2Corinthians 8:12 “For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.” I could name this article choices because most everything in this life is made up of choices. As soon as we are able to have understanding, we have a choice of who we will be, what we will do, where we will go, and what we will believe. Paul believes that a willing mind is the key to success in life. Joshua 24:15 “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
God calls for us to chose Him or the wickedness of the world. If we chose Him then we are on the narrow way that few find. From that point, we have choices to make; do I or don’t I choices, yet if we have a willing mind God can work with us to benefit our life here on earth through blessings and we can build treasure in heaven. Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Let’s define the word willing. It means ready, eager, or prepared to do something. So it seems that a willing mind is an eager mind, it is ready follow instructions, it is prepared to do something. If we are following the scriptural way of life, then it is a mind ready to follow the instructions of the scriptures. It is a mind willing and eager to do what is commanded of Christians. 1John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”
A willing mind allows us to understand scripture or if we cannot understand it at present, a willing mind allows us to accept it anyway. Hebrews 11:1-3 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
In the age of electron microscopes and splitting the atom, scientists have found some of these tiny things that make up the world, that scripture told us of over two thousand years ago. “Not made of things which do appear” is much deeper than atoms and their tiny, tiny parts. It involves believing in an Almighty God who by His Word frames the worlds. A willing mind can comprehend; a closed mind cannot. I cannot believe that all scientists are not believers. The seemingly random pairing of atoms gives us food, water, even the air we breath, yet they search for alternative explanations for their existence. A willing mind understands Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
In the first five days of creation, God prepared our world for the habitation of man. Man could not have survived on a Day One world. Man could not have survived on a Day Two world, or a Day Three or a Day Four World. Man was made on the Day Six World so that he had food, clean water, and air to breath. Then God did something that sociologists are finding out about today. God gave man work to do.
Sociologists study human society and social behavior by examining the groups, cultures, social institutions, and processes that develop when people interact. They are just now realizing that working men are happier and more productive than those who do nothing and expect others to care for them. A willing mind is eager to work for their own advancement, the needs of their family, and the needs of their society. God basically said that when He gave Adam work to do in the Garden of Eden.
There are hundreds of illustrations left to discuss about what makes the world tick, but many of them require a mind willing to accept that it does not and cannot know everything about anything. A willing mind trusts an Holy God to guide him in the right decisions.
If you are not a Christian or are a marginal Christian, you cannot or will not believe what I have just written because you do not have a willing mind, eager to learn about God and the Universe He spoke into existence. Let me leave you with this last thoughts from Hebrews and Isaiah. Hebrews 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Isaiah 55:6 “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:” A willing mind seeks God.
