Romans 8:6 (NKJV)

“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

The man who is in Christ is marked by a spiritual mindedness that produces beautiful and positive emotional fruits; and of course, vice versa to the man who is controlled by his sinful nature. For the spiritually minded man, his disposition to life is positive and his interaction with men is beneficial. He looks at things from God’s perspective and even when things are not going well, he hears and sees from God’s eyes, and acts appropriately. He is in charge of his emotions and is not reactionary, and that’s why he has life and peace and gives life and peace.

NLT says, “letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death.” The mind that is wrapped by the old nature of sin is dead and produces death. Such a man is emotionally dead because he is spiritually dead. His actions are tainted with anger, bitterness, harshness, and negativity. He tends to be more depressed, sorrowful, pitiful, unnecessarily critical and self consumed. He lacks the joy, peace, inner rest, and positive attitudes of the Holy Spirit controlled man. Here’s the test. Without bias, observe your spontaneous emotional expressions and they just may reveal what or who controls your mind.

“Lord Jesus, You control my mind. Holy Spirit, You control my mind. Let my emotions and attitudes be full of Your life, joy, peace and rest – all the time – in Your name I pray. Amen.”