Protecting the Mind

Ezekiel 11:5

And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the LORD; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them.

As God spoke to Israel, He reminded them that He knows what comes into the mind. There is not one thought that you think that God does not know what you are thinking about. Notice what God says in the verse above, I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them. There is not one thought that you think that is missed by God. That means God knows the good thoughts as well as the bad. He knows the intentions of what you are thinking, whether they be good or bad. It is critical for the believer to keep their mind clean, especially when you see that God knows every thought that comes into your mind.

The mind is amazing; it is a computer that records everything you see and hear. One reason the Scriptures command us to let Christ’s mind be in us is because God wants our minds to be pure. If we can keep our minds pure and clean, then we can keep our lives holy for God to use. If this is to be accomplished, we must learn to protect our minds. Let me share several things you can do to protect your mind.

First, protect the things that you see. They often say that the eyes are the gateway to the soul, but I would like to say that the eyes are the gateway to the mind, and the mind is the channel to the heart. Whatever I see goes directly to my mind, and whatever goes into my mind will eventually reach my heart, resulting in future actions. If I don't want to do what I am looking at, then I had better protect what I see. That means you must protect what you see on digital media, the printed page, and the places that you go. We certainly cannot control the outside environment, but we can control what we read, look at, and the places that we go. If I control these, I can control what my eyes see.

Second, protect the things that you hear. Your ears are directly connected to your mind. You cannot listen to the wrong things without your mind becoming wrong. If you want a mind that is pure and clean, you must protect what you hear and be sure that it is something that would bring glory to God. Every sermon we hear should be a sermon that would bring glory to God. Every song we listen to ought to sound like the music that God would approve of. With every conversation, we must be careful not to listen to the wrong types of conversations because they will feed your mind. You cannot undo what you hear; therefore, be careful what you listen to so that your mind is not fed filth and gossip that would pollute and corrupt it.

Third, protect your environment. Of course, we cannot change what is happening in the world, but we can control the environment that we allow ourselves to be in. This means I must control what type of restaurants I go to, what kind of social gatherings I attend, and what type of friends I run with. All of these are an environment that affect my mind. If I allow myself to be in the wrong environment, I cannot filter out the sin that is in that environment. Therefore, I must stay away from any environment that would feed my mind the wrong information.

One of the greatest battles of your life will be to keep your mind pure. You are what you think; therefore, protect your mind, because your mind will dictate what you become.