You're Out Of Your Mind

7UP:

You’re Out of Your Mind

Philippians 4:8

October 12, 2008

This week we turn to the mental area of our lives. ‘You’re out of your mind’ you may say for talking about this. But if we are going to follow Jesus in holistic community, we’ve got to give God control of this area of our lives as well.

Speaking of mental, a young lady went to Country Assistance Office to sign up for benefits. When she finally met with a case manager, she was told that her husband would have to sign the papers as well. The young lady just sort of stared at the phone not saying a word. Believing that maybe the young lady wanted to call her husband, the case manager slid the phone closer to the young lady and said, “You have to dial 9 to get out.”

The young lady picked up the receiver, dialed 9, put the receiver down, and walked out without saying a word. A few hours later the young lady was back in the office with her husband and he signed the papers. As the young lady stood up to leave, she asked, “Do I have to dial 9 again to get out?”

The mental area of our lives needs to be given up to God. But what does this mean? What is this mental area of our lives? And how do we differentiate this area from other areas especially the emotional area of our lives? We get a clue from Philippians 4:8:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

So the mental area is what we think about. The technical term is the cognitive area of our lives.

The mental area is our thinking or cognitive area.

In psychology especially educational psychology goals are often written for students in the lessons based on three areas: the cognitive area which is the thinking area or the mind, the affective area which is how we feel or our emotions, and the kinesthetic area which is the physical area that deals with our bodies and touch.

We need to seek to give God control of this area of our lives as well as the physical and emotional areas, which we already talked about.

Why this area?

• Because God’s ways are not our ways.

Scripture reminds us that God’s ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. He is God. We are not. He created everything. He put it all into place. How are we to understand it all? This is why it is so important to seek to know God. Seek to know God’s ways. Seek to know what is right in God’s eyes.

I read about ten years ago an interesting statistic. Our medical knowledge doubles every 2.5 years. Is it any wonder why medicine has so many specialties? It literally is hard to keep up. Yet, we have only scratched the surface. God holds all these mysteries in his hand.

• Because we need help.

We don’t always have it all together. We make a mess of things we don’t always have things figured out. We don’t always understand. Like the little girl who told her mother when she brought home brown eggs because that was all the store had, “Look mommy, whole-wheat eggs!”

We need help. We often need to get our own thinking in order. Ever since the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve just got a tasted of knowledge concerning what is right and wrong, we have gotten things messed up. God knows everything perfectly. But we don’t. Without God and God’s direction, inevitably we determine things that are wrong as right and what is right becomes wrong.

We need help. We need guidance and direction. Often we make a mess of our lives when we try to do it our own way.

When we studied this in our small group, we looked at the story of a man who was possessed by a bunch of demons. He was wild. He tortured. Casting Crowns has written a song telling this story. And I found a video that has dramatized the story and song. Let’s take a look.

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=edc9c59b2eb29776027a

Interestingly, the scripture says that the man was “restored to his right mind.” We need help. We all do. Giving God the mental area of our lives means God’s healing touch and restoration. Sometimes not all at once but certainly no matter how messed up our minds are, it is a better way of living, God’s ways, then on our own. Whether we have stinking thinking problems or we have mental illness or we suffer from the effects of mental problems because of choices that we have made, God brings healing and restoration to those who seek him.