Set Your Affection Deliberately
"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." — Colossians 3:2
Affection Is a Decision
"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." (Colossians 3:1–2)
Notice the verb. Set.
That word shows us something we generally deny: we seek God by an act of the will. We deliberately set our affection on heavenly things.
We have absorbed the idea that affection is something that happens to us — that you either feel drawn to God or you do not, and there is nothing to be done about it.
Scripture treats it as a decision you make and then act on, in the expectation that feeling will follow.
The World Is Built for Escape
Life today continually tempts us to escape from the pressure of reality into a void of blank mindlessness. And there are so many exits available.
Screens. Sit down, turn off your mind, and tune into whatever happens to be on.
Substances.
Endlessly repeated music that helps blank out the mind and allows only physical sensation to exist.
Fantasy. Building vain imaginations, living in a world that is not real and that draws you further and further from God, who is the source of your life and being.
Techniques marketed as relaxation — various forms of meditation, mind-emptying practices, and recordings designed to help a person clear the mind and escape.
Every one of these is available, cheap, and socially acceptable. And it is a real sacrifice to deliberately refuse them.
"While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:18)
What to Do Instead
Rather than escaping from reality, discipline your mind to think about God, to think about the Scriptures, and to talk to Him.
Constantly evaluate what is happening to you and around you in the light of God's word, which is your guidance and your source of wisdom.
And here is the promise attached: as you do this in obedience, you will find the Holy Spirit speaking to you more and more frequently.
Then, whatever is happening around you — even if your body is dying:
"For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." (2 Corinthians 4:16)
Point to Ponder
"Set your affection." It is an imperative verb. Affection is not weather; it is a decision followed by an action.
Verse to Remember
"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." — Colossians 3:2
Question to Consider
What do I use to escape — and how many hours a week does it take?
Today's Practice
Identify your exits honestly.
Write down what you actually use to escape reality, and estimate the hours per week. Screens, scrolling, entertainment, games, food, sleep, noise, fantasy, work itself.
Total it. The number is usually startling.
Then choose one — the largest — and do two things:
Cut it deliberately. Not eliminate it forever; reduce it by a set amount for thirty days. Name the amount.
Replace it with something specific. Emptiness will not hold. Fill the hours you have reclaimed with Scripture, prayer, or serving someone. Decide now what goes in the space.
Then practice the discipline itself throughout the day: every time you catch yourself reaching for an exit, stop and turn your mind toward God instead. Say a verse. Talk to Him about what you were escaping from.
You are training a faculty, and faculties respond to training.
Prayer
Father, I have been escaping, and I have not even called it that. I have called it unwinding, and resting, and needing a break.
I have spent hours every week deliberately blanking my mind, and then wondered why I cannot hear You.
I set my affection on things above today. Not because I feel it — I do not feel much of anything — but because You commanded it and it is an act of my will.
Show me my exits and give me the resolve to close the largest one. And fill what I empty, so that I am not merely sitting in a cleared space waiting to relapse.
Discipline my mind toward You. Let me think about Your word, evaluate my life by it, and talk to You through the day instead of running from everything.
Renew my inward man day by day, whatever is happening to the outward one. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
You have been blanking your mind deliberately for hours a week, and wondering why you cannot hear Him.