Think Great Thoughts, Part 2

I want to give you some very specific ways to learn to think great thoughts. Okay? I’m not going to leave you with, Oh gosh, I’m going to try real hard to think great thoughts. Or, I guess I’m going to have to memorize the books of Matthew, James, Colossians. It’s a good idea, but I doubt if many of us are going to go there overnight.

So, what I want to talk with you about are seven areas to cultivate great thinking. I’m going to touch on them, and then, at the end, I’m going to give you a little game plan. I believe it’s really, really crucial that we think great thoughts.

We need to think great thoughts about God. I’ve just given you one verse. Now, I will say, for you second milers, if you had a 3x5 card somewhere, you could say, “Think great thoughts about God,” and then, when no one’s looking, you could write, “Romans 11:33.” And by the way, I only put “33,” but you might want to put all the way to 36, because it’s hard to stop. “Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable” – how unsearchable – “is God’s wisdom and His paths beyond finding out! Who has known the mind of God? Or who has been His counselor? Who has given anything to God that He should repay him? For by Him and for Him and through Him are all things.”

What if that was the kind of God you worshipped? What if you thought there was a God who knows all things, His ways are mysterious – they’re beyond finding out – and you began to think a high, accurate view of God? And, yes, you can learn it from books like Tozer, but I think, first and foremost, the depths and the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God…do you know what wisdom is? The definition of wisdom, wisdom is: God does, and brings about, the best possible results, by the best possible means, for the most possible people, for the longest possible time. “Oh the depth of the wisdom.”

Anything you’re going through in your life right now, you worship, if you know Jesus, personally, you worship a God…if there were an easier, lighter, better way to orchestrate what He’s doing in you and through you, He would be doing it that way. The wisdom of God tells you He’s bringing the best possible results, by the best possible means, for the most possible people, for the longest possible time.

Second, though, is, we need to not only think rightly about God, we need to learn to think rightly about ourselves. Learn to think great thoughts about yourself. And you say, “Well, what do you mean?” I mean, learn to look at yourself the way God looks at you.

And here’s my key verse, Zephaniah 3:17: “The Lord your God is with you.” Isn’t that comforting? He’s with you. Well, if He’s with me, what can He do? “He is mighty to save.” He’s powerful. He’s with you. And whatever needs you have, He has the power, and ability, to save. Yeah, but would He help someone like me? “He will take great delight in you.” Would you circle the word delight in your notes? Just to get involved? “He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with his love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Would you put a little squiggly line under rejoice over you?

You see, we’ve got to think great thoughts: about God, about ourselves, and about others. I love the passage in 1 Samuel 16:7. It’s the prophet has been told, Jesse, one of his boys was going to be the next king. And, so, the prophet goes, and he sees this big hulk of a guy, and he’s good looking, and a head taller, and he thinks, Well, I guess this is the guy. And the Lord speaks to him and says, “Samuel, do not consider his appearance or the height of his stature for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at things the way a man looks at things. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

And you might jot down 2 Corinthians 5:16. 5:17 – we kind of know the verse: “If any man be in Christ, new creature.” In 5:16, he says, Paul will say, “Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, now we know Him thus no longer and therefore we judge no man according to the flesh.”

See, I want to learn to look, and think about other people the way God thinks about them. And so, I have little 3x5 cards, because I can’t keep things straight, and I write them. And I don’t try and memorize them. I used to try and memorize them, and I felt all this pressure. I just read them over, and I end up memorizing them. I don’t know why, but it just seems a little less legalistic, and a little less like I’m banging myself in the head. I just read them over, just read them over, and enjoy them. And I have a 3x5 card that says, “I long to look at people the way that You look at people, Jesus. Not by their outward appearance, status, ability, or wealth, but by their heart.”

The fourth area to think great thoughts about is your life. You need to think great thoughts about life itself. Notice what Jesus said about life. He gives us a great thought in Luke 9:23 to 25. He said to them, remember Peter? Peter has just finally got it really right. “Who do men say that I am?” “Some say Elijah. Some say this. Some say a prophet.” “Peter, who do you think?” “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Bang! “You win today, Peter. Way to go. You’re right.”

And then, He shifts it, and He talks about, Now that you know who I really am, “Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it.”

Think great thoughts about life. Life is not about getting, accumulating, controlling, manipulating, and having my way, so that I create a false sense of security, and I can project and think that I’m a “somebody,” significant because I have done this, and own this, and can do that. Life is about following Jesus, and losing my life, but not because I’m dumb. It’s because I’m smart. If He’s the Author of life, then I’m going to lose, or surrender, my life, and by that I’m going to gain it. And then, He gives us the greatest reason: “For what good is it for man to gain the whole world, and yet forfeit his very self?”

