You have given me everything I have asked and my mind is speechless because of it. The knowledge of Your goodness overwhelms my soul, and I am thoroughly washed by it. I think of the tenderness of Your patience, and I am reminded that Your mercy endures forever.

I look around me and even in this world, because of Your mercy, I see reminders of Your love for me. I am thinking of my family today for You gave them to me. All that my heart has cried out for You have given me. And yet all things I have in this world are not Eternal--only You are Eternal.

There are many things that my mind has wanted, but You have given me that which my soul has needed. You have given me your Spiritual Life that I may dwell with You securely. 

You know my needs even better than I can tell. I am glad for my mind would lead me astray and mock me. Sometimes my mind would have me think that I know what it is that I need, but You alone know the real needs of my soul. You know that I am different than any other man on the face of the earth but still Your benefits are tailored just for me. It is because of this difference that You have become a personal Savior to me. You save my person because it is my person that needs you.

You have told me that you will supply all of my needs, not all of my wants. It is in knowing this that my real needs are met and that joy springs from my soul and thanksgiving from my lips.

Your desire is to meet us at the place of our need--the place of our soul--because that is the place of Your abiding. It is there that we really get to know You. If You had granted to us all the things that we think we want, we would never know Your goodness for we would be absorbed by our own physical appetites and become even yet more insensitive to Your voice.

You have told us that it is Your desire to deal with our hearts, not so much our minds. We can only know You with our hearts. For You do not recognize the desires of the mind. You have said that it is with the heart that man believes. The flesh profits nothing. It is the Spirit that gives Life. Out of the heart flow the issues of Life, Eternal Life. 

You have chosen the appointed place that we should meet, the place of Your Spirit. This place has nothing to do with geography as again you have shown of Your wish to talk with the heart.

Too often we listen to our minds and we are as it were removed from the place of communion that You have chosen. When we depart from this common ground, we become lost in our own ideas and the voice of our soul becomes faint within us.

The enemy would like us to forget that You have come to meet the needs of our soul and not the supposed needs that our mind would suggest. Satan’s desire is that we cease 

listening to the cry of our soul and follow the desires he puts in our minds. His desire is to clutter our minds with the thoughts of this world so we no longer can hear Your voice that speaks in our heart.

It is when I think that I know what it is I need that I am removed from Your peace. When I stop thinking, I become still and in the calmness of my soul. I become aware that You are Spirit. It is in the quietness of my soul--the place You have prepared for me--that I gain confidence and strength. You have said to seek peace and pursue it, that Godly contentment is great gain. I am only content when I clear my mind of all its own thoughts and think upon You. 

My mind is an alien, an enemy of yours and understands not the things of God. I dare not listen to it for it will lead me astray. It knows nothing at all about Spiritual things and You have told me, “Beware.” You have told me that if I listen to my mind and follow it, I will be led to the place of spiritual death. You have also told me that if I will follow the Spirit, You will lead my soul to the place of Life. That is the place Jesus has prepared for me and it is in You (John l4).

When I listen to the needs that my mind would say I have, I am removed from peace; but when I listen to Your sweet voice, I am comforted. I am made complete by Thy completeness. If I follow the desires that Satan would put in my mind, I will become confused not discerning the difference from that which my mind says I need and that which my soul says I have in Christ. One is temporal; the other is Eternal. It is when we confuse the two that the adversary of our soul takes control of our thoughts and we are removed from your peace.

I can be thankful for all the wonderful things You have done for me in this world, but I must realize that only You are Eternal. The desires of the flesh and of the mind shall pass away but the Word of God abides forever. It is upon this that my soul is built and comforted and I must not forget. It is in forgetting that the enemy overwhelms my soul.

I am told that I must not forget the Lord and all His benefits. When I remember the Spirit You have made within my soul and listen to its voice, I am quickened and raised up out of the death of the flesh. I must never forget that the carnal mind is death. The Psalmist said, “In death there is no remembrance of Thee.”--Psalms 6:5

Because of these things, I must learn not to listen to my mind when it comes to the satisfying of my Spiritual needs.

I will listen only to Your voice, and I will Live.

-- Warren D. Rogers