Reasoning With God?!



From Free Christian Clip Art www.BibleTriviaTime.com

 

In this age of instant information and real time news reporting and economic and political chaos it seems to me that there is more emotional manipulation than there is fact finding and reasoning that leads to insight and effective, practical action.

 

God’s command to Israel was “to occupy" -- to make a stand. In Matthew 5 Jesus tells us that we are to be salt and light to the world—agents of preservation and illumination. But the Church has somewhat backed off from preserving and illuminating and is in retreat. We are so busy making a living we forget to make a stand. So concerned about keeping our job we keep our mouth shut and forget Jesus said that we are to be His witnesses. “They told us we needed to stop praying in school so no one would be offended. We didn't like it, but said, “Well, okay.” They said we should not display the Ten Commandments and we didn't say much. And so it went with the pledge of allegiance and the homosexual life style, etc. We didn’t take a stand or mount a defense—at least not a very big one.

 

The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is. There are three reasons he would encourage us to do that. We have:

 

1.      Flabby minds, sloppy thinking and reasoning

2.      Spiritual laziness compromised by the world’s values

3.      Believing the lies of the enemy.

 

Where is this problem coming from that we need to be encouraged to renew our minds? The problem is the enemy of our souls. One of his favorite tactics is to lull us to sleep, i.e., to have us believe we do not need a strong, flexible, agile mind and spirit. It’s okay, we have pastors and leaders who can tell us of spiritual danger…we don’t need to learn to discern for ourselves, and studying is hard work and we are busy, and so on until we have flabby minds, sloppy thinking and reasoning and lazy spirits. We are in a war—not of our making or choosing, but we are still in it. We can either embrace our spiritual and mental fitness program, learn to fight by knowing what we believe and why and how to defend our faith, or, we can believe the enemy’s lies and stay flabby and lazy. There will be one winner and one loser—I read the last chapter!

Is there a solution? I believe we need a focus. If we are serious about our spiritual development and desire to be spiritually fit and mature, it would make sense to learn how God thinks and to find out what He values and adopt those values and embrace that way of thinking.

 

Since we are all different and have varying capacities we are not all to be the same—but we are responsible to develop the talents we have and utilize our full capacities. Like athletes, we need a coach who sees our strengths—spiritual and natural—and pushes us to hone our strengths and strengthen our weaknesses.

 

Step 1— Focus on thinking God’s thoughts and embracing His values. My first question to Him was, “How can I learn to think like You? How can I learn Your values?” I heard a very loud thought in my mind, “READ THE RED PRINT!” I laughed out loud. Jesus said He did what He saw the Father do (thoughts and values) and said what He heard the Father say (thoughts and values). "For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken ( John 12:49). The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work (John 14:10-11). Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves (John 14:10-11).

 So, if I turn to the Gospels and read the red print I should be able to see how God thinks and what He values! Jesus was very clear on what He believed, why He did what He did…and He took a stand.

 

Step 2 — I’ve been reading the red print for the past year. Now this New Year He added to the program. He’s been challenging me to formulate a godly thought matrix. As far as I have been able to unravel this yarn ball, it looks like He wants me to wrestle with building a “Godly logic structure” within which to reason as He reasons—that’s daunting. Potential brain strain! You know the verse, “Come now, let us reason together…” (Isaiah 1:18 KJV). I have not studied philosophy or logic but maybe that’s a good thing; man’s rules of logic probably would not work with God anyway!

 

I don’t know how many blogs this will take, but I would appreciate your feedback during this mental/spiritual workout! Could we build this matrix together and come up with a framework within which to reason that leads to insight and wisdom? That will lead to taking a stand and mounting a defense? I’m going to need all the help I can get! Comments please!

 

Blessings, Carol Brown…making it plain!

www.fromgodsheart.com