May 2: Thinking Rightly

I’ve been reading through the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a prophet in the Old Testament who spoke to the people of Israel about God and was trying to draw them back to a right relationship with God. The two themes I see are (1) we need to think about God and (2) we need to think rightly about God.

As God is describing the Israelites to Jeremiah, he repeatedly uses the phrases, “they have forgotten me” or “abandoned me.” I get it. That can be easy to do—because of a busy schedule, because it’s not a popular opinion, or because God isn’t so tangible. It can be easy to forget him, but God wants to be thought about. As he’s describing his new covenant that he’ll make with Israel, he states, “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord” (Jeremiah 24:7). God wants to develop in his people a heart that knows him and a mind that can be focused on him—a heart and mind that truly knows who he is. 

The book of Jeremiah also describes the need to think rightly about God. In The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer writes, “The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of him.” That can easily happen. We can contrive our own god in our own mind and then start living that out. But wrong ideas about God will cause our hearts to stray and produce ungodly actions. In Romans 1:21 it says, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” The passage goes on to explain how this incorrect thought pattern leads to great sin. We need to think rightly about who God is. 

I want to encourage us to deliberately think about God, set our minds to knowing him, and use his word as truth to think rightly about who God is. I’m really enjoying The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer as a wonderful resource for my goal of thinking rightly about God. It’s chock full of truths about who God is. I hope that today you’ll think about God and that you’ll think rightly about him.

Father, I pray that today we would set our minds on You.

May we intentionally remember You and look to You through

the ups and downs that will come our way.

As we set our mind to dwell on You,

point out any false belief we have about who You are.

Use Your word to shape our thoughts about You.

Amen. 

Shelter in Peace,

Megan Sinisi