A mind is a terrible thing to waste …

It was the United Negro College Fund that popularized a profound truth in its advertising, that a mind is a terrible thing to waste.

We human beings are habitually wasteful when it comes to the use of our minds.

It’s true we’re constantly using them, but more unconsciously than consciously, and more lacking in awareness than with mindfulness of God, self, and others, and so often more irrationally than rationally. With something as incredible as the human mind, the average person rarely practices making time just to think.

Many Christians try to excuse their lack of conscious mental engagement by arguing we’re to live “by faith, not by sight,” overlooking the fact it actually takes the use of our minds to genuinely exercise our faith! For some reason, Christians seem to push against the idea that God wants us to use the minds He’s given us. But the fact is, the Bible is full of exhortations to engage our minds, from that ever so familiar verse, Isaiah 1:18a, that urges, “‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the Lord …” to Jesus instructing us to consciously consider the cost of following Him (Luke 14:25-34), to this powerful statement from the Apostle Peter:

“So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.” – 1 Peter 1:13.

Peter leaves no question about the fact that God expects us to put into action the minds He has given us in our journey of following Jesus as His disciples. So what does a mind prepared for action look like?

A transformed mind. Genius Albert Einstein is quoted to have said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” The problem of all humanity was using our minds with a sin nature, which has a tragic outcome …

“So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace,” Romans 8:6.

To be able to use our minds in a fully beneficial way as God intended, we must allow God to transform us:

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect,” Romans 12:2.

Tom Dooley tells the story of how during the late 1800’s an English evangelist named Henry Moorhouse made several trips to preach in America. On one of those occasions he was taking a walk through a poor section of town when he noticed a small boy coming out of a store with a pitcher of milk in his hands. Just then, he slipped and fell, breaking the pitcher and spilling the milk all over the sidewalk. Moorhouse rushed to the child’s side and found him unhurt but terrified.

“Mu mama’ll whip me,” he kept crying.

So Moorhouse picked up the boy and carried him into the nearby store where the preacher purchased a new pitcher. Then he returned to the daity and had the pitcher washed and filled with milk. With that done, he carried the boy and the pitcher home.

Putting the youngster down on his front porch, Moorhouse handed him the pitcher and asked, “Will your mama whip you now?”

A wide smile spread across the boys tear-stained face, “No sir, cause this is a lot better pitcher than we had before!”

In grace God saves us. He doesn’t patch up our old lives that have been shattered by sin. Instead, He transforms our minds so that we can think like Jesus thinks. Through His grace, God provides us with …

A sound mind. Pastor Yolito De Gracia reminds us of the essential need for a sound mind: “A sound mind is very essential and important in living the Christian life. Right thinking leads to correct living. The heart refers to our emotions and feelings whereas the mind refers to our thoughts, thinking, imaginations, comprehension and logical reasoning. Having a sound mind is very important because we move, make decisions and act according to the perception and comprehension of the mind.”

And so, when we are born again as children of God, we are given sound minds as new creations in Christ:

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” 2 Corinthians 5:17.

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” 2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV).

We’re to put to use that transformed (and now sound) mind as a …

Student’s mind. To be a “disciple” of Jesus is to be His students, and we’re to apply our minds to the study of our Lord and His way.

A story is told about a circuit-riding preacher who entered one church building with his young son and dropped a coin into the offering box in the back. Not many came that Sunday, and those who did didn’t seem too excited about what was said. After the service, the preacher and son walked to the back, and he emptied the box. Out fell one coin. The young boy said, “Dad, if you’d have put more in, you’d have gotten more out!”

Jesus said this about being His students: “Jesus said to the people who believed in him, ‘You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” John 8:31-32.

The results of God transforming our minds so that we now have sound minds dedicated to being students of the Word is that we have …

The mind of Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote, “When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For, ‘Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?’ But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ,” 1 Corinthians 2:13-16.

Paul’s idea of our having the “mind of Christ” is like the story about French scientists who succeeded in causing chickens to sound like quail. Nancy Ross-Flannigan, writing for the Detroit Free Press, reports that researchers took tissue from parts of the Japanese quail brain thought to control the bird’s call and implanted it in the brains of five chicken embryos. The experiment worked. Researchers say the hatched chicks sounded like quail rather than chickens.

But now the real miracle. God has “implanted” the mind of Christ in those who have accepted His Son as their Savior. The Spirit of God has taken up residence in us (1 Cor. 2:12). In some mysterious way we now have a capacity for divine wisdom that no human education or natural experience could ever provide. Having the mind of Christ enables us to see life increasingly from God’s truth.

Finally, the changing of our minds, and our studious focus in the Word, are to be …

A mind fully engaged in loving God. “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment,” Matthew 22:37-38.

When the Apostle Peter made the exhortation, “… prepare your minds for action …” he understood there is no greater or higher action than loving God with all our mind.

Is that how you put to use the wonderful mind God has given you?

Remember, a mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Scotty