Monday Morning Devotions-September 11, 2017

I Wish I Were a …

The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.  The sinful mind is hostile to God.  It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.  Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.    Romans 8: 6-8

            Cognitive psychologists say every thought carries a little "emotional charge."  In one experiment subjects were placed in two groups.  Those in Group A were asked to complete the sentence: "I'm glad I am not a…." five times.  Those in Group B completed the sentence: "I wish I were a…" the same number of times.

            The result of the experiment showed those in Group A ended up feeling happier than when they started.  Those in Group B ended up feeling worse. ("The Pursuit of Happiness, David Myers, Avon Books).

            In doing psychological research on happiness Myers perceived that: "Our state of happiness or unhappiness colors everything.  Happy people perceive the world as safer and feel more confident.  They are more decisive and cooperate more easily."

            Myers further concludes: "When your mood is gloomy life as a whole seems depressing and meaningless---and you think more skeptically and attend more critically to your surroundings.  Let your mood brighten and your thinking broadens and becomes more playful and creative."

            All of that makes sense to me, doesn't it to you?  I realize that I can come across as grumpy or a grouch when something puts me in a bad mood.  At times, it is harder to shake that than others.

            Have you ever told someone a problem that was bothering you and had them say:

"It's all in your mind?"  As infuriating as that may be there is an element of truth to it.  No matter if it started in your mind or not it is real to you and is influencing your life.

            Here's the deal with all that.  John Ortberg ("God is Closer Than You Think') writes:

"Every thought holds the promise of carrying you into God's presence.  God is never more than a single thought away."  Then he adds: "Even if I haven't thought of Him (God) for days.  Even when I have been immersed in selfishness and sin."

            God is always there.  Closer than you think.  He will influence your thinking in a positive way if you are alert to what He is communicating to you.  In other words, we need to focus on God's ideas, the ones He is entrusting us with.

            Our scripture today puts the importance of doing that a little more harshly: "the mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.  The sinful mind is hostile to God.  It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.  Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."

            To please God is to be happy.  He sends happy thoughts our way.  We often failed to fully receive those because we are embroiled in negative thinking.  Some worldly battles that seem so important to be fought at the moment push aside the things we should focus on.

            The Message puts it this way: "Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life.  Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them---living and breathing God. Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life."

            That is so true.  When we get involved in those negative battles our personal space gets crowded.  We get consumed by thinking about this problem to the extinct of shutting out other more positive things that are going on around us. But, when you invite God-thinking in, as The Message said:  He leads us out into a spacious, free life.  Out there we can breathe.  We notice the sunshine.  We smell the flowers.  We hear the laughter around us.  We stop Ebenezer-Scrooge-ing life.  Bah Humbug, becomes God is Good…all the time.

            I love the way the Message puts it: "I've tried everything and nothing helps.  I'm at the end of my rope.  Is there no one who can do anything for me?  Isn't that the real question?"

            "The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does.  He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different."

            "With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved." 

            And here's the part I really like…this is true Message lingo.  "God went for the jugular when He sent His own Son.  He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant.  In His Son, Jesus, He personally took on the human condition, entered this disordered mess of struggling humanity, in order to set it right once and for all"

            I guess you could put it this way: We need to think about our thinking.  Where are the ideas coming from?  God is sending some.  Are they being recognized and acted upon or are we acting on others without examining them closely?

            Our thoughts carry a spiritual charge with them.  Paul told the church at Rome that when the Holy Spirit is present and at work in a human mind, He always moves it in the direction of life.  "The mind controlled by the Spirit is life."

            Ortberg points out: "The reality is that your mind is never still.  You are having thoughts, observations, perceptions, and ideas at such a staggering rate that you don't even remember the vast majority of them.

            In reality, each thought we have carries with it a little spiritual power, a tug toward or away from God.  No thought is purely neutral."

            So, yes, every thought is either enabling and strengthening you to be able to cope with reality, to live a kingdom kind of life, or robbing you of that life.  Every thought is---a least to a small extent---God breathed or God-avoidant: leading to death or leading toward life."

            I guess we need to think about what we are thinking about.  When we do and feel God's presence we won't say "I wish I were a" …because we will know that we were created to be just who God wants us to be.

Prayer: Lord help us focus on those thoughts that are God-breathed so we may act in the way that brings about a vibrant, happy life because we are doing your will.   Amen.

Author's note: Hope you uncover those Godly thoughts in abundance this week.