Who is in the driver’s seat of your mind?

Occasionally, the Spirit will give me a message when I am speaking with a fellow believer. The message appears to come out of nowhere. When two or more are gathered in Christ’s name, we know He is in the midst. My friend and I were talking about doing the right thing at all times, and how hard it is to stay physically conscious of the decisions we make, whether good or bad.

We are creatures of habit. Once we learn something, we usually repeat it as our normal way of doing things. When you learn bad habits, you usually repeat them also. For years, I was a smoker. It’s a habit that stays with you until you physically do something to break the habit. Nicotine is very addictive for most people. It is also very deadly, and yet so many of us smoked for decades before building up enough courage to quit. It wasn’t easy for me to quit the habit, but it was life-altering.

There are many such habits we form that we pay very little attention to because they have become a part of who or how we identify ourselves. We have many silly, wrongful habits that, once we think of them, we would love to quit. Many use curse words without thinking about what they are saying. We have very poor eating habits and so on. We have to bring such things into our attention before we do something to change these no-longer-wanted habits.

The thought came to me when I was talking with my friend: “If we could train the person who sits in the decision-making seat of our minds to always turn right.” By ” right I mean to do what is right and good. We often know what is right, but we don’t always do what is right. Therefore, if we train that little person who is sitting in the driver’s seat at the seat of the mind, we could do better most of the time because it would become our new habit.

Just the thought of a person sitting in the seat of your mind gives you a chance to think before you act. Turn towards the right thing rather than the wrong. There are times when our flesh overrides the driver and still turns wrong. It is a constant battle to train the driver to always obey God. We have to train that little person who sits in the decision-making position to always follow God as our new preferred habit. It might not be easy, but the value is priceless and life-altering.

Who is driving your vehicle, the body? If the Holy Spirit is in you, He should always be in the driver’s seat, but many times even faithful believers will override Him. We should make it our priority to train our minds to lean on the Spirit of the Lord and not upon our own logical minds and understanding. To do this, we must not make the truth ambiguous. The Absolute Truth is only from God, but people will settle for what is more convenient rather than fight for truth. It requires you to dig a bit deeper into what is presented to you as fact, which, in many cases, is not God’s truth.

In this world, there are many people who are selling their product. They use deceitful tactics to intentionally deceive you into purchasing what they are offering. They do this to make the highest profit for themselves regardless of truth. Many people in the field of sales are trained as such. It is not personal. It’s just profit at all costs. Capitalism! Is it necessary to throw out our spiritual values to be successful in sales? You would think it would be possible to use honesty as your guiding value and make your sales pitch around your core values.

If you are a follower of Christ Jesus, He will reward you for doing what is right and good. It may not come in a form that the world rewards as you would hope. Christ wants you to choose what is right and good over what is only profitable to you personally. These are the kind of choices followers of Christ have to make. Are you operating to please the Lord God over your selfish desires?

In case you are struggling for the right answer, let’s go to the first two of the greatest commandments the Lord spoke about.

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12: 29–31.

Becoming a true follower of Christ requires being transformed from your selfish desires to someone with the heart and mind of Christ. He is your example. He reveals the way toward righteousness and Godliness. If you wish to please God the Father, you must be willing to adopt the ways of Christ even when the rewards on earth are not the same. Romans 8 makes that point quite clear.

“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.” Rom. 8: 5–8.

Yes! We have a choice, but those who choose to live in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You must determine who you want to please. Know there are eternal consequences to the choices that you make. Do you choose Christ or do you choose to live by the flesh?

One choice leads clearly into the kingdom of God where Christ lives, and the other leads to destruction here on the earth where the flesh remains.

Choose God! To almighty God be the glory… Selah!