Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?

You may have heard about the man who went to the doctor to get results from his brain scan. The doctor said, I have some bad news for you. He said, first we've discovered that your brain has two sides. The left side and the right side. The man interrupted and said, wait a second. What's wrong with that? That's normal, isn't it? I thought everybody has a right side and a left side, two sides to their brain.

And the doctor said, well, yeah, that's true, but your brain is very unusual. Because on the left side, there isn't anything that's right. And on the right side, there isn't anything left.

Brains are pretty amazing organs. Science tells us that our brain thinks, on average, about 70,000 thoughts per day. 70,000 thoughts per day. Think about that for a moment. There's only 86,000 seconds in a day. So if science is right and says 70,000 thoughts a day, that means you're having a different thought every 1.2 seconds.

That's pretty astounding, as you imagine the capacity of our minds.

Someone once said, are you thinking what I'm thinking? That I think you're thinking I'm thinking? Because if you think that I think what I think I'm thinking, then we've got a problem.

God is concerned about our thinking. God is concerned about those 70,000 thoughts that we have every single day. Isaiah records for us God's perspective when it comes to our minds. Turn with me over to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. We find God's perspective when it comes to this powerful brain that He's given us.

He kind of tells the state of man as he begins this little section here in Isaiah 55.7. He says, let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. So what about those 70,000 thoughts that we have a day? What kind of thoughts are they? What do they focus on? What do we concentrate on? What's on our minds? Well, God says we're to forsake those thoughts. He says, let Him return to the Lord. He'll have mercy on Him and our God, for He will abundantly pardon. And then He makes it very clear in verse 8. God says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So in a way, God is asking us, are you thinking what I'm thinking? Isn't that really what He's saying here? Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Well, let's consider that. Let's consider the fact that God wants us to think like He does. Am I thinking like God thinks?

Would my thoughts be something that God would be pleased with? Maybe we don't even think it's all that important. Well, so what? We think all these different things. Is it really that big of a deal? How important is it to have a handle on our thoughts? Have you ever considered that it's a commandment? That we are commanded to control our thinking? And I said, well, what do you mean? Well, if we go all the way back to Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, we find an interesting section of Scripture that's known as the Shema, the Hear, O Israel section.

And it's a part of Scripture. We know this very well. Maybe we couldn't name the chapter and verse it's in, but you'll recognize it right away. It's that passage that says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. And then it's a commandment, as it says in verse 5, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

So as Israel was coming into the Promised Land, God reminded them to love Him. And how to love Him? I may say, okay, well, what does that have to do with our thoughts? I don't see anything here that kind of fits with that. Well, if we flip back to the New Testament, go back to Mark 12, verse 28. In Mark 12, verse 28, Jesus Christ is quoting this section of Scripture. But there's something different about it. Mark 12, verse 28, in fact, you could find this over in Matthew 22, 37, Luke 10, 27 as well. There's something different in those three passages as Christ quotes Deuteronomy 6.

Notice what He says here in Mark 12, verse 28. One of the scribes came to Christ, having heard them reasoning together. He perceived that He had answered them well. And so this scribe asked Christ, which is the first commandment of all? Verse 29, Jesus answered him. The first of all the commandments is Deuteronomy 6.4. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Verse 30, And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. But did you notice something different about that one? He added, your mind, that we are to love the Lord with all our mind.

You see, God gave us that commandment back in Deuteronomy 6. Christ gave it to Israel, and here He's reiterating it. But He's making it that much more clear that He's talking about what's on our mind. He adds that extra phrase, with all your mind. And He says, this is a command. We are to have control and love God with all of those 70,000 thoughts that we have every single day. Now, how can we do that? How can we do that? How can we be sure I'm thinking what God's thinking? Are my thoughts God's thoughts? He says, I'm supposed to forsake my way, my thoughts, and put on His mind.

