First thought: God’s knows my thoughts so intimately that he knows the difference between my praying and my thinking, between my meditating on his word and my racing down a rabbit trail, between my surrendering to his will in patient expectation and running ahead into my preplanning propensity.
Second thought: that I had to look up the expression, “discerns my thoughts from afar,” because it just jumped into my head.
Third thought: looking up Psalm 139:2 expanded my awe and wonder as I read this verse: “You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.” I particularly wanted to know what “discern”[1] means in the Hebrew and smiled as I knew that God knew I was wondering this!
Fourth thought: that the whole paragraph in context blows my mind with wonder and worship at God’s word to my heart that he knows me more intimately and personally and lovingly and caringly than any human being ever could satisfy.
O Yahweh, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Yahweh, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.[2]
Fifth thought: as I put this scripture alongside what I have been exploring in Ephesians 1 and Colossians 3, it emphasizes in blazing clarity that THE BATTLE IS FOR OUR MINDS!!! The whole armor of God listed in Ephesians 6 (truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, word of God, prayer, proclamation) happens in our minds.
Sixth thought: God is emphasizing this morning that his attachment to what goes through my mind calls for deliberate and devoted attachment to what comes from his mind. This is seen in:
· The fact that his focus is what is going on in
my mind[3]
· The fact that the scriptures, no matter which
ones, are all speaking truth in love to our minds so our minds will attach to
God’s mind[4]
· We have been given the mind of Christ in the
church[5] which requires us to deliberately and
willfully attach to Jesus personally so we can know the mind of Christ in the
mind of the Spirit
· And, as we let the scriptures invade our minds, they all lead us to “Set our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”[6]
Seventh thought (conclusion): whoever is winning at getting the attention of our minds determines whether our actions are the fruit of the Spirit or the fruit of the flesh.[7] Although we may irritate each other with loving challenges about what goes on in our minds, even this willingness to stay together in negative emotions is affected by who has the attention of our minds.
Which brings me to one more thing, something I was reminded of yesterday on my prayer walk when I was praying through Colossians 3 for everyone. Although verse 3 was the one that originally drew me to this chapter (“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God”), it is so clear that the whole section[8] is Paul appealing to the minds of the believers to direct them to godly actions and behaviors.
Which led me to this expression that so clearly is a focus on where we put our minds: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (vs 16).
I was particularly drawn to “admonish” because it is the thing that the majority of church people (home churches included) have not wanted from me. It means, “to warn or counsel in terms of someone’s behavior.”[9] This immediately brings a replay of so many situations where my warnings have been treated with contempt, and my counsel has been utterly rejected, and with no repentance or reconciliation even after people experienced the fruit of the world, the flesh, and the devil, instead of the fruit of the word, the spirit (ours), and the Triune God they were invited to.
As I look at what I know I am doing today (as far as anyone can know such things), I get a sense of how God is directing me to keep my thoughts on him in preparation for what I will face. I hope for divine appointments to invade my day as well because I love God’s surprises of what was on his mind for me that I had no idea about. I also expect to have to battle sarky (fleshly) thoughts in order to choose where I set my mind because these battles literally come with the territory.[10]
However, I know I will be so blessed as I set my mind on all these things because it will increase my awe and wonder that God so intimately knows my mind and loves me through everything that goes on in there, always leading my lamby little thoughts to hear his voice and follow him where he leads.
And, I set my mind on, “Yes, Lord!” to the
glory of God and the good of his people.
© 2022 Monte Vigh ~ Box
517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless
otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy
Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by
Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
[1]
Discern: “to understand (cognitive) v. — to
perceive (an idea or situation) mentally” (Bible Sense Lexicon from Logos Bible
Systems).
[2]
Psalm 139:1-6 with “Yahweh” (God’s personal name) replacing “the LORD”.
[3]
Philippians 4:8
[4]
Romans 8:6; Ephesians 4:23
[5]
I Corinthians 2:16
[6]
Colossians 3:2
[7]
Galatians 5:16-26
[8]
Colossians 3:1-17
[9]
Bible Sense Lexicon in Logos Bible Systems
[10]
The larger context of my time in the word is still Paul’s focus on our battle “against
the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this
present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”
(Ephesians 6:12 in context of Ephesians 6:10-20)
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