Keep Your Mind On It

I Corinthians 14:15 I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.

I am blessed to be a good reader.

          I can read almost anything without giving a bit of thought to what I am reading. 

          I can read a whole page of a book and not be able to tell you what I just read.

I do not always have my mind on what I am reading.

I am blessed to hear well (with the help of my hearing aids, that is). 

          I can sit in a group and hear everything that is said but when the group disperses, I cannot tell you what was said.

          I can sit at the dinner table and hear everything my hubby says, but I cannot tell you what he said when he is finished talking.

I did not have my mind on what I was hearing.

I cannot sing very well, but I do enjoy singing with the congregation at church.

          I can an entire song without thinking about a single word I sang.

I do not always have my mind on what I am singing.

In chapter fourteen of First Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is pointing out how the spiritual gifts God gives to believers are given to individuals for the benefit of the entire body of believers of which that person is a part.  (Gifts such as faith, discernment, teaching/preaching, speaking in tongues, and others mentioned in various locations in the New Testament). 

But did you notice what the Apostle Paul said in the verse quoted at the top of the page?

Pray and/or sing with my mind as well as my spirit.  

Keep my mind on what I am doing or saying. Don't do it mindlessly.

Pay attention to it. 

I must not let any of what I do or read or sing become so perfunctory that I do it mindlessly.

I need to pray, sing, read, and act in my spirit, doing it wholeheartedly and genuinely, but also in my mind. 

I need to KEEP MY MIND ON IT.