For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
I Corinthians 2:16

Viruses of all sorts can be annoying. When what seems like a short-term bacterial infection doesn’t go away, it can turn out to be a virus. It’s a nasty bug that hangs on forever and must finish its course until the body’s natural immune system gets rid of it.

A computer virus is equally annoying. I write from recent experience. What was particularly frustrating was that I was paying for a service that provided firewalls and security devices to protect from just such an invasion. In the process of getting my computer functional again, I had to wipe my hard drive — that is, erase all of my files and reinstall the basic operating system. If you don’t have a backup of your files, then you have lost everything. I did recently back up my files, but, thankfully, most of my thoughts and scribblings are safe on the worldwide web (?).

I’ve read that our minds are like super-powerful computers. That we record and catalog virtually everything over the course of our lives. Every thought, printed word, spoken word, sound, image and smell. I believe it because some of the oddest rememberings from my distant past can pop into my active thinking at any time.

The good memories are a blessing to relive. The bad ones? Well, you just wish they would go away. They can consist of hurt or ugliness that you have received or witnessed, or they can be reminders of ugly things that you have said or done. I believe that our mind is the seat of our soul and is the area in which God and his enemies do battle.

Sometimes we wish that he would just wipe the hard drive of our mind and reinstall his own operating system. Many faiths teach just that. When you “accept Christ,” you are changed forever. But it would be difficult to find anyone who has miraculously shed all bad memories or temptations to behave badly.

Sanctification, however, is a process in which our minds are renewed over a period of time, in order to achieve a common goal — that we emerge as pure, lovely children of the Father. The Bible confirms that God is abounding in forgiveness, but yet lets no sin go unpunished. He’s not so much concerned with what we did, but rather what we are doing, and what we are going to do. A real problem that we Christians wrestle with is that we dwell in the shame of past sins/failures that have already been forgiven!

God wants us to accept his forgiveness and move on, looking ahead to the goodness that his son, Jesus, has taught us and is willing to help us to achieve. We have also been taught that good deeds are bad because they are “works.” Rubbish! The Apostle Paul told King Agrippa that his message to the people was that they were to “repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.”

Paul also gave a wonderful formula for renewing our minds, in that we should, over time, replace the bad thoughts with good ones. In Philippians 4:8 he writes, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.”

I’m thinking, Lord.