14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
That’s a change of mind. We are not simply to not do the things that are connected with the life that is opposed to Eternity’s reign in our lives, we are not even to think about those possibilities. In order to accomplish this, Paul gives us a two stage process. In the first stage we must envelop ourselves with Jesus so that every glance at ourselves yields a view of Jesus, His love, His sacrifice, His perfection. I we continue to see ourselves from our human perspective we get defeated. As we grow in Jesus, we recognize our own grave limitations. That is why looking at Jesus changes our perspective. He knows us and is willing to work in and through us. What a hope. The second stage we must take control of our minds. Note I did not say yield control to someone or something else. We never become zombies in Jesus’ service. We are always to be mindful servants. Taking control of the object of our thoughts is a very different thing. We can choose to shift our thinking to eternal purposes and ends. We can choose our reactions to circumstances in life. We can choose to see Jesus at work in the everyday. We can choose to gratify the Spirit’s yearning in our lives, a yearning that brings eternity into flesh in us. We get transformed in the process. Old ways of thinking get replaced with eternity thinking. I could write for hours about this, but I challenge you to chew on what the Scriptures say. Clothe yourself and choose what you think about.
The Arnold Journey 