Throwback Tuesday - Thinking Differently - Martin Wiles

Thinking Differently

The decisions of the majority aren’t always the best.

“If everyone else jumps off a building, would you jump too?” Or, “If everyone else goes to hell, do you want to go also?” Both favorite questions from my dad when I was growing up. His way of saying, “Consider the decision you’re making.” The questions normally had a moral fiber woven through them as well. The majority of my classmates may have been making poor moral decisions but that didn’t mean I had to mimic their behavior. I could think differently. Like God would want me to think. So I could behave in ways that pleased him and my parents. Read more...

Tweetable: Are you thinking differently than most?

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The Thought Reader - Martin Wiles

You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. Psalm 139:2 NLT

The sign said she could—but I had my doubts.

When I was a preteen growing up in the 1970s, Palm Reader signs decorated almost every town, large and small. Funny, I never saw any vehicles in their parking lots, but the sign said “Open.” Although I often wondered how they could read a palm and know a person’s future by doing so, I never visited a palm reader when I reached the age where I could have. Dad called them phonies, and I adopted his stance. Forty plus years later, some of the signs remain, but the businesses are closed.

The horoscope page in the local newspaper was another popular item when I was young. Occasionally, I’d read mine. After all, everyone else was. The predictions seemed quite generic, as if anyone could write one with the chances pretty high that what was predicted might come true. Dad labeled it nonsense, and once again I claimed his viewpoint. A waste of my time.

What palm readers and horoscopes claim the ability to do—but can’t—God does. According to the psalmist, He is a thought reader. And He doesn’t guess. He knows all about my past, present, and future. I choose to believe the psalmist’s viewpoint. Believing God could do this seemed more plausible than the horoscope page or the palm reader. Since God created me, it seems only logical that He can guide me along the best life path.

Knowing God can read my thoughts changes my perspective on life. If He knows my thoughts, they must carry as much weight as the words I actually speak. And He must hold me as accountable for them as He does for my words. Jesus confirms this in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. According to Him, thinking something wrong makes me as guilty as if I had committed the deed itself.

Realizing God knows my thoughts means my life is transparent to Him. And since thoughts often lead to actions, I must manage them well lest my actions result in a lifestyle foreign to the way God wants me to live.

Only God can give us the power to control our thoughts—and our actions. Ask Him to help you think about things that are pure, just, lovely, honorable, virtuous, praiseworthy, and of good report.

Tweetable: Are your thoughts God's thoughts?

Prayer: Father, our desire is to honor You with our thoughts and actions.

Tell us how you control negative thoughts. 

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Thinking God’s Thoughts - Martin Wiles

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them? Psalm 8:3-4 NLT

Thinking the right thoughts makes the difference between happiness and misery.

I’ve flown in foggy conditions, watched as the pilot took the plane upward, and marveled at how blue the sky was once we got above the clouds. I’ve also lain on the ground, looked upward, and marveled at the different shapes of the clouds.

I’ve sat on mountaintops and marveled at how far I could see. Peak after peak, rising into the sky in a seemingly endless range. I’ve also perched on mountaintops when the clouds were so thick I couldn’t see the next peak. But I could see clouds dancing between the peaks and carousing through the valleys.

Nature is a marvel. The psalmist thought so too. He had been a shepherd and spent many nights looking at the expanse of stars. No city lights existed to interfere with his view. He saw planets he didn’t know existed. When he had finished marveling over God’s creation, he thought of how small he appeared. What was he that God would even think about him?

But God did think a lot of humanity. So much so that He made them a little lower than Himself and the angels. He created them in His image. While we aren’t a carbon copy of God, we are more like Him than we are like plants and animals. We can think, reason, feel, and control our actions.

Sin spoiled God’s purpose for humanity. He knew we would sin before He created us, but His desire for relationship was worth the risk. He had another plan. Although Satan would think he had won, God’s plan was far superior to Satan’s. God would allow His only Son to pay our sin debt.

