“Consider my enemies, for they are many; and they hate me with cruel [violent] hatred" (Psalm 25:19).
Dear Praying Friends:
Christians daily face assaults not only from the temptations of the world, but also “the lusts [passions] of the flesh . . . the desires of the flesh and the mind” (Ephesians 2:3). Unlike some Greek philosophers, Paul did not consider the body evil in itself, nor did he limit our enemies to physical impulses and drives. He knew the awful bondage imposed on us by our sin-blinded mind.
That is why he calls us to “be renewed in the spirit of [our] mind” (Ephesians 4:23; Romans 12:2). Our “futile” (4:17) thoughts, including our assumptions, values, opinions, and “disordered loves” (as Augustine termed them) must come under the transforming power of “the truth as it is in Jesus” (4:21).
How can that take place? By meditating day and night, not on the words and images of the omnipresent screen, but the Word of God as contained in Scripture (Psalm 1:2; Joshua 1:8). Jesus transforms our mind as we abide in him, which we do by allowing his word to abide in us and by responding in prayer (John 15:7).
Thank you for praying last week.
The women’s Bible study finished strong, and the discussion in the Chinese Sunday school class seemed especially warm and deep.
“Through God we will do valiantly, for it is He who shall tread down our enemies” (Psalm 60:12).
Yours in his strength,
Wright