"Precious Thoughts"

"Precious Thoughts"

    We do not have to be overly smart to walk with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (whew!).  But we do have to think.

   "Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established" (Proverbs 16:3).

    The Christian life involves Truth acquired, affirmed, and applied.  Our Lord promises the establishment of our thinking as we devote ourselves to His will.  He furthermore enhances our knowledge, understanding, and wisdom as we avail ourselves of the gifts He gives for thinking in a manner that leads to the love of Christ and its blessed fruits of  grace.  We cannot trust God apart from thoughts that remember His promises.  We cannot obey Him if we do not possess understanding of His commands.  We cannot intelligently praise and thank Him without comprehension of His Person and work on our behalf.  Indeed, our "fearfully and wonderfully made" brains exist first and foremost for the contemplation of their Creator (Psalm 139:14).  We remember His works of old, anticipate His glories to come, and realize His presence in this moment by exercising our God-given and Holy Spirit-empowered capacity to think.  "How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God!   How great is the sum of them!" (Psalm 139:17).

    The Lord's working in our minds requires our active and reasoned response.  The Apostle Paul's command to Timothy - "exercise thyself rather unto godliness" - involved Timothy's turning away from fables unto the Truth of God's grace in the Lord Jesus (I Timothy 4:7).  The exhortation was accompanied by six chapters of Light that provided the Apostle's young protege with grist for the mental mill, as it were, whereby Timothy could walk in Truth and lead others to do the same.  The young man, inhabited, directed, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, nevertheless had to engage his capacity to think in order to avail himself of God's abundant provision.  Faith and faithfulness do not just happen in the believer's walk with the Lord.  Established and enhanced thinking empowers effectual trust and obedience whereby the Christian life becomes the internal heart and mind experience of God that engages our hands and feet.  "The thoughts of the diligent lead only to plenteousness" (Proverbs 21:5).

   We will use our brains in this day for many necessary matters of life.  Availing ourselves of opportunities to consider God and His Truth will make our lives truly matter.  Again, we do not have to be brilliant of mind to walk with God.  But we do have to think.  Our Heavenly Father promises much grace for the mental journey, as paved by the precious thoughts referenced by the Psalmist.  Great indeed is the sum of them, and greater still the source and supply of grace that proceeds when we heed the Apostle's command…

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

(Philippians 4:8)

Weekly Memory Verse

   For Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with Thee.

(Psalm 5:4)