Words of Life

“The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” (John 6:62-64)

I have a friend who struggles with a debilitating illness that has become progressively worse. We were chatting a few days ago and she cried, saying she had come to the end of her rope with this sickness and just wanted a way out. Her words became progressively darker and I could almost see a cloud of oppression forming over her head. Since I don’t have perfect health (who does?!) either, I sympathized with my friend’s position. However, I also recognized a familiar thread in her words. When struggling with an ongoing problem, be it an illness, a relationship heading south, financial woes, or any other of sundry things, we tend to get mesmerized by the difficulty, rather than the Solution.

Having just recently emerged from such a battle, the pattern—and the way out—are familiar. Struggling with an ongoing situation for many months, I felt absolutely weary—in every way. All I could seem to think about was this quandary for which there appeared to be no solution. While out hiking one day, I heard a voice say to me, “I have given you the mind of Christ.” That seemed really good. But the next words thoroughly shook me: “Why don’t you use it?”

I stopped in my tracks, and said, “But Lord, what do You mean? I thought that I am using it!” Then I asked Him another question, “What do you mean by the ‘mind of Christ’?”

I’ll never forget His reply: “Think upon whatever is lovely, whatever is noble, whatever is true, whatever is pure, whatever is commendable.” And the next line of Philippians 4:8 says, “If there is any excellence, anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

I was trapped. I suddenly realized thenegative path I’d been on for months, wrapped up in my world of problems and anxiety. I had lost sight of the purpose for which I live, “To know and to make Him known.” And as I know Him, the only thing I can do is to worship Him, because He is so amazing, so profoundly wonderful, beyond anything we could ever know on earth. And as only He can do, the Lord somehow “zapped me” and all the negativity I’d been feeling for months simply vanished!

As I turned to my friend, I said, “Do you worship our Lord in the midst of the pain and illness?” Our thoughts can adore Him even when we can’t speak. We can worship Him while in a coma, as I discovered in a book about a boy who was comatose for months. We don’t have to be fully conscious, on our feet or knees. We can worship Him anywhere and anytime. For, as His Word says so eloquently, if we don’t, even the rocks will cry out (Luke 19:40). I don’t know about you, but I’m not too excited about competing with—and losing to—a rock! If I can’t praise Him more than a rock, something is terribly wrong.

So, my friend and I concluded that it’s better to speak words of life—which seem always to lead to worship—than to speak negative words about sickness or unpleasant and unfair situations. I truly do find that the more positive things I say, the more I want to praise the One Who’s responsible for making things that are wonderful, holy, pure and glorious. I want to dwell in the “mind of Christ,” rather than in the mind of the flesh because the latter was made to help me function in this strange land—the one that’s not yet my home—but the former is what I will use for eternity.