Fifth, think great thoughts about your future. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’”

What would happen if you thought great thoughts about the future? Is God sovereign, or not? Is God good, or not? Is God all-wise, or not? If there is a good God, who has a good plan for you, and He’s all-knowing, and He’s all-wise, He has the power to deliver it, and orchestrates all things on the face of the earth, you can face the future with confidence. You can face the future with hope.

Think great thoughts, next, about the past. Paul would say, in Philippians 3:13 and 14, “Brothers, I don’t consider myself yet as having laid hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for that which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Would you underline forgetting what lies behind? And then, underline, I press on. And underneath that, I want you to write a little note that says, “I will forget about my past failures, and I will forget about my past successes.”

What’s in your closet? What is it that, down deep, you spend an inordinate amount of energy covering? A divorce, a separation, an abortion, some stealing, some lying? Think great thoughts about your past. Psalm 103, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has God taken your sin from you.” Isaiah 1, “Though your sins – though my sins be like scarlet, He’ll make them white as wool. Though they be as red as blood, He’ll make them white as snow.”

You’re clean. You don’t have to do penance. You don’t have to feel like a second-class citizen. Put your past behind you. That is not you. You are fresh. You are clean. You are born again. You have been adopted into His family. You have an eternal inheritance. You have the Spirit of God living. You are a son. You are a daughter. You have a future. You’re heaven bound. And He loves you. Think those thoughts. Don’t be paralyzed by the past.

But I would encourage you, also, don’t think about past successes, either.

Finally, think great thoughts about challenges. How we think about the difficulties and the adversities that come into our lives really shapes us.

James says some very hard words, but they’re said to a group of people that are in a lot worse shape than most of us. First book written in the New Testament. It says, verse 1 of James chapter 1 is to those scattered abroad. They’re Jewish Christians, and they’ve come to know Christ, and a lot of people are becoming human torches, and persecution has hit.

And some people have said, “I believe Jesus is the Messiah.” And their parents said, “Guess what, you’re no longer my son. You’re no longer my daughter. And now, you don’t have an inheritance. You don’t have a place to live.” And the persecution came. And they’re spread out. And they’ve lost homes. They’ve lost relationships. They’ve lost their jobs. They’ve lost their companies. Everything! They have a broken world. It is not working. It’s shattered. Their financial security, their relational security – everything that helps us stay solid is gone.

So, what would God say to a group of people like that? “Consider it.” The word is reckon. “Think thoughtfully; ponder.” “Consider it pure,” or, “all joy” – what? – “when you encounter various kinds of trials.”

The word for “various trials,” there, has the idea of, “those things that come from the outside, those circumstances, those uncontrollable things.” Consider it – choose, literally – choose to consider it joy when adversity and difficulty come into your life.

And you’re thinking, Why? “Knowing” – and the word for knowing, here – circle it, if you would – it’s not an intellectual knowledge. There are two words in the New Testament for knowing. One has to do with knowing by way of experience, and the other is knowing intellectually: Two plus two is four. I know that’s true. This is knowing by way of experience. “Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let” – or allow – “endurance to have its perfect result, that you may be perfect” – or mature –I like the version you have right there – “perfect” – or mature – “and complete, lacking in nothing.”

James would say to a group of people who, guess what, in our vernacular, their marriage broke up. They had a grandchild commit suicide. They financially thought everything would be okay, but now, wow, some things really went in a way that – and you’re in a situation where you’re thinking, I never dreamed I’d be where I am now.

And you know how you think great thoughts about your adversity, your challenge? I choose, because God is in control – I choose to consider this pure, or unmitigated, joy. A feeling? No. It’s a choice. Why? Because what I know is that God, being all-knowing, good, wise, and powerful, what I know for sure is, this adversity is going to do something, and this testing is going to produce endurance.

Like a weightlifter. You put the weights on, and you start doing the dips. And, like a weightlifter, if you keep doing that, guess what’s going to happen? Over time, those muscle fibers begin to split. Any of you guys that have lifted weights know that’s why you rest the second day. Then, it heals. And how does it heal? Stronger.

God brings weights into your life – sovereignly, lovingly, wisely. Internal weights, relational weights, financial weights, family weights. Painful things into your life – it’s a fallen world. He allows them to happen, but He’s going to work them for good. But your response – how you think about it, your attitude – will make all the difference.

We’ve got to think accurately, great thoughts about God, ourselves, our future, our past, our challenges, because you are a product of your thought life.

