Sunday morning in Oxford and thought I’d just listen to Ps John Cameron’s sermon on Thought Apocalypse (iTunes link) – I like how they podcast Sunday preaches ^^
But anyway, main point was: God is after my thoughts. (Key verses being Romans 1:18-23, 28-31)
Kinda ties in with some of the things I’ve pondering over these couple of days. How my quality of thought seems to be dying, how I can’t seem to write anything.
He wants to be in the centre of our lives and our thoughts. Every plan, every action, every waking moment – He desires us to involve Him. To place Him on the throne of our lives. 2 Cor 10 sprung into mind:
… we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor 10:5b NIV)
Season of discipline. Feels like the season I’m in now. Being a disciplined student on placement. Being disciplined with healthy living – you should have seen how much nonsense I was eating the past month. But most importantly, being disciplined spiritually. Meaning getting stuck into building up the foundations – reading the Word, being in the secret place, capturing every thought and submitting them to Christ etc. Because well you know, humans and our sinful thoughts (Matt 15:19, Mark 7:21) So take EVERY thought captive and submit them to Christ.
So, I thought why not search out the word ‘thoughts’ in the NIV bible and see what comes up?
And wow. SO MANY.
Running through, you’ve got loads of people harbouring good thoughts, bad thoughts, depraved/evil thoughts, melancholic thoughts. Things left unsaid. Etc. Within Psalms you can find David lamenting and being distraught with troubling thoughts and crying out to God repeatedly.
Some examples below – there are so many, go find them! Some of them are linked up too 😉
Examples of Bible people’s thoughts
Psalm 77 – Another one with David being troubled and wrestling with his thoughts but then he remembered God’s past favours and kindness. …and he turned to praise! 🙂
Psalm 139:23 – Where David asks God to search and know his heart, to test him and know his anxious thoughts.
About God’s thoughts
About Jesus:
Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:34-35)
His thoughts are profound. (Psalm 92:5)
He perceives our thoughts from afar. (Psalm 139:2)
He knows our thoughts. (Matt 9:4, Matt 12:25, Luke 9:47, Luke 11:17)
The classic Isaiah 55:7,
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
THIS ONE from Amos 4:13.
He who forms the mountains,
who creates the wind,
and who reveals his thoughts to mankind,
who turns dawn to darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth—
the Lord God Almighty is his name.
He reveals his thoughts to us?! Bonkers.
If I’m not mistaken, we have access to His thoughts via the Holy Spirit ! (1 Cor 2:11)
AND I LOVE THIS ONE – He thinks about me ALL THE TIME. (Psalm 139:17-18) Hurhur you’d think we’d think about Him more! Come on!
How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
- Or How amazing are your thoughts concerning me
Our thoughts
We are told to give careful thought to & be steadfast in our ways. (Prov 4:26, Prov 14:8, Prov 14:15, Prov 21:29) [feel free to contrast with Prov 5:6]
In Haggai was just a whole lot of God telling the people to “give careful thought to [their] ways.” repeatedly. They got distracted building their own houses and neglected the Lord’s house. God sent drought and stuff and still they didn’t turn to Him so He had to speak. Give careful thought to your ways.
We are called to be united in thought. (1 Cor 1:10)
In 1 Corinthians 13:
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes,what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Ephesians 2: 1-9 – We are transformed and made alive in Christ! We can banish the sinful thoughts we used to be submitted to.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Finally, in Hebrews 3, we are called to “fix our thoughts upon Jesus”. 🙂
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That was amazing. The living Word that speaks. Diving into the Word like that was refreshing and good.
Well if only studying for uni is like this every time 😛
Nothing more appropriate to end off than Hebrews 4:12…
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
(Hebrews 4:12 NIV)
I know this is a lot of Bible. But… you can never have enough of Bible. Come on! 😉
Journey 