One of the hardest things to understand for most humans walking this planet is that we do not think the same way that God thinks. This is true even for people that try to be followers of Jesus and devoted to His teachings. Just think about it for a minute, the thoughts that we have every day seem completely rational to us. Our thoughts simply make sense to us. In fact, we have a hard time believing that other people (let alone God) could think differently about things than we do. Just think about political topics like abortion or same sex marriage. The two political parties of this country are as far as the east is from the west on these topics. Both sides cannot really understand how the other side can’t see the light and embrace what is right. The fact of the matter is that our minds are not the same even as individuals and are far different than the mind of God.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. “
God’s thoughts are not the same as your thoughts. In fact, the Bible teaches that the thoughts of man are far different than the thoughts of God. Our thoughts are influenced by emotions and even circumstances that we often don’t control. Furthermore, our thoughts can lead us astray and down a path of sin and disobedience apart from God. Thankfully God has given us His word (the Bible) to help guide and lead us. This short study will hopefully point you towards self-evaluation and encouraging thoughts about God.
God is God and I am Not
First, we must know and acknowledge that God is God and I am not. This sounds pretty simple doesn’t it? Satan wants us to buy into the lie that we are like God and can even think like God. This was Satan’s tactic in the opening pages of the Bible. The serpent tricked Adam and Eve into thinking that they could become like God when he tempted them and led them to partake in the tree that God forbid them to eat. Genesis 3:1 says, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.” Satan is crafty and desires to get us to resist listening to God. He made Adam and Eve think they didn’t really need to listen to God. Satan had them rationalize (rational + lies) that they wouldn’t die just from eating of this forbidden fruit. We do the same thing if we are honest with ourselves. We resist listening to God. We often know right from wrong and know what sin is but think that we too can rationalize (again rational + lies) our way around something.
God’s Thoughts: Pure, Righteous, Holy
Isaiah 55:8-9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Next, we have to understand that as Christians, God is our authority in every area of life. His thoughts are pure and righteous and holy and we should try to imitate Christ and be more like Him. In the Bible passage above we see that the prophet Isaiah writes us a very memorable statement from God. Our thoughts are so different than God’s that even reading those 2 verses might not fully make sense to us.
Let me try to give you an example. You work hard every day at your job and a new job opening comes up that you are qualified for. You decide that you will apply for this position and you feel very strongly that you are more than deserving of this position. You pray for God’s will to be done. You know that the new position will bring added money in your weekly paycheck so that things won’t be so tight financially for your family. It all seems to be lining up. And then… you don’t get the job. Maybe you were even deserving of the job but there were some political reasons that seemed to block you getting this promotion. How do you react? Well each of us probably might respond differently but often when “bad things happen to good people” we might get discouraged and slip in our faith and trust in God. This is often a gradual thing, as we don’t often shake our fist at God and demand to know “Why?” Rather we go from discouragement to doubting that God had our best interests at heart. Maybe you even have a stream of consciousness where you say, “I know God is all powerful so what happened here? Maybe he didn’t want good things for me. Maybe he has forgotten about me. God must either have forgotten about me or he wants to inflict pain on my life…” The stream of our thoughts might not happen quickly but we can go down this type of slippery slope in our minds because we don’t have the same thoughts as God.
What if God was saving you from a coming hardship? What if that company was about to become part of a scandal and the leadership was about to be ridiculed? What if that new position required many nights away from your home and spouse and God was protecting you from having an illicit affair that would break up your marriage? Now don’t hear me wrong, these examples might seem somewhat extreme but God’s perspective is far different than our perspective. His thoughts are different than your thoughts.
God Knows All – Trust Him
That is why we need to embrace the fact that God is a great all knowing God. I am thankful that He knows more than I do. I am thankful that His ways are higher than my ways. We should embrace that and allow God to lead us. Some of the sweetest times in my life spiritually have been when I was out of my comfort zone and not sure what God had in store for me. The times that I tried to run ahead of God and have every detail of my life structured without consulting Him have been times filled with stress.
Friends, there is much more that could be said about how different our thoughts are from God’s thoughts but I encourage you to give God control of your life. Give Him the steering wheel of where He will lead you and your family. He wants us to surrender to Him and to enjoy the benefits of life filled with His Holy Spirit. Do that today!
Want to know more about God? Here are 10 Awesome Attributes of God
Resource – “Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
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