What’s on your mind? What do you find yourself thinking about? What are the default thoughts that occupy your mental energy?

From the time I played 10-and-under baseball, the sport occupied way too much of my mind. Growing up in the home state of Mickey Mantle, Bobby Murcer, and Johnny Bench, I dreamed of following their paths. I played on Little League teams, in pick-up games, high school, American Legion, and semi-pro. When it became obvious that the major leagues were way out of my skill range, I settled for a college career. My college choice had absolutely nothing to do with what I wanted to study or the quality of the institution. I went to the place that offered me the most scholarship money and a chance to start my freshman year! My mind was set on playing baseball in college, and that focus guided the path of my young adult years.

It’s a straightforward formula: Your focus becomes your fascination—for better or worse. That same formula applies to our spiritual lives.

Romans 8:3-5
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

If your thinking, emotions, and desires are set on what your sinful nature wants, that’s the way you will live your life. You will chase after worldly things. You will collect material stuff. You will give your life to that which is temporal. Solomon tried this lifestyle and concluded it was all “vanity” as futile as “striving after wind.”

On the other hand, if your thinking, emotions, and desires are set on what the Holy Spirit desires for you, then you will live your life under his control. You will, by his strength, choose obedience over pleasure. You will, in his power, focus on spiritual endeavors. You will, under his guidance, invest in things that last for eternity.

Our focus becomes our fascination—let’s be fascinated by Jesus and experience the freedom only he can give.

Dear heavenly Father, I can so easily be distracted by the trivial and temporal. Please capture my mind and keep it set on you. For Christ’s sake. Amen.