So how can I begin to do that? Well, there's a little bit of an insight that we can have. If we turn over to Ezekiel 18 and verse 30. Ezekiel 18.30, now you might not think, well, what is it going to the Old Testament for? That sounds kind of odd. But I think Ezekiel 18.30 frames this concept so well.

Let's notice how it fits with what Christ said with this extra phrase, loving God with all your mind. Ezekiel 18.30, here, Ezekiel is prophesying what God says about judgment that's going to come to Israel. And I think if we consider this in terms of us being spiritual Israel, we can see how this fits even today. So in Ezekiel 18.30, therefore, I will judge you, God says, O house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, says the Lord God. Then what does He say?

Repent and turn from all your transgressions so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Well, that sounds a little bit like what Isaiah was saying, that we're to forsake our wicked ways. Ezekiel says, repent and forsake those ways. Turn from all your transgressions so iniquity won't be your ruin. He says, cast away, verse 31, from you all the transgressions which you've committed and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.

For why should you die, O house of Israel? I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies, says the Lord God. Therefore, turn and live. So I think Ezekiel gives us the key. If our thoughts are supposed to be God's thoughts, if I'm thinking what God wants me to think, God wants me to think has to involve repentance.

Repentance is the key to thinking the way that God wants us to think. So what exactly is repentance? How can I think godly thoughts have my frame of mind, God's frame of mind, through repentance?

Perhaps if someone asks you, how would you describe what repentance is? And many might say, well, I'm going down the road, then I realize this is the wrong way. This isn't right. And so I turn around 180 degrees and I go the other way. I go the right way. Is there anything wrong with that definition? Not really. No. That's a little bit, I think, what Ezekiel maybe had in mind when he said, turn back. But like Deuteronomy 6.4 and that Mark passage that Christ was quoting, I think the New Testament adds a little bit more to it, so that it's not just a physical concept of turning around and physically walking a different direction.

If you were to look that term up in the Greek and the New Testament, the significance becomes even more clear because to repent in the New Testament is a Greek word, metanao, or metanoeo.

It's two Greek words. That first part is meta, which carries the connotation of afterwards. Afterwards. And the noeo is a word that's connected to the mind or our thinking. So you put those two things together, thinking afterwards. So you go, okay, well, how does that help out in defining what repentance is?

Well, if we perceive with our minds our thinking afterwards, it's talking about changing our mind, isn't it? We change our mind from what we were thinking before to perceive afterwards. I used to think like this, but I don't think that way anymore.

I'm rethinking my life. I'm rethinking my decisions. It means changing my mind, my approach, my attitude to think afterwards. Yes, it has to do with repenting about the way that we reason. And so that Greek word for mind has to be involved. Now, it's not just talking about our actions. It's not just talking about our actions or our behavior, because that's the evidence of what's going on. It's talking about what's going on between our ears. That's really what it's talking about. So repenting deals with the way we think. And there's no doubt it has to do with having godly sorrow, recognizing that, turning from sin, and dedicating our lives to God.

But it all starts with changing our mind. And yes, godly sorrow and regret comes into play. That may be the motivation that prompts us to rethink our life. And then by rethinking our life and repenting, that produces a change. It produces that turning from sinful ways. So we change the way that we think. We change our thought process. And so rather than just change outward actions, God says we have to change how we think. Now why does that become important? Well, I think it's significant, because there is a difference between what God's expectations are and just an outward appearance of things.

Because things may look one way, but in reality be something quite different. You probably remember the old comic strips Peanuts with Lucy and Charlie Brown and Linus and the whole gang, right? Remember what Lucy always loved to do with that football? She would hold the football for Charlie Brown to kick it. That's what she loved to do. And so in one of these comic strips, she shows Lucy carrying the football, and she says to Charlie Brown, Come on, Charlie Brown, kick the ball!

