“The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” – Romans 8:6
They say that habits breed contentment. That is why when we have a routine and we habitually do it, we find ourselves content with it. Usually, when we are content, we don’t like to change anything even if it sometimes leads us to a stagnant, selfish life. Now, our verse today reminds us how to feed our habits and how our habits should be. We all know that habits and routines came from our minds at first. So, what we feed our minds, will be manifested to our habits and our routines.
So, Paul wants to remind us all that whatever we feed on our minds will breed a consequence, either good or bad consequences. We are all on the verge of succumbing into the vile part of our human existence while God keeps on holding on to us through His reminders and through His guidance. Now, Paul encourages us to always let our mind be governed by the Holy Spirit because a mind governed by flesh will cause us death.
A fleshly mind is an equivalent to a selfish and sinful mindset. If we continually let our mind governed by these mindset, our habits will be affected and these habits will manifest on how we react in situations, how we handle ourselves and how we make decisions. Again, habits breed contentment and as soon as we accept the fact that what we think of those selfish and sinful ideas are okay, then we will get to establish a routine of it and will eventually be content with it. Now, these routines we are talking about are the ones that will cause us death.
For as sin entangles so easily, we should expect that one selfish act will lead to sins that we never did before. One sinful idea will lead us into doing it million times. The scariest part of it is, we are going to think that these are all just okay and that we are going to be content with it. We won’t seek to change it or be guilty about it any longer. Indeed, that if we let our minds be governed by flesh, we are all deserving of death and condemnation for this is not the Will of God.
On the other hand, God encourages us instead that even if we have been feeding our minds selfish and sinful thoughts, we can still change it by choosing not to be contented with it. We should let our minds be governed by the Holy Spirit because through it, we will have peace and life. Now, this is not just a promise but also a good reward. Whenever we think that reading the Scriptures will not do us any good, well here is our answer. The only way to let the Holy Spirit govern our minds is through meditating on His Word day and night.
Through meditating, the Holy Spirit will then work in us and will refresh us everyday. He will make us only want to do the Will of God and not our own wills. Indeed that through Him governing our minds, we will see life and we will have peace because only through God can we find our salvation and our salvation brings us life in Christ. We will also have peace because God is the God of peace and despite all the adversaries, His comfort will be with us and His love will embrace us.
Therefore, we should stop bad habits and stop being content with it because initially, we are ruled by our flesh, now we are ruled by the Holy Spirit. May we always remember to meditate on the Word so that it will let the Holy Spirit do His work in us. We should always put in our minds if our actions and decisions can glorify God or not. Above all, we should always seek God’s glorification in every way and situation.
