A  large percentage of what makes us faithful children of God is mental or intellectual.  How we think determines how we act, and how we act, determines whether we are real Christians or impostors.  So, the question is, what kind of mind do you have?  Are you spiritually-minded or carnal-minded?  In Romans 8, Paul puts the importance of our mindset into proper perspective.

 Romans 8:5–6 (ESV)
⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Setting our minds on the things of the Spirit is critical if we want to go to heaven when Jesus comes back to get His own.

Being spiritually minded once in a while is not good enough.  We must learn to go through life with a single-minded devotion to God and His ways.  Listen to Jesus.

Matthew 6:22–23 (ESV)
²² “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, ²³ but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

In this passage, Jesus is talking about what kind of spiritual vision we need to have as Christians.  The KJV says the eye must be single.  Having a single vision simply means being single-minded, which is the key to being consistently productive in the kingdom of God.

To reach our full potential as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, we must figure out what that one most important thing is.  Fortunately, we do not have to guess about it because gives us the answer—that one thing is God and His will.  When we live our lives striving to please God and doing His will, we will have a single-minded focus on spiritual things and find ourselves in good company.

In Philippians 3:13-14, Paul said, “This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.  I press on toward the goal for the prize…”  The goal was Christ and the prize was heaven.  That was Paul’s focus.

In Psalms 27:4, David said, “One thing I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”  David knew what was most important.  His focus was to be in the presence of God as much as possible and to worship Him.

In Luke 10:42, Jesus said that Mary chose the one necessary thing.  That one thing was spending time at the feet of Jesus and learning from Him.  She was clearly focused on that.

Let us learn from these examples and be single-minded. Yes, we might have some interests in this world, but there should be something that we seek more than anything else, that is, a relationship with God right now, and a home in heaven after a while. That is the one thing that should outweigh everything else in our lives.   It is the only way that God can count on us.  Remember, James said that the double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.  Let us do our best to gird up the loins of our minds and serve God (1 Peter 1:13).

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.