W6D4 Knowing God's Will

READ THE BIBLE

Isaiah 55:8 ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Romans 12: 1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. 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 – his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1 (Amplified version) Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship. And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you].

REFLECT ON WHAT IT MEANS

A young man left home and went to University in a different city. He had his own room in the student hall of residence. After he had settled in, his mother, who'd raised all her kids to follow Jesus, decided to pay him a visit. She found that he was comfortably settled in, making friends and getting involved in his degree course. Yet, she was surprised to see the kind of pictures he had fixed to the walls of his room. There were pictures of film stars and celebrities - and it was all very ... sensual!! She was sad that he was buying into this culture, and allowing himself to get distracted in a way that wasn't honouring to God. However, she didn’t say a word about it. Instead, she went back home and hired a photographer to take a really nice picture of the rest of the family, who were still living at home. She sent her eldest son this picture and asked if he'd put it up in his room to remeber the family by, who loved and supported him. The next time she visited him, all the other pictures were gone: only the family photo was stuck up. When she asked him about it why he'd done that, he replied, “You see, mum, Ihad to take the other pictures down. I didn't want them up alongside my family. They looked totally out of place.

When Jesus comes into our lives things have to change - big time, if we are to become like him. One of the key areas that has to change is our thinking.

Why is that? Our first Bible reading helps us to see why. We are made like God, in his image. He thinks, we think. However, the way he thinks, the things he thinks about, the way he builds up thoughts in his mind are all so different to us. The Bible tells us that God’s thoughts are higher, better, greater, more positive, more creative, more holy, more selfless, than our human thoughts. The implication of this passage is clear God’s thoughts are not our thoughts - but they ought to be! Something needs to change in us. Left to themselves, our minds are like walls of the student’s room in the story we just read. We can put things up in our minds that are wrong, unhelpful and that will hold us back and make us feel low. Author Jennifer Read Hawthorne writes about out though patterns and says:

We humans, it seems, have anywhere from 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. But according to some research, as many as 98 percent of them are exactly the same as we had the day before. Talk about creatures of habit! Even more significant, 80 percent of our thoughts are negative.

The good news in our second reading that we can change in our thinking. Our minds can be renewed, made new, changed. That happens when we invite Jesus into our lives, and when we “flush out” our minds with the Bible, God’s word to us. It doesn’t just happen to us automatically though. We have to choose, and like the student, make every effort to take down all the old stuff that is out of place, and put up the image of Jesus in our minds instead. There are two results in our lives if we do this: The first is that we will be “transformed.” That is such a strong word in the original language. It is where we get our modern word ‘metamorphosis’ from. Most of us learn that word at school to do with tadpoles becoming frogs and caterpillars becoming butterflies. It’s that level of transformation in our lives too. We become so new in our thinking that we start to think and act more like Jesus every day. You will notice in our first reading that thinking goes right alongside ways. These two always go together, what we think will turn up in our speech and our actions. What we think is what we will one day become. God calls us to be like him in his thoughts so that we can live according to his ways It starts with a thought and ends with an action. The second is that we will know God’s will. It’s pretty much impossible for us to know God’s will, for ourselves and others, if we have a head full of wrong thoughts and thinking. We will not be able to see and understand things the way God does. Then we won’t have either the trust or the understanding to follow God’s ways.

RELATE IT TO YOUR LIFE

What pictures do I put up on the “walls” of my mind? Is Jesus’ picture there? Would he like the rest of them?

RESPOND WITH A DECLARATION

“My mind is for Jesus and I will choose to think like him.”