Think Like God
Psalm 1:
1 Happy are those who don't listen to the wicked,
who don't go where sinners go,
who don't do what evil people do.
2 They love the LORD'S teachings,
and they think about those teachings day and night.
3 They are strong, like a tree planted by a river.
The tree produces fruit in season, and its leaves don't die.
Everything they do will succeed.
Philippians 4: (the Apostle Paul wrote)
6 Do not worry about anything,
but pray and ask God for everything you need,
always giving thanks.
7 And God's peace,
which is so great we cannot understand it,
will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
(New Century Bible)
Both the Psalmist and the Apostle Paul are giving us complementary instructions on thinking like God.
The Psalmist instructs me
to cultivate a love for the Lord's teachings
to set my mind to think about God's teachings day and night.
The Apostle Paul tackles the matter of worry, which is a habit we learn early in life. The habit of worry is one of the main things that prevents us from thinking like God, as set out for us in Psalm 1, verse 2.
Worry can so dominate our mind that it takes the place of loving the Lord's teachings and thinking constantly about them.
So the Apostle gives us steps in turning around our thinking:
replace worrying by talking to God about the matters that concern you deeply
replace worrying by giving thanks to God for answering your prayers
replace worrying by opening your heart to accept the peace of God
replace worrying by concentrating on letting the Lord Jesus hold your heart and mind safe in Himself.
These instructions may be easy to write down and to read today, but they take quite a bit of effort if we are to conquer worry and begin thinking like God.
Corrie Ten Boom - whose story is told in the book "The Hiding Place" - who God called to be an evangelist of forgiveness after 1945, says this about worry:
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.
It does not enable us to escape evil. It makes us unfit to face evil when it comes.
It is the interest you pay on trouble, before it comes.
~ Corrie ten Boom
Corrie and her father and sister were quiet watch-makers in Holland before the second world war.
As Christians, they decided that they would help Jews who were trying to escape from the Nazis.
This was a risky and scary thing to do because it was against the law. This was a situation that no doubt put their lives and freedom in great danger. They trusted God and persisted, but someone told the Nazis what they were doing and they were arrested.
For helping the Jews, the Nazis put them in concentration camp where Corrie's father and sister died. He father was a godly man in his eighties. How had he ever harmed anyone in his life?
Bitterness threatened to overtake Corrie, but God called her to forgive and she was released from prison at the age of 54, just before all women her age in the prison were gassed to death.
This had been a very stressful few years of life, and had Corrie not learned how turn her worry into prayer and praise to her heavenly Father, she may not have made it out of prison and become a powerful minister to prisoners all over the world.
Prayer:
Loving heavenly Father, thank You for challenging me in this area of my thoughts!
Today I commit myself to obey Your Word and cultivate a new response when worry threatens me.
Today I will begin to:
replace worrying by talking to You about the matters that concern me deeply
replace worrying by giving You heart-felt thanks, for answering my prayers
replace worrying by opening my heart to accept Your peace
replace worrying by concentrating on letting You, Lord Jesus, hold my heart and mind safe in Yourself.
Thank You for helping me to cultivate new habits for the deep concerns of my heart.
Thank You, Lord Jesus,
Amen.
