Surrender

December 12, 2008 · Filed Under faith, thoughts · Comment 

My family and I spent Thanksgiving at my parent’s house just south of Austin. We made the 4-hour trek down there the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. We had a great time with the family. It really was quite restful for me.

On the drive back, I just had this most wonderful connect time with the Lord. Often, when I drive on long trips, I take my iPod and earphones and just listen to sermons or podcasts or praise music. This trip was no different.

I was really sensing a call from the Lord to just surrender. I knew there were a few things in my life that I was holding on to–things I put my hope in. And, I knew the jealousy of God was fighting fiercely for my heart.

As I drove back to Dallas on Sunday, I listened to Jimmy Evan’s message on The Power of Surrender. And, through it, God really just touched my heart on the need to let go of those things in this life that I trust in for peace, for provision, for whatever. Because ultimately, God is my source of peace, my source of provision, my source for everything.

As we were about to roll into Dallas, God outlined four steps to help me surrender:

    1. Guard my heart
    “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

    2. Take thoughts captive
    “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

    3. Speak Godly thoughts
    “May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer” (Psalms 19:14).

    4. Believe
    “Listen to me! You can pray for anything, and if you believe, you will have it” (Mark 11:24).

Guard, capture, speak, believe.

As I studied these four steps, I kept wanting to add a step 2.5, to listen, because you can’t really do much until you listen to God and hear his heart.

Then, just yesterday, I knew that it wasn’t a step 2.5. Rather, it was the encompassing step that wraps around all four of those steps. Think about it:

  • To guard your heart, you must listen spiritually to what’s attacking your heart.
  • To take thoughts captive, you must listen to those thoughts and discern the source.
  • To speak Godly thoughts, you have to listen to God to know what his thoughts are.
  • To believe, you must first listen, because faith (believing) comes by hearing.

So, let me challenge each one reading this to guard, capture, speak and believe, and do all those things while listening!

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Renewal of the Mind

November 28, 2008 · Filed Under thoughts · Comment 

I’ve really been thinking a lot about this concept of renewing our minds. You hear it quite a bit in churches, sermons and Christian teachings, but I want to know what that looks like. What does it mean to renew your mind and thoughts?

Here are two scriptures that stand out the most:

    Ephesians 4:21-24
    Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

    Romans 12:1-2
    And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice–the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Both of them talk about renewing our thoughts and mind, but I just realized something interesting about those two scriptures. In both of them, Paul encourages us, pleads with us, to throw off our sinful ways and surrender our bodies to God before the renewing can happen. We must rid ourselves of this carnality and give our bodies (our mind, our soul, our emotions, our decisions) to God.

Right now in my life, I am so desperate for a spiritual renewal. I can’t really describe it in detail, but it comes down this–I’ve been a Christian since 1991, about 17 years now. Early in my faith walk, I was on fire for God. I was passionate, zealous, hungry to learn as much as I could. I devoured the Word, I prayed with passion, I sought God with all my heart.

Today, I don’t. I don’t pray with passion as I did. I don’t devour the Word as I did. I don’t pursue God as much as I did in the past. And, that bothers me. I really want to chase him with even more passion than before, but something in me is just complacent in my walk with God.

A lot of that may have to do with my current financial and familial position–they are phenomenal! We are out of debt, and my business is thriving! My family is awesome. My marriage is strong, my teenage son is a joy to be with and I love spending time with my family. All is well. And I know that’s a gift from God. I know it is. It just seems so easy to get complacent, lazy and spiritually lethargic when all is going well.

My deepest pursuits of God have always been in the darkest times of my life. And now, this lack of passion, this lack of enthusiasm, this lack of self control is driving me into this spiritually dark season in my life, and I don’t like it.

I want to passionately pursue God with all my heart.

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A Conceived Thought

October 18, 2008 · Filed Under thoughts · Comment 

The biggest battle we face as humans is this war of the mind. Thoughts lead to action. So if the enemy can direct our thoughts, then he’s won.

Think about it for a moment. Where does temptation start?

    Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death (James 1:14, 15).

It starts in our thoughts, our evil desires. And when “desire has conceived”, the result is sin. A conceived thought. Using pregnancy as the obvious analogy, our mind is like the egg, fertile and ready to receive the seed. But, what are these seeds?

Here’s what the Bible says in Luke 8:11, “The seed is the word of God.” We are to plant God’s word into our minds so that we are impregnated with seeds of life. If we let the enemy plant his seeds, then it will give birth to sin and sin brings for death.

(Remember the parable of the wheat and the tares? There were two seed sowers. “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.” Matthew 13:24, 25.)

I’ve really been thinking about this a lot lately. Are there any sins that are fully active in your life right now, habitual sins like lust, pride, lying, fornication, drinking, anger or something you know is not right?

I am becoming more and more convinced that even as a Christian, habitual sins will lead to death. Not a spiritual death, because your spirit is new in Christ. But, if you do not take steps to overcome your habitual sins, they will destroy your soul, which will in turn destroy your body. Sin has consequences.

When we start entertaining thoughts in our head, eventually the thought will take root in our mind. And, the conceived thought will continue to grow in our mind, maybe in a matter of minutes. Maybe years. But, once conceived, it’ll grow until it gives birth to action. Sin. Or, until you uproot that thought.

Is there hope? Can we overcome these “evil desires” and “conceived thoughts”? I think so. But, it takes discipline. Read this promise carefully. The key is here:

    For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled (2 Corinthians 10:3-6).

We must train and discipline our mind to “bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”. We must learn to “cast down arguments” and everything that tries to position itself higher than Christ in our thoughts. If you don’t fight this, then “you are a slave to whatever we choose to obey” (Romans 6:16).

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