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I might be wrong but I imagine that the mind of Christ must be, and must have been as Jesus walked on the earth, like a deep, clear water that could not be moved by anything else but by the voice of His Father. We know that we as believers should be like-minded as we share the mind of Christ. Yet how often do we experience the opposite of clarity in our minds? Are we continually filled with good thoughts toward life, toward our neighbors (even our enemies!) and toward ourselves? 🙄

As to how we will relate to ourselves, depending on the spiritual state we are in, I want to share a short excerpt from one of T. Austin Sparks’ articles with you. TAS said,

“The measure of our self-esteem will be in inverse proportion to the measure of Christ that we have. How much of Christ have we received? Well, if we have a superabundance of Christ, if we have more of Christ than anyone else, we shall not think highly of ourselves at all. The more we have of Christ, the less we shall think of ourselves, the less we shall want to talk about ourselves, the less we shall be in view, the less we shall want to be in the limelight.” (1)

That does NOT mean that we gather negative and scornful thoughts about ourselves, however, we do know that our old nature will not produce anything which is pleasing in the eyes of God, ever. Nonetheless, we know and enjoy that He loves us unconditionally! Our mindset has changed insofar that our thought life has become more occupied with thinking about Christ than with reflecting on ourselves. That is the whole secret of eternal life (see John 17:3): We look at Him Who is in the “eternal limelight”. He who is unlimited and surprising in His thoughts and actions has become more interesting to us than our old, limited nature. Indeed, we will be bored with thinking and especially with talking about ourselves! If that is not freedom, I don’t know… 🙄 If such a change has happened in us, it was surely not a man made thing as we cannot set ourselves free on our own. Whether it might be comforting for you or not I don’t know, but I can tell you from my own experiences that there is only one person who sometimes saves me from my negative hamster wheel of thoughts, namely our Lord Jesus Christ. You can forget meditating on Bible verses, trying to pull yourself together doesn’t work, either, just as reading Christian articles is not really helpful at times. The only exception might be that God leads us to do so, then, of course, everything changes.

Just lately I have experienced a roller-coaster of emotions, up and down almost every day. Sometimes I am pretty nervous, impatient and upset for nullities. Whatever I tried to get rid of my unnerving thoughts and emotions, nothing ever changed. My prayers were VERY short then, though numerous. “Jesus, please, set me free… from ME!!! AMEN.” He did not always help immediately, however, God does help. Without any forewarning or premonition I have suddenly sensed a soothing breeze of sorts as an overwhelming peace swept away everything that could disturb my troubled mind once again. To me, this has been a real miracle!

Dear reader, have you had similar experiences with God?

(1) https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001628.html

“In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks’ wishes that what was freely received should be freely given and not sold for profit, and that his messages be reproduced word for word, we ask if you choose to share these messages with others, to please respect his wishes and offer them freely – free of any changes, free of any charge (except necessary distribution costs) and with this statment included.”

All images by Susanne Schuberth 2019, 2020