Accepting what Christ has done for me allows me to think God’s thoughts about me and leads to a radical change in my emotional conception of myself and others. God’s image in me is reborn. God works in my daily affairs to make me more like His Son in actions and words. I am no longer under His condemnation. Christ has set me free. God the Father sees me clothed in His Son’s righteousness. He sends His Spirit to continually indwell my life, and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Think the same thoughts about yourself that God thinks. Doing so will change your life’s outlook.

Tweetable: Are you thinking God's thoughts?

Prayer: Father, may our thoughts about ourselves mirror Your’s and prompt us to be the people You formed us to be. 

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God of the Deep - Martin Wiles

For you look deep within the mind and heart, O righteous God. Psalm 7:9 NLT

A surgeon’s eyes look where others’ eyes don’t.

While in his sixties, Dad was diagnosed with a defective heart valve. He could have a mechanical valve or a pig’s valve implanted. He chose the mechanical. Shortly after the surgery, the valve malfunctioned. We took him to Atlanta for a second surgery.

In both instances, surgeons were able to see what I never have—and don’t want to: the inside of a chest. Scalpels cut apart Dad’s chest and rib spreaders separated his ribs, allowing the doctors to see my father’s heart and all other organs that God hid behind the rib cage. They could watch the heart beating, see the valves working, observe the blood pumping and flowing.

Had I been there, I wouldn’t have watched long before passing out. But the doctors and nurses take a regular view of people’s insides. They see what most people never witness.

God has the ability to do the same. He made us, knows every intricate part of our anatomy, and understands how all the parts work and fit together. He knows which bone is connected to which bone—and didn’t have to attend medical school to learn. But His look goes deeper than the physical.

God looks into my mind and heart. Not merely at all the electrical forces taking place in the brain and not just at all the pumping of blood that occurs in the heart. He sees with eyes I can’t. God sees the motives behind my actions. When I do a good deed, He knows if I’ve done it with honorable reasons. He knows if my heart is sensitive to others’ needs and if it’s tender toward Him. He sees the hurts and the damage done by others.

Pretending is a waste of time. God gets to the heart of the matter. I may fool others, but God knows what’s really pumping inside of me. My heart and mind are open books before Him.

The good news is that what’s broken is fixable—just as my dad’s heart valve. Improper motives, unhealthy emotions, hardened hearts, hidden agendas, unforgiveness, hurts. None of these pose a problem for God. All I have to do is allow Him to work on me.

God sees what you can’t in your heart and mind. Go to the God of the deep for the healing you need.

Tweetable: What does God see in your heart?

Prayer: Father, look deeply into our hearts and minds. We ask You to heal our hurts and sharpen our minds. 

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Throwback Tuesday - Sober Thinking - Martin Wiles

Sober Thinking

We were on our way to eat South Carolina Low Country barbecue, hash and rice when he pulled out in front of us and began driving erratically. The driver swerved from side to side, barely missing several head-on collisions. Several episodes of veering off the road made us cringe as we imagined the vehicle turning over.

These and other irregular actions made us pronounce the driver drunk, but we may have been mistaken. He could have been texting or high on drugs. Perhaps his passenger was having a medical emergency, and he was doing his best to get them to a hospital. Read more...

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Throwback Tuesday - Martin Wiles

Thinking God’s Thoughts

At nine years of age, my father took me into his office and explained a better way. After all, I was a sinner who needed saving. “Have you ever lied to your mom or me?” Or his infamous one, “You know when you sass (his favorite word) us? That’s a sin too.” 

From a sordid introduction, he scurried to a respectable solution…“God sent his Son to die for your sins…” then to the sinner’s prayer. The prayer worked well until the cringing fingers of peer pressure began clawing at my otherwise moral fiber. For nine years, lying and sassing were among my tamer sins. Questions penetrated the hard shell of my rebellion. Was I an alcoholic, or just someone who drank? An addict or merely someone who used occasionally? A criminal or simply someone who sporadically broke a few laws? More importantly, a rebellious child of God or not one at all? Was I defined by what I did or whose I was? Read more...

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