Thought is a good thing. Thinking is a good habit IF (and a big “if”) one settles into the habit of thinking with God. I had one of those moments yesterday when something came out of my mouth that I knew was from God. From-God-to-God prayer is both scintillating and satisfying. I thought and said, “God, the only way my mind is safe is for you to be in control of it. My unaided mind is anything but safe.”
Now this does not mean that God, being in control, does my thinking for me, replacing my creativity in thinking, that by the way, He gives us. It does mean that he presides over it, monitors it, directs it and keeps it in proper parameters. This means that I am welcome to think of God, with God, toward God and from God. I should begin every day, every project, every response and every idea with a prayer something like this, “Father, help me to keep my thoughts under the canopy of Your government, Your jurisdiction. Let me think with you today.”
My thoughts, unaided by His inner Life, unchecked by His wisdom and unimpowered (not a registered word but you get the point) from heaven are irrelevant to say the least and dangerous in the long run.
The great issue of all our world crises is bad thinking. Everybody thinks but when thinking with our human intelligence capabilities we, at best, are limited and vulnerable. This is because in the weakness of our mere humanity we are incapable of detecting the thought processes that are from the dark persons and powers of this world system. Thus, it might be said, that much of the thinking of the world originates from Hell itself and reflects the nature of dark angels and the devil himself. Violence, hate, spite, rebellion, selfishness, independence, lovelessness, anger and lust are thoughts both driven from within an unredeemed heart and from evil spirits filling the atmosphere around the planet. The unredeemed are driven from both within and without. The saved are assaulted from without and to the measure we are being strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man we are keeping the battle on the external level. This, bottom line, means that those who do not profess faith in Jesus Christ are at the mercy of limited and distorted intelligence and evil spirits that can harass from without and control from within.
Think about it but not before you put your total trust in Jesus and celebrate His indwelling which is the one great tenant of Christianity that no other religious expression even dares to claim. He in us in the only hope of success and He in us ___in control ___ guarantees right thinking.
So, in the words of a great contemporary Christian thinker, Ravi Zacharias, “Let my people think!”
Jack Taylor
