It is not how you mark your Bible that matters. It is how your Bible marks you.

Is God just one piece of your life or is He the center piece? Since it is Thanksgiving time we will use a pie to try and demonstrate what our relationship (walk) with God should look like.

Draw a circle on a piece of paper. Make the circle (pie) large enough to section it into eight individual pieces. Label each pie piece with some aspect of your life. For example; family, work, church, education, hobbies, finances, grandkids, social activity, networking, etc. Now ask yourself, how does God fit into this pie? Did you label one of the pie pieces for God? If we place God in a well meaning section of our life, is that making Him a priority or is He just another piece of the pie?

How do we make Him the priority in our life? If you labeled a piece of the pie as God, erase that label and make it something else. Now draw a circle around the center of the pie, like a bullseye. This circle should cover a portion of every pie piece. Label the bullseye God or Jesus Christ.

Let us place ourselves in the center of the bullseye in Christ. As we turn clockwise or counter clockwise in the circle looking into each aspect of our lives, we want to have God’s mind concerning every aspect.

As Christians we have the mind of Christ. We are in Christ and He is in us. His mind is to be continuously and increasingly manifested in us as we let the word of Christ dwell (take up its life) in us richly. With the mind of Christ, each aspect of our life is being transformed into harmony with God’s will, resulting in obedience in every part of our life with Him as the centerpiece.

God’s goal or our motivation to spiritual growth is for the size of the bullseye to increase until it covers the whole pie.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

…let the word of Christ dwell (take up its life) in you richly…

Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad. Proverbs 12:25 (KJV)

Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad. Proverbs 12:25 (NASB95)

Strong’s Concordance – Heaviness #1674 is defined as anxiety: care, fear, or sorrow, and is derived from #1672 be anxious: be afraid, sorrow, take thought.[1] Heaviness carries with it the idea of an added burden, weighing a man down, making him stoop beneath the load.[2]

Anxiety has no advantages. It ruins health, robs joy, and changes nothing. The Greek word the Bible uses for worry, merimnao, stems from the verb merizo (divide) and nous (mind). Worry clogs the mind, splitting thoughts between today and tomorrow.[3]

Worry causes a swarm of sicknesses: heart trouble, high blood pressure, rheumatism, ulcers, colds, thyroid malfunction, arthritis, migraine headaches, blindness, and a host of stomach disorders. Worry, it seems , hurts our health.[4]

Listen up! Here is the good word to make your heart glad!

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

How can this be, that believers have the mind of Christ? We have the mind of Christ because Christ indwells believers. Ephesians 3:16&17a

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Philippians 2:5 The little word let implies submission clothed in humility. Let leads us to obedience.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2

The renewing of the mind is the adjustment (transformation) of the moral and spiritual vision and thinking to the mind of God.[5] It is a process that begins at salvation, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. I Peter 1:23, and continues until we step into glory. The whole of salvation and sanctification are activated by His written Word. So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. II Timothy 1:7

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; I Peter 1:13

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Acts 17:11

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. II Corinthians 4:16

The word renewed in this verse is in the passive voice, meaning that the inward man is being acted upon as we search the Scripture and hide God’s Word in our heart.

For the word of God is quick (living), and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Hebrews 12:1-3

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered (died) in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered (died) in the flesh hath ceased (parted ways) from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts (desires) of men, but to the will of God. I Peter 4:1&2

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13

...let the word of Christ (Messiah Jesus) dwell (take up its life) in you richly…

[1] The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible by James Strong, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA – Hebrew & Chaldee Dictionary page 29.

[2] Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words – copyright 1984,1996, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, TN – Old Testament Words p.101.

[3] & [4]- Election Day: It’s a Time to Trust – Article by Max Lucado

[5] Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words – copyright 1984,1996, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, TN p.524.

The choice we all make is this: either we are good enough on our own, through our belief system and morality, to make it to heaven; or we’re not, and we have to cast ourselves on the mercy of God through Christ to get there. Those are the only two systems of religion in the world. One is a religion of human merit; the other recognizes that we find true merit in Christ alone, and it comes to the sinner only by grace. There may be a thousand different religious names and terms, but only two religions really exist. There is the truth of divine accomplishment, which says God has done it all in Christ, and there is the lie of human achievement, which says we have some sort of hand in saving ourselves. One is the religion of grace, the other the religion of works. One offers salvation by faith alone; the other offers salvation by the flesh. (1)

(1) Hard to Believe – copyright 2003 by John MacArthur (Published by Thomas Nelson – Nashville, TN), p.78&79