Isaiah 26:3 – Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, the definition of psychology is “the science of mind and behavior.”  The Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines psychology a little differently as “A discourse or treatise on the human soul; or the doctrine of the nature and properties of the soul.”  That sounds an awful lot like the Word of God and the preaching of the Word of God.  Obviously the definition has changed quite a bit in 187 years. The main issue with modern psychology is the starting premise.  It no longer starts with the Bible as it’s text book.  It refuse to look at man’s problem as primarily sin in its relationship to the mind and soul.  At least in Daniel Webster’s day they realized that behavior of the mind and heart is related to the soul.

Psychology can study the behavior of human beings but when you don’t understand the apparatus of the human spirit, soul and body the way God designed it, you are probably going to come to the wrong conclusion on how to fix it.  If you blame everyone for your problems but yourself and your sin, you are not going to fix them.  I’m not saying that there are not problems with the brain that are chemical in nature and some weird things occur in the mind.  But refusing to recognize the spiritual side of things is dangerous.  There is also demonic activity that can affect the mind.  You have to start from the right place.

God gave us the Word of God as the primary “owner’s manual” on how to fix the problems of the heart, mind and soul.  However, most people don’t want to fix things God’s way.  That would require dealing with and repenting of sin.   Reallly, the pastor of the local church who knows the Word of God  is a far better psychologist than most modern day psychologists.  That is because he is starting from the right premise and the right “owner’s manual.”  We need to seek answers from the Bible.  We need to search the heart and see if there be any wicked way in us.  We need to repent of sin and turn to God to overcome that sin.  There is no doubt we need supernatural power to overcome the problems of life.

The mind is discussed throughout the Bible.  Deuteronomy 28:65 talks of “sorrow of mind.”  1 Chronicles 28:9 talks of “a willing mind.”  Proverbs 21:27 talks of “a wicked mind.”  Isaiah 26:3 talks about our mind being stayed on God.  Ezekiel 11:5 talks about God knowing the things that come into our mind.  Matthew 22:37 talks about us loving God with all our mind.  Luke 8:35 talks about someone who was not in their right mind being in their right mind after Jesus healed them.  Luke 12:29 tells us not to be of a doubtful mind.  Act 17:11 tells describes someone with a mind that was ready to help.  The Bible also talks about a humble mind, a reprobate mind, a carnal mind, a renewed mind, a lowly mind, a fleshly mind, a mind that is alienated from God, a shaken and troubled mind, a sound mind, a defiled mind, and the mind having loins.

Obviously there is a good message in this for all you preachers.  But that is not the main thing I wanted to get at today.  The main thing I wanted to stress with all this is the Bible has the answer to man’s problems today.  You need to get in it and heed its commands if you are going to solve your problems.  That is going to require dealing with sin.  You are going to need to get serious with God.  Also, it is going to require some serious study of God’s word.  Sin problems can be complicated and the destruction it causes in the human heart can take a while to unwind.  It is kind of like peeing an onion.  You peel away one sin in your life and it leads to another you have to deal with.

All this is God’s plan for our life.  We grow more and more like him as we deal with the problems of the human heart and mind.  Dealing with sin frees the mind.  As the verse states above, peace comes through keeping our mind on the Lord.  The less we focus on our problems and the more we focus on the Lord, the more peace God will bring in our lives.