Philippians 2:5(KJV) tells us, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” As believers, we understand that our lives are not random, and we are not random beings. We have a purpose within God’s Will and Plan. Everything in our lives, from the smallest to the largest detail, has a reason. Everything that happens to us in life is a lesson. Some people do not want to believe this, but we will save ourselves a ton of heartaches and headaches if we accept the reality of this truth. Everything in life is spiritual, and it is meant to bring us closer to our true identity in Christ. The bad stuff warns us, and the bad stuff is a barometer that indicates just how far off track we’ve veered. The good stuff is the reward. It indicates that we’re moving on the right trajectory. Some of us complain quite a bit because we’ve got too much bad stuff going on in our lives and not enough good stuff. The key to changing this is putting on the mind of Christ. God created us in His image. We are three-part beings. We are spiritual beings with a soul, and these two parts, spirit and soul, are housed in the third part, which is our physical bodies. Before we accept the Lord Jesus Christ, our human spirits are not alive to God. This is why Jesus Christ said in John 3:3(NLT), “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Becoming born-again through the Spirit of Christ is the beginning of our spiritual journey in him. It makes us alive to God because when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord, we become a part of him! 1Corinthians 12:27(NLT) says “All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.” 2Corinthians 5:17(NKJV) tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” After we accept God’s Son, Jesus Christ, as our personal Lord and Savior, we receive God’s seed supernaturally and our human spirits are recreated or born-again. Jesus becomes the head of our lives. Again, this is the beginning of our spiritual journey in him. He’s in the driver’s seat and he is the One who navigates our journey from this point on. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus extends every person an invitation. He says, “All of you that have heavy burdens and you are weary for carrying them, come to me, and I will give you rest.” Jesus knows that this world is rocky terrain and very rough to navigate through. He knows that our burdens will indeed be heavy on this planet, and he tells us to give those burdens to him. In Matthew 11:29, he tells us exactly what we must do to solidify this giveaway of our burdens; he said, “Take my yoke!” A yoke is a steering apparatus that was placed around an animal’s neck for plowing. Jesus steers us in the direction of pleasing God, because this is what he did continually. In John 5:19, Jesus said that he could do nothing of himself, and he only did on earth what he saw His Father doing. He told us that whatever Heavenly Father does, that’s exactly what he does. So, Jesus was following the direction of the Father. In like manner, we are to do the same. We are to take the yoke of Jesus Christ. By taking his yoke, we will be steered, guided, and directed by the Holy Spirit who lives on the inside of us. John 16:13(NLT) tells us, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” Heavenly Father didn’t create the body to govern and guide a person’s life. He created it to be a temple where His Spirit could commune with our human spirit and we would operate in partnership with one another. Heavenly Father will never, ever violate our wills for this to happen. This is a partnership based on our choice to align our minds with the mind of Christ. It is a mindset that isn’t focused on the worries of the day. It is a mind that is wholly dedicated to our relationship with our eternal God who is all powerful, all knowing, everywhere present, and loving beyond comprehension. It is a mind that is centered on pleasing God. One of the chief component’s that makes us like our Father is the reality that we indeed do have a will. We are not robots, because He didn’t create us that way. He created us to be members of His family, to be His children. When we align our wills with God’s Will, Romans 12:2 says that we will prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect Will of God. We can’t do this if we are consumed with the culture of the world. We can’t do this if we’re so caught up in our problems and conditions that we’re anxious all the time. 2Corinthians 4:17-18(MSG) tells us, “These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.” When it looks like things are falling apart on the outside, God gives us the grace to keep pushing and pressing so that our relationship with Him is built on eternity instead of on selfish motives or temporary pleasures. John 3:16(NLT) tells us, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” Heavenly Father gave the most precious gift He could give so that you and I would have a life that begins in Christ and never ends. Because of what Christ accomplished for us, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. We must study God’s Word so that we keep ourselves in tuned with what the Spirit is doing, because he is renewing us every day. Being eternity minded is having the same mind that Jesus Christ has—a mind that is continually focused on God. This is how we grow in the Spirit and establish deeper intimacy in our relationship with Him. He’s given us an eternal view, a view that goes beyond what the human eye can see. It is a view that makes the invisible God more visible than anything in this universe. We must not allow the devil to steal our joy and faith, and to make us unstable by steering our minds away from God. Romans 6:22 declares that we are free from that kind of slavery—the slavery of sin. Now we are slaves to God’s love. Therefore, we must listen to what He tells us to do. Then a life that is whole, powerful, loving, blessed and pleasing to Him will last an eternity. ■ Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. “Eternity Minded”, written by Vince Mack. Blessing Beads and More© 2019. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.