And Charlie Brown finally got a little smarter. He said, listen, every time I try to kick the ball at the very last second, you pull it out of the way, and I fall flat on my back. There is no way I'm going to try to kick the ball. I'm done with that. Well, Lucy actually seemed to start to break down a little bit. She said, Charlie Brown, I've been so terrible to you over the years, you know, picking up that football the way that I have. I've played so many cruel tricks on you.

I've come to see the error of my ways. I've seen that hurt look on your face, and I know that I've injured you, and I've deceived you. I've wronged you. I've been so wrong. Please, won't you give a remorseful girl another chance? So Charlie Brown bought it. She put the football down. He steps back and runs as hard as he possibly can. He starts to kick the ball, and guess what Lucy does? She pulls the ball out of the way, and Charlie Brown, wap, right flat on his back again.

Last frame of the cartoon, here's Lucy saying, recognizing your faults and actually changing your ways are two different things, Charlie Brown. And that is so true. Recognizing these things and actually changing the way that our minds work, two different things.

Now it might be shocking to say changing our lives from the waves of sin is not repentance. Is that fair to say? Just changing my life from sin isn't repentance. Now how can I say that?

That's different than changing our sinful ways because we've repented. We don't make the mistake that the appearance of things, this appears to be repentance, or this result is repentance itself. Because we have a problem as human beings. How do we generally judge things? How it looks. We judge by appearances. We judge by what we can see and what we can hear. We tend to focus on those kinds of things. Remember what God told Samuel when he was going to anoint the new king? What did God tell him? Don't look at his appearance. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

You see, God first looks at our thoughts and our thinking, our heart, our mindset. And He commands us to change the way that we think. And so He tells us that we're becoming what we think most about. We're becoming what we think most about. I mean, consider it for a moment. Is it possible for two people to do exactly the same thing for totally different reasons? Let's say they're good things. It is possible. Now, right motivation will produce right actions, but our right actions always the result of right motivation.

No. You can have the wrong motivation and do good things. Is that possible? It is possible. Wrong motivation can look because I can't see that motivation. I can't see the thinking behind it. It could produce things that really aren't that bad. Is that true? I think so. I think so. If you consider why Christ came, one of the reasons Christ came, Isaiah said He came to magnify the law and make it honorable.

He tells us that, Isaiah 42, 21. Christ came to magnify the law and make it honorable. Well, what did Christ say? He said, don't think I've come to destroy the law, but I came to fulfill it. I came to fill it to the full, to give it its true meaning, to show the spiritual intent behind the law. So he taught that only actions that stem from a right motivation, from right thinking, are truly pleasing to God. Because let's say, well, I don't commit adultery. Well, that's not good enough.

That's not good enough. The mind has to be controlled so that there isn't even lust, because Christ magnified that law. You could say, well, I haven't killed anybody lately. Well, wait a second. Just because you haven't killed somebody, does that mean your mind is right? Christ said, no. You're not supposed to be angry and hate anyone. So not killing anyone, not committing adultery, that of itself doesn't show that you're repentant. Same thing's true when you look at God's other laws. Just because you keep the Sabbath, does that mean you're repentant?

Does that mean you're thinking godly thoughts? Does that mean you're right with God? Let me just think about that for a moment. When God poured out His Spirit, the first Pentecost, Acts 2, Peter was speaking about what was going on. Who was he speaking to? Well, he was speaking to Jews. He was speaking to people who kept the Sabbath, who tithed. They didn't eat unclean foods.

He was speaking to people who generally kept the Ten Commandments. So did any of those things in their actions prove that they were repentant? Nope. How do we know that? What did Peter tell them to do? Even though they kept the Sabbath, even though they kept the Holy Days, even though they tithed, even though they honored God and they kept the Ten Commandments, Peter told them, repent. Repent. They had to change their thinking. God was most interested on what was going on on the inside, not the outward appearance of things.

And so God holds us accountable. He says, Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Hebrews reminds us of that. Hebrews 4, verse 12. If you turn over there with me, it gives us some insight into God's perspective on why we do the things that we do. Hebrews 4, verse 12. It says, The word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It says, There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him, whom we must give account.

