The Pathways of Your Mind

Jesus spoke of pathways in the parable of the sower.

In Mark 4:3 Jesus says, “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As He was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.” The sower then went on to sow on the rocky places, the thorns and the good soil.

In explaining the parable, Jesus said, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you…. The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.”

He then explains that the farmer, (God) is sowing seed (the Word), along hard pathways in our lives. But the seed can’t penetrate the pathways. The result is that the enemy can simply come along and take the Word of God away.

So Jesus is teaching that we have pathways in our minds, which are so well trodden, the Word of God never takes root. Pathways of panic, or fear over money, poor mind-sets regarding health, destiny, relationships, conflict or identity.

We might say an ‘Amen!’ in the meeting when we hear it, and feel a flicker of “That’s how I want to think and live.” But these paths are so well trodden in our thinking, that by the time we’re leaving the church building, we’re talking like an atheist again! Fears arise easily and by the time Monday arrives, we’re back to old thoughts of worry, stress, fear and it is as though our minds are completely untouched by the Word from God!

In the areas where we have developed well-walked pathways, we need to “break up the unploughed ground!” (Hosea 10:12) We need to have an overhaul in our thinking. We need to ask God to help us renew our minds; otherwise we will live trapped in patterns of behaviour that are hard to break.

Renewing the Mind

Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing the word.” It is actually a continuous tense which means “Faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing…”

To reconstruct our thinking we need to start digging at the roots of our stinking thinking, not merely by a single message from the preacher at church once a week, but by digging into the promises of the Bible daily. We need to read faith-filled books specifically about our weak areas of thinking. Listen to podcasts. Write some scriptures on post-it notes and litter your house with them.

This is an excerpt from my new book and online course STRONGER available HERE.