My last post I began to talk about how I have been challenged with the idea of learning to think the way God thinks. God had challenged me during a day of prayer when I was in Brazil that I needed to learn to think like He thinks. This is an all-encompassing subject, but it has been working on me for some time. And given the recent uproar surrounding the murder of fourteen Americans in San Bernardino, California, and other terrorist attacks, I began to ask, “how would I respond with God’s way of thinking in this situation?”
This is a topic that is far broader than is possible to address in one post here, but I would ask you to prayerfully consider how the following might apply in our current situation in our land. And how the Church needs to rise up and be the Church in these days, not simply in political activism, but as ambassadors of the King of Kings and Ruler of the Universe. Thinking and acting and speaking as God would.
My first reaction would be to realize that at the very outset I must love. The very and maybe sometimes too familiar verse, John 3:16, says, “for God so loved the world…” As perverted, as deranged, and as “radicalized” as these people may be who carry out these acts of terror and murder (yes, let’s call it terror. That is part of the whole purpose of their actions is to put us in a state of terror of the next time) may be, they are still people for whom Jesus hung and died on the cross. They are people for whom Jesus rose from the dead an ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven. Does my heart break for them in the same way that God’s heart breaks for their “lostness?” If not, then I must start by repenting of the hardness and the waywardness of my own heart. That is not to excuse their actions – never. It is to put God’s perspective on my perception of them as people whom Jesus loves.
Secondly, if I am thinking the way God thinks, I would be outspoken in denouncing sin at every level. Not only the sin of murdering innocent people, but the sin of turning people away from the true and living God to follow the deceptions of demons. Let’s be honest, the desire, the teaching that it is pleasing to any god to behead your enemies, kill and subjugate those who do not believe like you is sin. Yes, that includes anyone who teaches in such a way. I know there is a whole discussion to be had about the Old Testament actions of God’s directions to Israel, but that is for another time. Here, the point is, the people of God must denounce sin. And the sin of those who use these kinds of situations for their own aggrandizement, or gain socially, politically, or financially. This must be done from hearts that have been examined for our own sins first.
Thirdly, if I am thinking the way God thinks, I would be fearless in pointing out the hypocrisy at every level. Hypocrisy in the Church when we are quicker to point out the sins of others than confessing with tears our own sins. We must denounce the hypocrisy of those like our president and other political leaders who use “selective language” for his own purposes. Like John the Baptist calling out Herod, or Jesus speaking plainly to the Pharisees of His own time. Let us ask God for His wisdom to see through the deceptions and call out hypocrisy when it is found.
Fourthly, if I am thinking the way God thinks, I will understand how I need to understand the words of Jesus when He said, “render therefore to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Jesus said that He was about His Father’s business. Jesus chose His battles, whether it was when He was tempted by Satan, or whether he was being tested regarding political issues. I’m not saying that we are not to be involved in politics. We are to be light and salt in every sphere of society. But we must know how to choose our battles with wisdom from Him. We ought also to take a lesson from Jesus here and learn how to answer those trying to trip us up with wise words from eternal truth. We need to speak not from our own political leanings, or even religious prejudices, but from the eternal truth of the Word of God.
As I said, this is a subject that is way beyond one blog on one website, but I think it is time that we as believers in Jesus Christ learn to look at our world through the eyes and with the mind of Christ, with humility, and with God’s truth, but not with concession to cultural or political “trade winds.” What a challenge for us to learn to think like God thinks. Especially in these days.
Forward to a friend