You see, that focuses us on the thoughts and the intents of the heart. God's word is a discerner. Ultimately, God is a discerner of those things. And so, we have to think of ourselves then. What about us?

What is our approach? Why keep the Sabbath? Why keep the Holy Days? Could it be that that means nothing to God? Just being here could be meaningless. It could be meaningless if it's not from a repentant heart, if it's not from a changed mind. Yes, those are right actions. Yes, we should do those things.

But if it's not an expression of a changed mind before God, then we miss the entire significance of what we're doing and why we're doing it. Because repentance involves something we cannot see. And sometimes it's hard to identify a repentant mind, because even the fruit could be deceiving. Even those actions could be deceiving. It's not from a repentant mind. The things that a repentant mind produces is good things. And so, the actions that are resolved are so important.

But God tells us we better examine our mind. We better consider our thinking. Is it willingly and willfully submissive to God's way and His will and what He wants for us?

No wonder Paul said, examine yourselves as to whether you're in the faith. Examine your thinking. Test your thinking. Do you know yourselves?

He says, don't you know? Don't you know Christ is in you unless you're disqualified? So Paul pointed to that, that right actions are certainly flowing from right thinking, right motivations. And when they do, those are the actions that God is pleased with.

In fact, Paul, I think, emphasized that when he was in front of Agrippa, the king. This connection between thinking right and doing right, not just an appearance of what's good, but actual right behavior. Look how Paul put it to Agrippa. Acts 26, verse 20.

Here, as Paul is defending himself before the king, he's talking about preaching the gospel and how he went about preaching and teaching God's word. And so as he's explaining that to Agrippa, he comes to, I think, a critical concept. Acts 26, verse 20. Here, Paul is talking to King Agrippa about preaching the gospel.

He says, So that's how he went about preaching and teaching. Well, what did he preach? What did he teach? Well, after preaching in Damascus, Jerusalem, the region of Judea, and to the Gentiles, he says that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance. So it wasn't just have these outward signs that you're repentant, but start first in the mind. Have a mindset for God's way. And control those 70,000 thoughts you have a day, and have that be your motivation to have repentant acts, works befitting repentance. So it's not the works and the evidence that comes first. It's the mindset. It's our attitude. It's our approach. It's our thinking that has to be a repentant frame of mind. And if that is a repentant frame of mind, then the results can't help but be godly results. The work, the fruit, can't help but mirror what's happening at our core, in our minds, in our thinking. And so we can come back to the question again. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Are we thinking what God's thinking? Well, in Ephesians, we see the means to know if we are. Ephesians 4, verse 17. We can see the means by which this can begin to take place. Ephesians 4, verse 17. Here, as Paul writes to those in Ephesus, he reminds them, in a society surrounded by ungodly people, the Gentiles who had no connection to God, he reminds them to stay away from that kind of thinking. That's what they came out of. And so in verse 17, Ephesians 4, he says, This I say therefore testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. All right, those are actions, aren't they? Those are actions. So if I just don't do what they're doing, then I'm okay with God. Is that right? No, that's not right. He gets right down to the heart and core of where it really counts. He says, no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. So we walk a different way because we have a changed mind. Verse 18, their mind, it says, They have their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God. Or we could even say the thinking of God, God's way of thinking, because of the ignorance that's in them, because of the blindness of their heart, blindness that covers their mind, their thinking, who being past feeling, they've given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not learned so in Christ. Where do you learn things? In our mind. You haven't learned so in Christ, he says. Verse 21, if indeed you've 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 that grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts. You see, the old man is not just the things we did. The old man is our way of thought, our thinking, our reasoning behind the actions that were sinful. So he says, the solution, the solution, verse 23, Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, that you put on the new man, the new thinking, the new mindset, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. And so that is only possible through the power of God's Spirit in us. By God's Spirit, we can have the new man. We can have a new direction, because our thinking dictates a different direction.

