Whatever Grips Your Mind Controls Your Heart

The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded...2 Corinthians 5:14Would you like to experience more of Jesus’ love? Here are some common Christian approaches: If I want to have a deeper experience of Jesus’ love...I need to rededicate my life to Christ.I need to be more disciplined in my Bible reading.I need to get more serious about prayer.These are all good things, but notice Paul is not telling us to do anything. He is telling us where a deeper experience of Jesus’ love is found: “the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded...” (5:14). Then Paul tells us two settled conclusions about the death of Christ.But before we get to these conclusions, notice Paul is telling us something very important about the connection between what we think and what we feel. Christians sometimes say, “I believe that God loves me (in my head), but I don’t feel it in my heart.” And when the love of Christ is missing from a person’s heart, and you probe further, you will often find that the settled convictions that Paul talks about here are usually missing in the mind.Whatever grips your mind controls your heart. That’s why Paul says, “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). That’s where it starts. Your heart is a follower more than a leader. Heart follows mind. That’s why on the road to Emmaus Jesus first opened up the Scriptures and taught the disciples, and afterward their hearts burned within them (Luke 24:32).Imagine a woman saying, “I used to think like this: When I have a husband, I’ll feel loved. When I have kids, I’ll feel needed. When I have a job, I’ll feel important. Then I got them—the husband, the kids, and the job—and I still wasn’t happy.”Do you see what she’s saying? “My heart was set on a husband, kids, and job, because I thought [there’s the settled conviction that is driving the heart] this would bring me more worth.”Do you see how your thinking drives your feelings?