"SET YOUR MINDS!"

Colossians 3:1-3                          (ESV)

"1 If then you have been raised with CHRIST, seek the things that are above, where CHRIST 

MM, seated at the right hand of GOD.

2 "SET YOUR MINDS" on things that are above, NOT ON THINGS THAT ARE ON THE EARTH.

3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with CHRIST in GOD. - Colossians 3:1-3

Imagine, if you will, allowing your mind to be infiltrated, maybe even consumed, with useless propaganda that had nothing to do with the eternal outcome of your soul.  That is the most effective way of the enemy of getting us to do anything but have our attention on JESUS CHRIST and HIS principles.  Maybe it's high time we take control of what we "SET YOUR MINDS" on and focus more on Heavenly things?  The things of "this world" are ALL going to fade away, and what will you have then?  

The biggest challenge I see is in verse one of chapter three above.  "IF" then you have been raised with JESUS" does not mean you lived a decent life and cried at a few funerals!  "IF then you have been raised with JESUS" means that evidently you have been slain with HIM!  Your selfish desires and worldly wants have become a distant memory and HIS Plan has become preeminent in your life.  The only thing is, "IF" you HAVEN'T been raised, then even the desire to "seek things that are above" hasn't been granted to us.  Some people want to believe that they are "chosen" because of a desire to serve HIM they've always had.  But in Colossians 1 Paul writes that some of us (him included) WERE "alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds", but through JESUS CHRIST we have been "reconciled in HIS body of flesh by HIS death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before HIM"!  

Since JESUS performed all of the WORKS required for us to be considered "holy and blameless" before HIM, we shouldn't be trying to be better than the next guy in our service to HIM.  We should "SET YOUR MINDS" on things that are above and not on our own selfish ambitions.  1 Corinthians 2:16 says "...But we have the MIND of CHRIST"!  We must always remember to "SET YOUR MINDS" on JESUS and keep "this world" out of our view!