And so if we are really repentant, our thinking's changed. And it's not just a thought here or there, but we're striving to control all 70,000 thoughts that we have every 1.2 seconds of the day. And so if we really are repentant, we've made a binding commitment to God in our mind.

We've been striving to always please God. When wrong thoughts come into our mind, we reject this world's way of thinking. We don't let it sit there. We're committing to doing more than just the acts that might be interpreted as repentance. We're committed to doing the thinking, the spiritual thinking that lies behind it, so that we can readily submit to God's will and His way. And we're striving to understand and recognize and see every issue from God's mind, from His heart, from His perspective. And unless we've made that unconditional commitment to God to obey Him, it's going to be pretty difficult to do that. But as we begin doing that, God says we're supposed to grow. We're supposed to get a hold of more and more of that kind of thinking that takes us the wrong direction. Isn't that what Paul talked about? We know the love chapter, where Paul says, You know, when I was a child, I spoke like a child. I understood things like a child. I thought like a child. But see, we're not supposed to be children in our thinking. We're supposed to think by the power of God's Holy Spirit so that we can be changed. He says, when I became a man, when I became converted, I put away childish things, childish thoughts, childish ways of looking at life. I stopped thinking that way. I started to get a handle on my thinking and submit those thoughts to God through His Holy Spirit. In fact, it says it a little bit different over 1 Corinthians 14, verse 20. Let's notice the way that he puts it here in 1 Corinthians 14, 20. Still on that concept, because he talks about the amazing mindset of love, that ultimately love is what God's mind is all about, and it's reflected in all that He does. It should be the same for you and I. So over in 1 Corinthians 14, I believe he's still got that on his mind as he writes to those in Corinth. So in 1 Corinthians 14 and in verse 20, he says, Brethren, do not be children in understanding, however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature. The contemporary English version puts it a little bit differently. It says there in verse 20, stop thinking like children. Think like mature people, but be as innocent as tiny babes. So he says change our thinking. Change the way we think. Allow God to manifest Himself in our thoughts and in our emotions, so that whatever's on our mind, we submit it to God. That's hard. That's hard to do. Simple to say. But it's a tough calling that we've been called to, because we all have a way of looking at things.

I remember another Charlie Brown comic strip that the kids were laying on the ground looking up at the clouds. And Lucy and Linus are laying there with Charlie Brown. And Lucy says, Linus, what do you see up in the cloud formations? And, you know, Linus, he says, wow, those clouds look like a map of British Honduras in the Caribbean. And he says, oh, that other little group over there, that just looks like the amazing artwork of Thomas Eakins, the famous American painter and sculptor.

And that one over there, I can envision even the stoning of Stephen. And over there, there's the Apostle Paul standing by holding the coats. And Lucy goes, wow, that's amazing. She said, Charlie Brown, what do you say? Well, I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsey, but I changed my mind. See, what do we see in our mind's eye? See, we're not just looking at cloud formations, but God wants us to have a different perspective. He doesn't want us to have, what could we say, the Charlie Brown perspective.

He wants us to move from the ducky and horsey perspective when it comes to spirituality. See, He wants us to move to the deeper things of God. He wants us to use those things, utilize God's Spirit, and change, and change. You remember that famous passage that Paul wrote to Timothy. It's over in 2 Timothy 1, verse 7.

Paul wrote to Timothy, he said, God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. How are we going to have that love? How are we going to have the right perspective without the power of God's Spirit in our hearts and in our minds? And so the only way to change is to walk away from the world's values, from the world's standards, which ultimately, those are Satan's standards. Those are His ways. Those are His values.

And begin to recognize God's values, His way of thought, His standards. Because we could say, well, God leads us to repentance. Isn't there a passage in the Bible that talks about God gives us or grants us repentance? There's a couple of places where it infers that in Romans. Romans 2 talks a little bit about that. 2 Timothy talks about that as well.