How do you get there? Let me give you a little to-go package, and we’ll wind it up. Has anyone got the idea that, possibly, memorizing and meditating on Scripture is going to be a part of this deal? And you know what? You don’t have to kill yourself on this. You can write them on 3x5 cards. I think The Navs still put out the Topical Memory System. I started with just sixty verses. They have thirty topics. You memorize two verses.

And then, I just started making up topics of my own. And then, you do have to review them for four or five weeks, or they won’t stick. And then, you’ll get so many that it’ll get a little overwhelming, and some of you get a little arrogant. You get a few hundred verses, and you’ll think, Oh wow. And then, God will bring some humbling things into your life, and you’ll realize, It’s not memorizing the verses. I’m sorry, Lord. Knowledge puffs up, love edifies. But then, you’ll just develop a little system.

And as God really speaks to you, write it down, and you memorize it, and you use those little times where you’re kind of bored. And you will find that God will renew your mind, and transform your life. I encourage you to use your drive time. I listen to teaching tapes. I listen to worship. But, sometimes, I just turn it all off and be quiet. Think great thoughts.

What if you just took these seven areas? What if you took these seven areas that I gave you, and the single verse that I gave you, and you wrote, “Think great thoughts about God – Romans 11:33.” And you wrote it down, and you made seven cards. And, in the next couple of weeks, you just started in on them, and just read them over, and began to think.

And then, add little thoughts of your own on the back of the card, about thinking great thoughts. Do you know what would happen? I’m just telling you, in ten days, your emotions will start to shift. Why? Because right thinking produces – what? Positive emotions, which lead to wise behavior, which leads to fruitful consequences.

Second, or, third, actually, is: listen to great music. Thinking great thoughts – it’s interesting. I’m reading through The Daily Walk. I did it for years and years and years, and then I haven’t done it. And Theresa and I thought, You know, let’s go back and read through The Daily Walk Bible.

And, so, we’re, we thought, well, now we’re grandparents, so we’re thinking like grandparents. So, we got a Daily Walk Bible for all of our kids, and all of their wives, and everybody. And, so, I don’t know if they’re all doing it, but, at least theoretically, we could be moving through the Bible together. It feels warm and ooey-gooey in this grandfather’s heart. Just right here.

So, it’s interesting, though, that I’m reading through. Moses, after all the turmoil, and when he wanted the people – the second generation, after they blew it – did you notice what happened? What God told him to do? God said, “Moses, round 1, they didn’t do so well.” That’s a very loose translation of that phrase. “But we need to do better this time. So, what I want you to do is, I want you, after you review it, put it into a song.” And we have the Song of Moses.

And in my Bible, it’s pretty small print, but it’s three or four columns. He put the entire history of Israel, and the greatness of God, and redemption, and deliverance, and who God is, and who we are, and what He did, and what His promises are, and he put it in a song. I don’t think there’s anything, probably, that is an easier way to memorize, or to also get good things in your mind, than by listening to great music.

And, finally, take those walks in nature, and hear God’s voice. One of the things that I’ve done that’s been very helpful – I learned this from my wife – was, memorizing random Scriptures can be very helpful. But I’ve tried to look inside my heart, and my life, and my family, and I realize I’ve got a half a dozen issues. Maybe I’ve got twelve, but I’ve only learned about six or seven, so far, and they’re reoccurring. I get overextended. Why? Well, down deep, I want to prove myself. I don’t believe God really loves me. Okay. Well, you can just keep being a workaholic, or you can keep pleasing people. And you can just have a quiet time over here, and not make the connection.

And so, what I finally did, years ago, I said, You know something? This is the truth I need. And so, I wrote down, “I feel compelled to please people, to be on the go, to make this happen, because I, down deep, don’t believe I’m significant in Your eyes.” Period. Stop. And then, turn the card over. And then, put a Zephaniah 3:17 on the other end.

And just take – what are the issues in your life? Is it temptation with lust? Memorize a verse on that. Is it struggles in a relationship? Is it temptation with the media? But take the area where you struggle – and we all do – and write out your bad thinking, and then, write, “Stop.” In fact, I even made a little stop sign. Mine’s very artistic. And then, flip it over, and put the truth.

And what you can train your mind to do – you can train your mind, because you read that one, and you say, “Stop.” When, unconsciously, those thoughts come, because you’ve been programmed, the “stop” will come, and then God will bring the verse to mind, and you can break out of destructive habits, and your life can totally change. Does it take time? Yeah. Does it take work? Yes. Take focus? Absolutely. Take discipline? Mm-hmm. Those are fruits of the Spirit. Think great thoughts, and you will experience a great God, and a great life.