Entertaining

Recently I heard the Lord ask me, “What thoughts and ideas are you entertaining in your mind? Are they worthy of Me?” Hmmm. I realized I couldn’t give a resounding “yes, Lord, always.” Just so is the kind way in which He deals with me. He is serious, but He is also gentle. It’s His holiness that gives me pause, and it’s His kindness that brings me to my knees.

There are lofty places in my thinking that need to be brought down in obedience to Him. When I think I know best. When I have a strong opinion that sets itself up against the true knowledge of Him: who He says He is, and who He has revealed Himself to be. He is just, perfect in all His ways. He is merciful, kind in His intentions. He is holy, and no sin can stand in His presence. And, He has said, “Love your enemies.”

What do I do with that? Where is justice when my enemy gets away with bullying, hostility and malice? Don’t I have a right to defend myself? Do I?

I must stand on the reality that God Himself is my defense. What He allows me to experience is weighed out carefully in His omniscience and wisdom. He has numbered the hairs on my head and the days of my earthly life. If I suffer unjustly, so did Christ. If I am ridiculed and punished, though innocent, so was He. He died to set me free from having to defend myself, from having to fight my own battles. And my battle is not and will not be against flesh and blood. Why? Because He overcame the grave. I have no need to fear death, which is appointed to each man one time, and after that eternal life in the Kingdom of heaven.

Is God sovereign over the affairs of men? His word says so. Is God able to heal broken hearts and redeem the lost? Both His word and my experience say, “yes.” When I bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, I am liberated from the power of the enemy to make me fear death of any kind: death of my preferences, death of my selfish desires, death of my comfort, death of my ideas about right and wrong.

Life in Christ is just that: it is real life inside the real beauty of holiness, sustained by the real power of the Almighty. If God be for me, who can be against me? From this place of liberty, obedience and wholeness, the life of Christ Himself flows out to the world around me with all mercy, gentleness, humility and love. That is how I love my enemies. I quit trying to. I submit to the power of God’s love in me and let Jesus do the loving.

There is a line in the song, Lift you High by Housefires, that speaks directly to the questions He asked me: “So Lord we lift you high, high within our hearts, high within our minds….” If He is on the throne in my heart, He must also be on the throne in my mind, otherwise I have an integrity gap and no authority to speak forgiveness, healing, and blessing in the name of Jesus.

So, what are you entertaining in your mind? In your prayer time and journaling this week, ask the Lord to reveal any lofty places in your thinking that need to be brought low in humility before Him. As you listen to this song, worship the God of love who created you and who wants to renew your mind and reconcile you to Himself and His mission in the earth.

Until next week, dear one, take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and walk in the power of His love.