Even though God leads us, does God do it for us? Even though God grants repentance, we've still got to grab the bull by the horns and do the changing. We have to submit ourselves to God. God's not going to do it for us. He's going to give us the means to accomplish it. He's going to give us the ability to change. He's going to give us the power through His Holy Spirit to accomplish His will. But we've got to control our thoughts.

We've got to control our thinking. We've got to put that into action. And no doubt, Satan's got a way to throw thoughts at us and try to infect our thinking. But it's under our control what to do with that thought. It doesn't have to stay there. God leads us to repentance. He grants repentance to a different way of thinking, doesn't He? That we can think differently. He shows us the way. Now we've got to walk the walk. He gives us an ability to walk a different way, to think a different way than this world thinks.

He gives us that spiritual dimension so we don't have to be locked into the ways of the world. But we still have to be the ones to put it into action. God requires us to make that choice. He requires us to answer the question. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? And so when we face those challenges, we can choose whether to apply God's way of thinking or to reject God's way of thinking. It's our choice. It's our choice. It's like the choice He set before Adam and Eve right there at the very beginning.

God opens our mind, then we've got to apply it. We've got to apply it. And so that means choosing. Choosing a new point of view. Choosing a new way of thinking. And we have to then actively pursue it. You could put it a little bit differently. You could call it cognitive restructuring. That sounds like a fancy word, doesn't it? Cognitive restructuring. But we've got to do it in a spiritual way.

So how do we do it? I think there's a couple of things that we can do. Specific actions that we can take to restructure our thinking so that it lines up with God's way of thinking. So that we can say, my thoughts are more like God's thoughts all the time. I'm striving to work that way. Well, one thing we can do, I think one thing we must do if our thoughts are to be God's thoughts is we've got to learn the truth and we've got to know the truth. You know, we've answered the call of God. We've accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior.

We've got to know what that's all about. We've got to develop that relationship with God and we've got to know what it's all about. There's an amazing, simple little psalm that I think applies here. It's Psalm 119, verse 11. It's tucked away in this very long song, the longest one in the Bible, I think. It gives us a nugget to help us in spiritually restructuring our thinking.

Look at verse 11. Psalm 119, verse 11. Here it says, "'Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you.'" You look this up in various versions. Some say, "'I've stored up your word in my heart.'" I think it's the New Living version says, "'I've thought so much about your words, and I've stored them in my heart, so that they would help me to be held back from sin.'" It reflects about our thinking.

I have an understanding of your word. I know the truth. I've learned it. I've devoted all of my efforts, my intellectual skills, my thinking, my mental capacities, to knowing God, to understanding how He thinks. You know, if we know this word, do we know how God thinks? We know how God thinks. But if I don't know His word, I don't know how He thinks. So how can I apply His thinking if I don't know what it is? If I don't know His word, if I don't know His way, if I haven't learned it, if I haven't hidden it in my heart, if it's not there at the heart and core of my mind, it's not going to come out when I need it.

It won't be the instant thought that I have. My thoughts will lead me in an entirely different direction if that's not first and foremost in my thinking. So just to say, stop thinking that way, I'm going to cut it. I've got to know the way I'm supposed to think. So have I devoted myself to really knowing the Word of God? Or we could say, have I saturated my mind with God's Word? Probably the surest safeguard against wrong thinking. It's the surest safeguard to kick out evil thoughts when they come into our minds. If our minds are soaked in the truth, it's like a sponge.

You put a sponge in the sink and you pour the water on it. Once it's full, it's full. You can't get anything else in there. Well, our minds like that sponge. If we soaked up God's Word, that those evil thoughts just can't get in there. There's no room left because I am filled with the mind of God. I'm filled with God's Word and His thought and His way of thinking. They are hidden at the recesses of my mind, so I'm ready for action no matter what I face.

