August 21

Read: Luke 10:25-28

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God… with all thy mind (Luke 10:27).

What Are My Habitual Thoughts?

I was typing the sentence, “Holy life is to worship God by pouring out the heart in prayer, praise, and giving thanks.” In the last word I made a mistake and typed an I for an a. Instead of “giving thanks” the phrase came out “giving thinks.” It was not a bad mistake! We do worship God by giving thought to our Christian lives.

What does it mean to love God with all my mind? Is it not to cultivate the right thoughts? Thoughts dedicated to God? Aimed at goodness? Motivated by Christian love? Thinking about how to do my daily task in God’s way? Concerned with the work of God’s kingdom?

It is a sobering test, but a fair one to apply: Does this thought glorify Jesus? In His life here on earth would He have entertained it? When my answer is No, the thought must go.

Loving God with all my mind is to shut out the unworthy. But it is more. Does this kind of devotion to God say something also about mere time-killing thoughts? Too much television trivia and too little attention to God? But: even this is still negative.

Do I love God with the constructive power of my intellect? Does an appreciable amount of my thought center on what God wants to do in me? Am I trying to understand and make plans for my spiritual growth toward His likeness? How much time do I spend wrestling in thought with the concerns of the Kingdom? The Bible tells us, “Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5, R.S.V.).

Prayer For Today

Probe me today, O God, and help me: to increase the spiritual content of my thought life, In Jesus’ name I ask it. Amen.