Friday

Related Verses
Rom. 12:1-2
1 I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect.

Phil. 1:8
8 For God is my witness how I long after you all in the inward parts of Christ Jesus.

Phil. 2:5, 8, 13
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
8 And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of a cross.
13 For it is God who operates in you both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.

Mark 12:30
30 And you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and from your whole soul and from your whole mind and from your whole strength.”

Eph. 3:19
19 And to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.

S.S. 4:4
4 Your neck is like the tower of David, Built for an armory: A thousand bucklers hang on it, All the shields of the mighty men.

S.S. 7:4
4 Your neck is like a tower of ivory; Your eyes, like the pools in Heshbon By the gate of Bath-rabbim; Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, Which faces Damascus.

Related Reading
Our psychological heart has three main arteries. These arteries, which are also the three parts of the soul, are the mind, the will, and the emotion…The way to unclog the three main arteries of our psychological heart is to make a thorough confession to the Lord. From experience I have learned that we need to stay with the Lord for a period of time to confess our defects, failures, defeats, mistakes, wrongdoings, and sins. (Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, pp. 209-210) 

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We may begin by confessing all the sinfulness and uncleanness that is in our mind, in our thinking…Our mind is filled with dirt…In order to unclog the artery of our mind, we need to confess everything that is sinful in our thoughts and in our way of thinking. By confessing our thoughts one by one, we will remove the blockage from this artery. 

As we are making confession in this way, we may confess to the Lord how natural our understanding is concerning many matters. Perhaps you do not feel that your understanding of so many things is natural. This is the reason you need to go to the Lord and say to Him, “Lord, enlighten me and expose my mind. Expose all my thoughts. Lord, bring my mind fully into Your light.” Then you should follow the enlightenment and exposure to confess the problems in your thinking one by one. For example,…you may understand your spouse, your children, and your family affairs in a natural way, not at all in a spiritual way. If the Lord exposes this in you, you should immediately confess and say, “Lord, forgive me. Although I love You, my understanding of married life is altogether natural. Lord, deliver me from this natural understanding and take it out of me.”…For this kind of exposure and confession it may be necessary for us to stay with the Lord for a long time. 

If we go to the Lord concerning our will, He will expose it in a thorough and detailed way. It may seem as if we are being examined under a divine microscope…In particular, we will realize that we are very rebellious, that we do not know what it means to be submissive to the Lord…The Lord may show you that, a few years ago, you were wrong in a particular matter. Then He may go on to show you how you were wrong with a certain brother or a certain sister. Each time you will need to confess. You should thank the Lord that you are under His light, under His exposure. By confessing all that the Lord exposes in our will, we unclog the artery of our will. 

The artery of the emotion also needs to be unclogged. When we realize how serious is the problem we have with our emotion, we may be deeply sorrowful…We will realize that in many cases we hate what we should love and love what we should hate. When we come into the light of the sanctuary, we will see that the most ugly aspect of our being is our emotion, for we do not use it properly. Both our joyfulness and our sorrow may be altogether natural. As the Lord exposes us, we may feel ashamed of the way we have expressed joy and sorrow, for that expression often was natural, fleshly, even fleshy. 

If we take the time necessary to unclog the three main arteries of our psychological heart, we will have the sense that our entire being has become living. Our mind, will, and emotion will all be in a very healthy condition. All the “dirt” in these “ditches” will then be dug away. (Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, pp. 210-211) 

Further Reading: Life-study of 2 Thessalonians, msg. 6; CWWN, vol. 54, “The Breaking of the Outer Man and the Release of the Spirit,” chs. 7—8