THINKING HABITS

Are you in the good habit of higher thinking? Do you employ the habit of capturing every thought and considering IF it glorifies God? Are you in the habit of forgiving others quickly? "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher that your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."  God proclaimed this truth in Isaiah 55:8-9.  One major benefit of our redemption is that we share in the image and thoughts of God.  "You have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge 'in' the image of the Creator."  We are reminded in Colossians 3:10 that we are constantly being renewed in knowledge. We gain more knowledge of Who our Holy Creator is. He is our eternal Father of grace, and He forgives us for our habits of stinkin thinking.

We are also renewed in His image. "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brothers." God breathed these living words that we may know in our mind the fact that He knew us before we knew Him, and that He chose us for Himself to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ, for His purpose, that when we meet the lost, that they would recognize Christ in us. "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus; who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God, something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness." The mind of Christ highly esteems every relationship and Jesus thought mercifully about each person He encountered. He made deliberate eye contact to connect soul to soul. He stopped at a well midday for the purpose of being about His Father's business. On the way to the cross, He healed a woman who touched His robe.

 He wanted to meet and greet the woman at the well to save her. He listened whole heartedly to her, and He spoke to reveal His soul's interest in the condition of her heart and destiny. As Christ did, we are to think less of ourselves, and more of the person He places in our path. We glorify God and honor the way of Jesus by serving others. We too are the subject of our Father's affection.  He placed His Spirit in us, and He is enabled to transform us into His image as we surrender our old ways and habits of thinking about others to Him. Jesus finds pride repulsive, and from His exalted position He warned us in Isaiah 13:11 "I will also put an end to the arrogance of the haughty, and will humble the pride of the ruthless."   God's ongoing transformation of us into the image of Christ is a silent, unseen divine work, done by His indwelt Spirit. The "BE" attitudes demonstrate the way God works in us. The attitude of our heart is intimately known by God. In our lowly spirit,

we fear God because He alone is all powerful. In our broken contrite hearts we experience the Holy Comforter. In our mild, meek humility we accept our position in Christ.  The opposite of meekness is arrogance and the mind of Christ maintained a state of meekness while steadfast in authority and strength. Jesus described Himself  in Matthew 11:29 KJV  "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls."  The second four "BE" attitudes function as God's purpose to turn our minds towards others. Blessed are the merciful, we are to show mercy to others.  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. To BE pure in heart is to beyond prejudice. The Pharisees were proud and prejudiced and they arrogantly asked the disciples in Matthew 9:11 "Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?"  Confounding those who thought themselves wise, Jesus chose Zaccheus as a follower and He ministered to a Samaritan woman in Luke 4:7-26. We are to BE pure, and not boast of our purity. Jesus was not puritanical, His broad selection of friends was all inclusive.  Jesus befriended the unkempt, the unliked, the sick, the prostitutes, and tax collectors.  Puritanical people narrow their selection of friends and remain Pius regarding their beliefs. Under the divine supervision of the Holy Spirit, we

may uncover surprising prejudices. Some followers of Christ think erroneously that because God delivered them in a certain way, that God will work in others exactly in the same way.  His ways, are not our ways, and if we are prejudiced about the way God should work in anyone's life, we are placing our thoughts and ways above His sovereignty. To be absent minded is a serious matter. It is to live with a vacancy of Christ in our minds.  If we are serious about adopting the mind of Christ, we must pray that God fill our absent minded habit with His living Word. "According to His custom, He once more began to teach them."  Jesus had good habits!  He had the habit of prayer, He customarily attended church, the synagogue to renew His mind with God's word. The habit of confessing "I am simply absent minded, it must be my age" needs to be eradicated from our thinking by inviting the

Holy Spirit to heal our mind of such an excuse. Ask the Lord to conduct a new and fresh work in you.  We are weak and we need to admit that we are unable to change by our human way of personal discipline. Instead of relying on our ways, we must yield more consciously to the indwelt Holy Spirit and His ways. Let us intentionally adopt the habit of submissive thinking to the Spirit. Listing our habits of thinking, our fears, our prejudices, our relationships, our hurts so that we can BE aware and then transformed is life changing. Inspect the harmony within the mind of Christ. The wisdom of mind are action verbs, they are the ways of Christ thinking listed in James 3:17:  Practice thingking Pure, Peace loving, Considerate, Submissive, Full of Mercy and Good Fruits, Impartial and Sincere thoughts. Also the fruit of the Spirit is listed in Galatians 5:22: Love, Joy, Peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self control.  FREEDOM from the bondage of our thinking and behavior habits is NOT accomplished by our weak old patterns of thinking that are impure, conflicting, ill willed, whining, impoverished, complaining, stubborn, lacking compassion, prejudiced and insincere.  "The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace." Romans 8:6 The mind set on their next pleasure, on the condition of the economy, on their favorite sport, or on who is falling short...is a person whose mind is filled with the ways and thoughts of the world. That person is NOT living the LIFE God gave them, rather it is a person whose soul does NOT experience the peace of God. We were given free will to choose our Source of information, our Teacher of thinking. If we set our mind according to the 6:00 news, or on the most recent debate on FOX, then we are hindering the thoughts of Christ. "Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God." Isaiah 59:2 - It is our responsibility to hold captive eachwill power.  The GOOD NEWS is that the grace of the Holy Spirit is ever present in order to convict us when we begin to repeat

thought to Christ Jesus, and to confess the sin of having an absent, wondering mind.  "But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:3 Be reminded to "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, THINK about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from Me, or seen in Me, put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:4 - Let us therefore choose to NOT be absent minded of the ways of Christ thinking. Lord HELP US BE ever mindful of thinking like Christ, AMEN!  “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.” Malachi 4:2