Welcome to COMMIT YOURSELF TO LIFE! This site is still under development, but it presently offers a daily, Christian devotion written by Curtis Dickinson. Originally collected in a small book entitled Commit Yourself to Life, “these devotions are written in the hope that they might shed light on the neglected subject of the eternal purpose of God.” Here Dickinson’s insightful and encouraging meditations are being posted for a new and broader readership. Dickinson also is known for publishing The Witness monthly newsletter from 1963 to 2004. Thanks for visiting.

OCTOBER 17

“Set your mind on the things that are above.” Colossians 3:2

Many people think of the Christian way as negative—don’t do this and don’t do that. It is true that the Bible is filled with warnings and commands; a great number of sins are€ named and expressly forbidden. But after learning what is right and wrong, the believer is not to let his mind always dwell on the “don’ts”, but on the “do’s.” You cannot develop God-ward merely by negating sin.

An Indian fakir claimed to be able to make gold. Into a large vessel he poured water, put some coloring into it and began to repeat muntarams and to stir. Craftily he dropped some gold nuggets into it unnoticed, stirred a little more, poured off the water and showed the villagers the gold. A moneylender offered five hundred rupees for the formula, and the fakir sold it to him. “But,” the fakir explained, “you must not think of the red-faced monkey as you stir. If you do, the gold will never come.” The moneylender promised to remember this, that he would forget the monkey. But each time he began to stir the pot, he would remember what he was supposed to forget, and the red-faced monkey spoiled his gold.

This is the problem with many who can only think of the sins that they are not allowed to do. They cannot go on to perfection, because their minds are fixed on the red-faced monkey of sin. But God does not list the things He despises so that we will be thinking about them. Instead we are to think of Him. “Be ye therefore imitators of God.” The Bible lists the things which God loves and gives us a picture of the holy and righteous one, Jesus. The goal is to be like Him. Paul wrote that he was forgetting the things of the past and pressing on to the goal: “the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” The way to forget sin is to center your attention “on the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.” The whole idea is that we are going to be like Him. Such a prospect is sufficient to grip and mold our mind and lives.

PRAYER: O Lord, help me to leave behind the sins and failures of the past, and give me vision to see the goal of Your purpose that I might go more faithfully toward it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.