”Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)
For the most part, we understand what it means to love God with our heart. To love with our soul is, in essence, to love with our mind because our soul is influenced by the feelings and thoughts that our mind controls. So if it’s implied that loving with our soul is loving with our mind, why does God mention “love with your mind” twice?
The answer is that the mind has two functions. One part records your history. It replays your past and keeps those accounts there for you to remember. The other part of your mind is your imagination. It pre-plays your future and offers you endless possibilities.
As leaders, it’s up to you to choose which one you’ll live in today. God wants you to live in the mind that pre-plays your future because His thoughts are in that mind to give you hope and potential. God wants you to love Him with the part of your mind that sees a different tomorrow; one that doesn’t focus on the past. But the enemy wants you to live in your first mind; the one that replays the old records of your past that keeps you in pain.
In order to live in the mind that loves God, you have to become immersed in His Word, and guard your heart and mind. You have to pre-play every blessing that He said is yours and you have to look forward to what it’s going to look like when it comes.
Dwell on your potential and not your past. Leaders make a lot more decisions than other people, that’s why they’re leaders. Which means you, as a leader, will make more mistakes than other people. The key is staying focused on your future, because that’s where you want to lead those who follow you…into your future, not down the road of past mistakes.
God can do so many powerful things to your life that the mind that replays your failures wouldn’t allow you to do. Learn to lead by loving God with your mind, but with the mind that looks to the future.