See, I think that's one of those actions that we must take if we're going to restructure the way that we think. We've got to know God's Word and His way. It really means knowing God, knowing His thinking, knowing His mind, knowing who He is and what He's all about. Now, once we've begun to take that step, now we've got to make it our habit. We've got to make it our habit. Now, this isn't just, well, I've got to think positive. It's not talking about positive thinking. It's talking about utilizing God's Spirit, submitting ourselves to God's way of thinking. And we've got to make it our habit to think about God, to think about His teachings, to think about His active presence in our life.

How much does our thinking focus on God? If you had to put a number on it, okay, I think 70,000 thoughts a day. How many of those thoughts are wrapped around spiritual things? Well, I needed a cup of coffee and maybe I better go to the bathroom. And yeah, we've got all those needs and things like that. So it can't be all of our thoughts.

But when it comes to the most important things, have we made it our habit to think on Him, on His teachings, on His way? Is God really an active presence and influence on our mind? You see, that's the goal. When Paul says, examine ourselves, test ourselves whether we're in the faith, you've got to use your mind if you're going to take a test. Well, is our mind leaning that direction more and more all the time? Is God that active presence in our heart and in our mind? Paul put it a little bit differently to the Colossians, but I think it's kind of the point that he's making here. Colossians 1, verse 26.

Let's notice what Paul tells God's church in Colossae.

Colossians 1, verse 26, he begins by talking about the mystery, the mystery of God's plan, the mystery of the gospel, the plan of salvation, what God's purpose is all about. In Colossians 1, 26, he talks about that mystery which has been hidden from the ages, from generations, but now it's been revealed to us.

God's opened our minds to His truth and His way. He says, verse 27, to them God willed to be make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. So God's given us that truth. He's called us to His way. He's opened our minds to His truth. But you know, there's a lot of people out there that understand they should keep the Sabbath, but they don't. There's a lot of people that understand spiritual principles out there, but they don't. There's some of us, people like me, that I understand these principles, but I don't always put them into practice. I don't always submit my thinking to Christ, to God's way. So Paul says very specifically, that's the goal, that as God has called us, given us His Spirit, He says, this is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We have Christ abiding and living in us. And so he says, Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. And if we're going to be perfect in Christ Jesus, we better make it our habit to reflect His thinking in everything we do. It's not good enough to just know the truth. I can think that I know it, but that thinking has to reflect God's way so that it shows in what I do as well. Now that doesn't mean difficult thoughts aren't going to come to mind. It doesn't mean that we're not going to have an evil thought. But an evil thought doesn't have to be sin. We know that to be the case because Christ was tempted as we are. But somehow, He was able to get rid of that thought so quickly that it never had the opportunity to even appear like a sin, let alone be a sin. Now we can't stop wrong thinking coming into our brain, that initial concept coming into our brain. We can't stop that! Even the old Puritans realized that. They had a saying that kind of went this way. They said, I cannot prevent the birds from flying overhead. Can't do anything about that. But you know the rest of their little proverb? They said, I can't prevent birds from flying over my head. But I can prevent them from making a nest in my hair. Isn't that what we're supposed to do with those wrong thoughts? Yeah, they're going to fly over us. We're going to have to wave them away. That's got to be our first thought. Not to let them make a nest in our brain. We can't allow that to happen. We've got to make it our habit to wave off the birds. So when that thought comes, we've got to reject it instantly. Because we've hidden God's Word in our heart, in our minds, that's the thought we're going to go to. I'm not going to cherish that thought. I'm not going to relish that wrong way of thinking. I'm not going to allow it to build a nest in my brain. I'm going to have God's thinking dominate my thought. And we can do it. We can do it. I had an amazing example lived in this way right before my eyes. Looking back, I had to wonder what made this man face his situation in an entirely different way than so many others. He was dying of cancer, and yet he was able to keep the most amazing frame of mind, despite the fact that cancer was ravaging his body and slowly shutting it down.

