Thoughts – Part 2

DAILY BYTE

Simply put, you cannot live beyond what you believe.

If our beliefs are small and petty, then our lives in all likelihood will be small and petty. On the other hand, if our beliefs are gracious and imaginative then so will our lives.

Our beliefs, like so much else about us, are shaped by our thoughts. Our thought lives are a very, very, very important aspect of our spiritual growth. In emphasising the importance of this exact point and assessing exactly why a multi-million dollar industry has grown up around the concept of the ‘power’ of our thought lives, Dallas Willard has the following to say:

‘Those who would understand and practice spiritual formation in the way of Jesus Christ should not deny the power of thought just because some people make a religion of it and would use it as a basis for helping and healing with no reference to Christ. Breakfast is a good idea, and I do not plan to give it up because Hindus practice it. For effective spiritual formation in Christ we must have a realistic understanding and utilization of the powers of thought.’

Too often we forget that Jesus commanded us to love God with heart, soul and mind (see focus reading). Jesus knew that a key aspect of loving God was to joyfully and obediently learn to serve him with every thought that goes through our heads.

So perhaps the very first part of renovating our minds, is to ask ourselves the following question – what do I think about the God who would renovate me? For if you believe that God would enter into your thought life only to shout with anger and shudder in disgust with what is there, then you won’t get very far in this issue of transformation at all.

Remember that you won’t live beyond what you believe, so if your picture of God is mean and scary, well then, you will never be able to grow beyond that. You need to think and therefore believe that God is well worth loving. Sure he may challenge your thought life, sure God may even radically redesign it and toss out much of what is unworthy or destructive.

But he will always do so because he loves you.

Believe that … think about that. That God is well worth loving and trusting with both the best and worst of our thought lives.

Begin there then – by filling your mind with the truth of the revealed God in Scriptures – a God who loves extravagantly and if God happens to challenge or rebuke us, it is only because God loves us so much. Rid your mind of any of our many caricatures of God as being a violent, angry or petty God. Scripture reveals God as only ‘beauty, mercy and total embrace’ (Richard Rohr).

The renovation of our thoughts begins by learning to love God with our minds.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Loving God, help us to love you passionately with our minds. We know that we cannot possibly live beyond what we believe about you, so we pray that you would fill our minds with the truth of your loving and grace-filled nature. Because you are a God worth loving, we entrust to you the highest and lowest aspects of our thought lives. We trust that however you may challenge or admonish us, it is only because you love us. In Jesus name. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

Matthew 22:37

Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'

(This week's BDC was written by Rev Gareth Killeen).