Articles
God’s Thoughts, God’s Ways
Isaiah tells us God’s thoughts and God’s ways are not ours (Isa. 55:8-11). There is no doubt that His capacity is greater than ours. Also, there are things with God that are too wonderful, too majestic, too big for us to imagine. However, God has revealed Himself so that we can know His thoughts and ways. In fact, when our ways and thoughts are not His, it is a sign that we are away from the Lord. When we find our thoughts and our ways are not the Lord’s, we need to forsake our ways and return to Him. Never forget this fundamental principle: the wicked are wicked because their thoughts and ways are not the Lord’s.
The real battle between God and Satan is for our thoughts. Each wants our will. Paul describes that battle as casting down every high thing that arrays itself against God and bringing every thought into captivity to God (2 Cor. 10:3-6). God has revealed His thoughts so that we will be able to know them and make them ours. God wants the victory of our will brought into submission to His will. Bringing our thoughts into submission to God and making His will our will reminds us of Christ. We are to have the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5). People who are developing the mind of Christ are people who think like He thought. What kind of attitude did Jesus have toward the Father? Did he have the mind of God? Can we as Christians say our thoughts are His thoughts? We know the Father and Son had one mind. Christians are to be like Him. We are to value what He values (Phil. 1:9-11). We call excellent that which He calls excellent. Obedience is important–vital–but we must grow in our thinking so that we obey because His thoughts are our thoughts.
It is not only important that our thoughts be the same as God’s; equally important is for God’s ways to be our ways. That is, our thoughts are to produce a certain manner of life. God has also revealed Himself so that our manner of life will be His. Recall the occasion when the disciples of Jesus were arguing over who was going to be first in the kingdom of heaven? What did He do? He washed their feet. He did this to teach them a lesson about their manner of life (Jn. 13:12-17). Jesus was the master, above in authority and honor, yet He lowered Himself to wash their feet–a task ordinarily reserved for slaves. He illustrated to them the need to be humble and serve one another. In fact, He says, “Do as I have done.” And, “happy are you if you do these things.” This is fundamental: if we fail to learn this lesson about our manner of life as Christians, we fail to learn His ways. The servant is not above the master. Therefore, we ought to do as He has done.
Each day Christians are being transformed (2Cor. 3:18). It may be in the absolute that God’s ways and His thoughts are not ours, but we sure better be trying to make them ours. That is our direction. For that reason He revealed Himself. We are being transformed into the same image; thus, our ways are being matched completely to the Lord’s ways and thoughts. That is what makes us different from the world. If we thought and acted like everyone in the world we would be a part of the world. But, we are disciples, followers, of Christ. Our thoughts and ways are His. Therefore, we are separate from the world. We follow Him. We are growing to be like Him. When we are the kind of people God wants, our thoughts and ways will be His. Christians must not be satisfied to be other than what God wants us to be.
