? It takes conscious practice.  Start with these. Resolve:

I WILL BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT I HAVE.

Without stopping to appreciate what you have, you tend to devalue it. All of us have things for which to be grateful.

Our text says “I delight in the law of God” (Romans 7: 22). Learn to get pleasure from God’s way of seeing things.

Resolve: “I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7: 25).

I WILL BE ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT EVERYTHING I DO.

If you consider every activity a positive adventure, it takes on new meaning and inspires others.

I WILL MEMORIZE SCRIPTURE AND CONSCIOUSLY SEEK TO APPLY IT.

Pre-program your mind on the Word of God. This can enable the development of a Biblical worldview.

I WILL PREMEDITATEDLY SUBMIT MY THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS TO JESUS AS LORD DAILY. 

To be right, and do right, think right.