My assertion that positive spiritual pleasure depends on what we know rather than on trying to “not think” aligns well with biblical teaching. The biblical concept of beatitude is not about silence or cessation of thought but about the soul’s joyful contemplation of God's glory. To attempt to empty the mind as a way to find peace—whether through secular mindfulness practices or misguided asceticism—is ultimately futile because the human mind is not neutral; it will fill with whatever it treasures most. The only way to find true rest is to treasure God above all else (Matthew 6:21), so that the mind naturally gravitates toward thoughts saturated with His truth, beauty, and goodness. This aligns with Edwards’ view that saints find happiness in beholding God's glory in Christ, which produces a sweet delight in God that overflows into their experience of peace and joy. In essence, your reflection points to a vital biblical truth: the human mind is the central battleground where freedom and slavery are decided. The mind, rather than being a passive tool, is the primary arena of spiritual conflict—where false values and deceptions vie with divine truth. Because the fallen mind naturally presents counterfeit goods as the highest good, it acts as a traitor to the soul's true happiness. The path to genuine rest and peace is not through trying to silence or empty the mind, but through the Spirit's renewing work, which reorients our thoughts toward God’s truth, beauty, and goodness. True spiritual pleasure is rooted in knowing and delighting in God—an act of joyful contemplation that transforms the mind. The battle for peace is ultimately a battle to think rightly, to set our minds on Christ and His promises. Only then does the mind become a faithful servant rather than a traitor, leading us into the peace that surpasses all understanding. You are correct that the will does not operate in a vacuum; it chooses based on what the mind perceives as most desirable. Drawing on Edwards’ understanding in *Freedom of the Will*, liberty is defined as the capacity or opportunity to do as one pleases, but what one pleases is always determined by what appears to be the greatest good to the mind at the moment. In the fallen state, however, the mind is darkened, deceitful, and hostile to God—Ephesians 4:18, Jeremiah 17:9, and Romans 8:7 describe this reality vividly. Consequently, the mind habitually presents sin, self-justification, or creaturely comfort as the highest good, leading the will to follow these defective valuations without true delight in God. This results in robotic obedience rather than joyful submission. Romans 12:2 emphasizes this point: the transformation we need is primarily noetic—our minds must be renewed so that we can discern and delight in God's will. Calvin echoes this, asserting that "the renovation of the mind is the chief and principal part of regeneration"—the understanding must be enlightened first, then the will renewed. Your reflection addresses a deep and complex tension at the heart of both anthropology and soteriology: the role of the mind in human life and salvation. It highlights that the human mind is not just a neutral tool or passive instrument controlled solely by the will, but rather the primary battleground where spiritual warfare unfolds. The mind is the central place where true freedom is either compromised through bondage or realized through liberation, and it is the faculty through which genuine spiritual joy and satisfaction are experienced. In this framework, anxiety is not simply an emotional state to be managed with quick-fix techniques or superficial distractions; instead, it signals a fundamental disorder within the mind itself—a mind that has become its own traitor. This disordered mind runs autonomously, caught in endless, self-referential cycles, rather than engaging in the true thinking after God's thoughts. The biblical call for the renewal of the mind is radically countercultural because it refuses the modern therapeutic tendency to seek rest by shutting down thought or bypassing the will through behavioral hacks. Instead, Scripture insists that authentic rest—what we might call spiritual sabbath—comes through active, Spirit-enabled reordering of our cognition to align with God's revealed truth. Scripture offers a paradigm of transformation that is fundamentally noetic. Philippians 4:6–8 counsels believers not to be anxious but to meditate intentionally on what is true, honorable, just, pure—on divine realities. The antidote to anxiety is not thought suppression but deliberate, Spirit-led meditation on God's truth. John Owen underscores this, noting that the mind is the battlefield of spiritual warfare; if it is not fixed on Christ, it will inevitably fix itself on vanity or sin. Isaiah 26:3 provides a promise: peace (shalom) flows from a mind anchored in God—trusting in Him keeps the mind in perfect peace. Jonathan Edwards describes this peace as arising from beholding God's divine beauty and excellence, captivating the soul with delight. 2 Corinthians 10:5 commands believers to take every thought captive to obey Christ—highlighting that every cognition is spiritual and must be actively subdued under Christ's lordship. John Piper emphasizes that the war for joy is ultimately a war for right thinking—fighting anxiety involves cultivating faith-saturated thoughts that center on God's promises and character. Anxiety often springs from the mind’s fixation on self, future uncertainties, or creaturely securities rather than on God's sovereignty and goodness. The contemporary therapeutic approach attempts to manage anxiety by altering physiological states or redirecting attention, but Scripture locates its root much deeper—in the patterns of wrong thinking and misplaced trust. The biblical path forward is not to think less but to think better—deliberately capturing every thought to make it obedient to Christ. This involves actively choosing to meditate on God's promises, character, and truth rather than succumbing to the deceptive narratives of the self or the world. Your insight is accurate: theologically, the mind is the decision-making arena; the will follows what the mind treasures most. Fallen minds flatter themselves by presenting false goods as ultimate, betraying their true allegiance. The only true rest is found when the mind is renewed through the Spirit and saturated with God's Word—when it thinks after His thoughts. As Paul prays in Ephesians 1:17–18 for “a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,” only then can the traitor within the mind be transformed into a servant of God, and the anxiety that enslaves can give way to the divine peace that surpasses understanding (Philippians 4:7). The phrase “thinking thoughts after God,” associated with Kuyper and rooted in Reformed theology, captures the process of sanctification as the mind being progressively conformed to the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). This is more than imitation; it is participation in divine rationality through the Spirit and the Word. Scriptures like Colossians 3:2 and Hebrews 3:1 command believers to set their minds on heavenly realities and consider Jesus, respectively—these are means by which the believer’s thought life is reoriented toward God. Kuyper’s famous assertion that “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ does not cry: ‘Mine!’” underscores that every aspect of life—including the mind—must be reclaimed for God's lordship. The Spirit uses Scripture as the normative lens to retrain our minds, shifting our desires, affections, and fears to align with God's. Over time, this process displaces anxious, self-centered loops with thoughts that revolve around God's truth, leading to genuine rest.