What do you believe is the reason for Christians in recovery to stumble, relapse, and fall short? Is it because they are weak? Maybe they lack genuine faith? Perhaps they simply are not doing enough to better themselves? No, because the reality is this: most Christians in recovery do not fall due to weakness, lack of faith, or not trying harder. Often times, one falters, stumbles, and relapses because of their thinking is unguarded, untrained, and unanchored. The battle for sobriety is always won or lost in the mind long before it shows up in behavior. And in a world that seems to drown in noise, distraction, and spiritual confusion, God is calling His people to become sanctified thinkers – men and women whose minds burn with truth, courage, and mental sobriety and clarity.

A. W. Tozer understood something we desperately need today: recovery requires more than mere abstinence and clean time. It requires a renewed mind, a courageous intellect, and a heart that thinks with God. Sanctified thinking is not academic, elitist, or detached. It is gritty, honest, and forged in the wilderness of real life. It is the kind of thinking that saves a man’s soul from collapse and sets his sail toward the wind of the Spirit.

Anchor verse – John 17:15-16, NRSVUE: “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.“

Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of humanity, petitioned the Father in prayer for each one of us. He interceded on our behalf for protection – not our escape. He prayed for our minds to be guarded, our hearts to be strengthened, and our thinking to be sanctified while each of us remain in the very world that once broke us. Recovery is not about retreating from life folks. It is about learning to think differently, to think with God in the middle of our struggles. And Tozer’s words in Chapter 18 of his book, The Set of the Sail speaks directly to each one of us as believers. Individual believers who desire to thrive, not merely survive.

This devotional continues the journey from Chapter 17—The Crucified Mind: Recovery Requires Sanctified Thinking—and moves deeper into Tozer’s call for courageous, honest, Spirit‑formed thought. If Chapter 17 showed us the need for a crucified mind, Chapter 18 shows us the qualities required to become a sanctified thinker in a world that desperately needs them.

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