In his book, The Divine Conspiracy, the late Dallas Willard penned a section on “Enthralling the Mind with God.”

He wrote this…

“A popular saying is ‘Take time to smell the roses.’  What does this mean?  To enjoy the rose it is necessary to focus on it and bring the rose as fully before our senses and mind as possible.  To smell a rose you must get close, and you must linger.  When we do so, we delight in it.  We love it.  Taking time to smell the roses leaves enduring impressions of a dear glory that, if sufficiently reengaged, can change the quality of our entire life …This simple illustration contains profound truths.  If anyone is to love God and have his or her life filled with that love, God in his glorious reality must be brought before the mind and kept there in such a way that the mind takes root and stays fixed there.”

This is the kind of thing we have in mind when we talked this week about living a Devoted Life.  We don’t only have in mind a steely eyed discipline of Bible reading.  Often that is what is required, but we must remember that it is the means, not the end.  Our hope is to enthrall our minds with God – to devote our hearts and minds to him.

A rose only betters the quality of a life by a slight amount.  However, when we take time to meditate on God’s reality, we are moved in the direction of the fullness of life described in John 10:10.  Let’s bring God before our minds and linger there.  One of the simplest ways to do that is by reading scripture and praying.  Let’s enthrall our minds with God this week!

Peace,
Dean.