The Power of Godly Thinking
Psalm 119:59-60 When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments.
It’s an incredibly powerful truth that our behaviour affects our thinking and our thinking affects our behaviour. The two are inexorably linked.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest – I mean the single, biggest change agent for good in my life over the last twenty-one and a half years since I gave my life to Jesus, has been reading God’s Word almost every day of my life. Not every day, but most days. And not just reading His Word, but reflecting on it, receiving it and then responding to it.
Think about it, we all want a better life, right? Self improvement is a multi-billion dollar industry world-wide. There are business gurus, success gurus, life gurus, health gurus, all sprouting their stuff, all claiming to have the answers, if only we’ll buy their book, attend their conference, sign up for their program. People are lapping this stuff up and paying through the nose for it.
Peter Drucker, the man who years ago invented the term, “the knowledge worker” once said: “the reason people use the word “guru” is that “charlatan” is often too long for the headlines”. These are false prophets. It’s not that some of them don’t have some clever things to say, but they don’t have the answers for life. They don’t have the truth. They don’t have the wisdom of God.
God on the other hand is ready, willing and able to speak His truth and His wisdom, in abundance, into our lives. But are we listening?
When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments. (Psalm 119:59-60)
The man writing this psalm is praying to God. And what he’s saying is:
You know God, I’ve been thinking about this. I spend a lot of time in your word, I think about my ways – how I think, how I speak, how I behave – and when I bring those two things together, your Word and my ways, I can’t help it. I turn my feet to walk in your testimonies, in your Word, in your ways. I hasten, I don’t delay. As surely as night follows day, I end up keeping your commandments.
What’s happening there, is that this man is reading God’s Word, reflecting on it, thinking about it, receiving it and then responding to it with His life. That’s how powerful, godly change happens in our lives. Read, reflect, receive, respond.
Let me say it again – read God’s Word, reflect on it, think about what God’s saying to you and compare it to how you’re living at the moment, receive that Spirit-breathed Word into your heart and respond with your life. No one else can do that for you. No one else can bring that sort of powerful change into your life.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
Blessed by this devotion?
Share it with a friend!
Respond