Thinking the Thoughts of God: Part 1
If you were to guess my greatest daily spiritual struggle…
As a pastor…
As a husband…
As a man…
As a plain old follower of Jesus…
What would you guess it to be?
Certainly I have different spiritual struggles in all those areas, but I have one daily struggle…my biggest struggle…present every day in every area of my life.
The struggle is in thinking the thoughts of God about situations in my life.
The issue is important because how you think is vital to your spiritual growth. Think the thoughts of God and you will consistently experience spiritual growth. In every situation in your life where you are not thinking the thoughts of God, your spiritual growth will suffer.
Here is a powerful principle:
Your relationship with God will follow the trail of your thoughts.
Imagine you are walking a dog on a leash in a park. Imagine the dog is big and powerful. What is the scene you are picturing in your mind?
In my mind I see the dog pulling me along. I am trying to hold it back. The dog is too strong. I can’t stop from going where the dog is taking me.
The dog is your thoughts…powerful…sometimes uncontrollable. Here is the truth in the image: In life you are being pulled behind your thoughts. They control where you go. Hence, Your relationship with God will follow the trail of your thoughts.
Ephesians 4:17-18 explains this principle:
“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”
The Apostle Paul wrote this. Anytime he insists on something I pay attention. The Gentiles were those not following Jesus. So Paul is insisting we, as followers of Jesus, shouldn’t think like people that don’t follow Jesus.
The reason? It results in a darkened understanding of God, a life separated from God, ignorance, and the hardening of the heart. I call this type of thinking Futility Thinking.
Futility Thinking does not sound like a path to spiritual growth, does it?
The opposite of Futility Thinking is thinking the thoughts of God.
Pick a challenging situation in your life right now. Any one will work.
Now imagine a white board sitting on an easel to your left, and another sitting on an easel to your right.
On the left are your thoughts about this difficult situation in your life. On your right are God’s thoughts about this situation in your life.
Now, how many of the thoughts are the same on both white boards?
All the thoughts on your white board which are not also on God’s white board are your futile thoughts. When you think them, you’re practicing Futility Thinking.
Futility Thinking will hurt your spiritual growth. Thinking the thoughts of God will always help your spiritual growth. This is because…
Your relationship with God will follow the trail of your thoughts.
What happened to the Gentiles Paul is writing about? The answer is in Ephesians 4:19: “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.”
Here is how the process works:
- You lose the thoughts of God (i.e., engage in Futility Thinking).
- You lose your sensitivity to God.
- You give yourself over to behaviors God does not desire.
- The behaviors cause sinful desires to grow larger within you.
What is the solution? Simple…think more of the thoughts of God about every situation in your life.
In the second of three parts to this series, I will show you practically how you can think more of the “Thoughts of God” and dial down your level of Futility Thinking.
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I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment on this post and let me know what you are thinking.