What I came to understand is he made a choice. He made a choice in his mind, because it was reasonable to think life's unfair. Life isn't right. He could have chosen to think he had a right to be angry. He had a right to be upset over this awful situation he was in.

He could have chosen to be bitter and broken and die an angry man. But he didn't. He chose through the most difficult circumstances, the most dire of situations. He chose to think differently. He was able to do that, not just by positive thinking. He was able to do it by the power of God's Holy Spirit. In fact, it was such an amazing representation of the power of God's Spirit in us. He told me one day, I'm not afraid to die, and I don't fear death. He said, but I wouldn't mind living.

I said, what makes you say that? And he said, because then I could serve God even longer.

I thought, well, it might be to be with my kids or be with my wife or all other kinds of things came into my mind. But that's the power of God's Spirit. It changed his perspective. He had the power to choose a spiritual perspective, even though he was going through a horrible physical situation. And so he chose to overcome by putting his mind to work, by developing an opposing, powerful spiritual thought. And that opposing, powerful spiritual thought is more powerful than any negative evil concept that can come into our minds, because he applied the Spirit of God. And by the Spirit of God, he changed his thinking. He changed his thinking. And so we can do that, too. We've been given the power over sin. We've been given God's Spirit. And so God calls us to put that Spirit into action, to put that repentant mind into action. And that means loving him and serving him with all of our mind. And so as we hide God's word in our heart, we put his word as our word. We make it our habit. We have to make that choice. We're not going to hold anything back. I think that's a third step, a third action we have to put into place. I can't hold anything back from God. I want to serve him with all my mind, like Christ commanded, to love him with all my heart and all my mind. So I have to consciously choose to be his disciple, to think the way that he thinks in every area of my life. It's not good enough just to plow the garden, get all the weeds out, every little bit of grass and every weed that might show its head. And just hope that somehow the tomatoes and the corn and the beans are all just going to come up on their own. Because it's not going to happen. It's going to happen. You've got to plant the corn and you'll get corn.

But it also means I've got to plant the tomatoes if I want tomatoes. You see, I can't leave any part of the garden untilled. And if I want the fruit of that garden, I have to plant it as well. And so God's given us the means to have an awesome spiritual garden. So get rid of the weeds, but plant the right seeds. Think the right thoughts. Direct our minds in this way. Develop those godly habits so that we're loving and serving Him in every area of our mind. So it's no wonder Paul said, let this mind be in you. That was also in Christ Jesus. That's Philippians 2.5.

And if we do that, if we have that repentant frame of mind, it can't help but lead to the godly actions. It can't help but lead to obedience to the Ten Commandments. It can't help but lead to regular prayer. It can't help but lead to Bible study and fasting. And it can't help but lead to the right way to walk. It can't help but lead to help us not to put down others and judge their circumstances. It will help me to deal with my addictions. It will help me to control my feelings and my anger and my gossiping. It will help me in my marriage to be a good husband or a good wife. It will help me to raise my children in a godly manner. It will help me as I conduct myself on my job. Because my thinking has changed. And it changes my whole way of life. Because it's the results of a deeper understanding and a mindset that's determined to live by the standards of God. There's going to be problems. There's going to be challenges. There's going to be trials. But nonetheless, we are on a path to constant progression toward being more and more in harmony with God, more and more in the mindset of Christ. And all of those things will be the effects of a genuine and a godly repentance. And so God asks, are you thinking what I'm thinking? Let's be sure that we are letting the mind of the Master be the master of our minds. Let's be fully committed to God's way of life. Let's be truly repentant of our own way of thinking. Let's remove those old values that are so unimportant and lead us the wrong way, and by the power of God's Holy Spirit, put into effect that unwavering faith that God wants for each and every one of us. And of course, when we do that, we can truly say, I am thinking more like God's thinking.