5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
The idea of a mindset is one that is often forgotten. One of the few things in life we can take control of is our mind. We can choose what to think about a situation or event in many different ways. If we break our leg, we can choose to belly-ache about not being able to go bass fishing or we can enjoy the time of limited interruptions to read a few books we have wanted to read, but never had the time to read because we were always going bass fishing! Every circumstance in life gives us the opportunity to choose our mindset. My wife and I are choosing to increase our giving to missions. At my age, with limited retirement funds, it would be wiser from an earthly perspective to put the money we are giving to missions into our retirement savings. But we are trying not living from an earthly perspective. We are trying to see God at work in our wealth and use that wealth to further the Gospel. We are choosing to view our money and possessions from an eternal perspective. We set our minds on that perspective and then behave based on that perspective. We have to say “no” to our retirement perspective and “yes” to God’s perspective. Yes to the orphans in Romania. Yes to the hungry in Africa. Yes to the slave prostitutes in India. Yes to the persecuted Christians in Iraq. To whom are you saying yes?
The Arnold Journey 