Right Thinking – Part 4

Is what (and how) we think about things important to God? Does right thinking make a difference in how we live our lives? How can we know if we operate in right thinking or wrong thinking? These are not only valid questions, they are critical questions. Each and every one of us needs to ask these questions, not only of others but – first and foremost – we need to ask these questions of ourselves. If our own thinking is faulty, how in the world are we going to correctly discern anything else in life?

Every aspect of our lives can be viewed two differing ways; we can view them through God’s Word by adopting God’s right thinking, or we can trust in our own judgment. If we search Scripture (using words like thought, consider, imagine, etc.), we see that God values right thinking enough to mention it nearly 300 times! If God places that much value on something then we would be wise to do so as well.

We’ve already seen that people who don’t know God – or don’t want to know Him – can’t help but operate in wrong thinking. However, it’s a sad reality that there are plenty of people who claim to know God which also operate in wrong thinking. They fail to study the Word for themselves, and as a consequence they fall into traps and problems which they should never have to experience.

Let’s look at just a few of the Biblical warnings to us regarding right thinking and wrong thinking;

Eccl 5:1

Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil.

Isa 65:2

I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts;

Jer 6:19

Hear, O earth! Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people — the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not heeded My words nor My law, but rejected it.

These are sobering passages. Why is it so serious? Because these people think they serve God. They think that that they are “right with God,” and have no idea that they operate contrary to what God has clearly laid out for them in His Word.

As you work through the Scripture you’ll find a major, direct correlation is made between the rebellion God sees in His people and their unwillingness to operate in right thinking. That right thinking is defined by His Word! They do what they think is right, and not what God has proclaimed.

Some will state, “This is Old Testament stuff. God knows my heart and accepts me just the way I am.” Is that the truth, or just another example of wrong thinking? One answer to that question is found in the book of Hebrews (which is definitely found in the New Testament!);

Heb 3:7-14

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:

“Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’”

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Ponder this passage for a minute. The writer in Hebrews is addressing Christians. What hardening of heart is he referring to? He’s discussing those who refused to believe and act on the Word of God. These people don’t operate in right thinking. They assume things that, if they knew the Word, they would never assume. It is treacherous ground, and yet people walk that way all the time. They are in danger!

So then, what’s the answer to this potential problem? It’s simple – get to know the Word of God. At the same time, and equally vital, is that we need to maintain constant communication with the Originator of that Word, Who is none other than Jesus Christ Himself!

By being Born Again and deciding to make Jesus your Lord, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. As we maintain fellowship with Jesus, the Holy Spirit continuously shows us the truths found in God’s Word. We avoid our own interpretation of the Word because we hear from the Spirit (being Born Again) and act on what He reveals to us. It all begins by hearing the Word from the Spirit, believing it and then acting on God’s revealed Word. This is a lifelong process, and God expects us to follow the One we have committed ourselves to.

Now let’s look at some examples of how God wants us to adopt right thinking. It begins with repentance from acting on our own, and then deciding to operate in God’s right thinking as revealed in His Word;

Ps 119:59

I thought about my ways, and turned my feet to Your testimonies.

Rom 12:1-2

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Phil 2:5-8

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

1 Peter 1:25-2:10

“But the Word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the Word which by the gospel was preached to you. Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,

“Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.”

Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”

They stumble, being disobedient to the Word, to which they also were appointed.

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

Eph 4:20-24

But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

1 Cor 2:13-16

These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Col 1:21-23

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight — if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Ps 119:113-114

I hate the double-minded, but I love Your law. You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your Word.

Rom 8:5-7

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit; for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

The common theme of these passages, and in numerous others found in Scripture, is the central place the Word of God has in the life and mind of the believer. By adopting right thinking – God’s thinking – we draw closer to God. As we operate in right thinking He will not only work in us, but He will use us to reach a lost and dying world.