Mental Action, Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Mental Action
 
Reading:I Peter 1:13, Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Yogi Berra, the great baseball icon, once said, “Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical." If you notice, Peter didn’t say, “Hey, guys, prepare your body, your weapons, and your gear for action.” He said, “Prepare your minds”.

Have you ever had a lot on your mind: problems at work, bills to pay, family conflict; and someone comes up to you and gives you one more big thing to think about? It’s almost like an alarm begins blaring in your head with lights flashing, “System overload, system overload, alert… alert!” On the flip side, the new thing with Yoga and other forms of meditation is preparing your mind to relax; yet, Peter wants a preparation of the mind for action.

If you spend any time in a weight room, you will see someone, before they lift their max-out weight, prepare mentally by getting themselves psyched up before lifting the bar. Most people, before going into a big meeting where they are making a presentation, will run through everything in their minds to make sure that they are prepared. If I am preparing for an event, I run everything through my mind from all different perspectives to make sure that I’ve thought of everything. All of these are done before action. Men, we really need to be taking time to prepare our minds for action. We spend an awful lot of time with our minds worrying, or thinking about sports scores/stats, or thinking impure thoughts, or thinking about how we want to tell that person off… we need to be preparing our minds for action. If you never take time to think through how you’re going to serve, follow, and listen to God, don’t expect to do the right thing when the time comes for action.

Take some time now to think… and prepare your mind for action… what actions do you need to take for God today?

How can you carry that out and what may be some pitfalls?
REVIEW
 
How did you prepare your mind for action today?


How did that impact your ability to act and react in a way that is pleasing to God?