Thinkin' Things

Thinkin’ Things

By Amy Gentry

What does worship look like to me, you ask?  For me, worship happens when I am praying on my knees, listening intently to a Sunday sermon, journaling my prayers, praising with the congregation, or making the bed while singing off key listening to Phillips, Craig and Dean.  These are external forms of worship. I always try to be mindful that my worship is always to begin in my own head.  My internal dialogue and the way I think is my highest form of worship.  “The LORD has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does.” (Isaiah 8:11 emphasis mine) 

How am I to think???

• “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.” (Philippians 4:8 emphasis mine)  I often have to remind myself when I am pondering the “what if’s” of life to THINK ON THINGS THAT ARE TRUE.  The “what if’s” of life are not my truth today.  I also have to keep an eye on making assumptions.  Assuming others have ill motives or think poorly of me is purely my own creative thinking, not true.

 

• “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28 emphasis mine)  Our God is faithful to produce an outcome in my impossible situation that will ultimately bring Himself glory.  I am just one little part of His plan. 

• “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11 emphasis mine)  God is for me!  All of the time.  Nothing slips past Him or flies under His radar.

• “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,  I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (Phil. 3:13-14 emphasis mine) What do Moses, David, Peter, and Paul have in common?  They have all had to forget the wrong, ‘should have known better’ choices that they made in the past and press on to do God’s will here on earth.  If God can work mightily through them and their biblically epic sins than God can certainly use me today with all of my baggage.

• "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6:34 emphasis mine)  This verse in particular is powerful to me today.  My husband is working for an employer in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings and his future job might not be in our hometown anymore, we might have to move to New York City.  (I am a true southerner and those people walk way too fast for my taste)  But I cannot worry about where his job will be next year, TODAY I have a husband, 3 children, a job, a ministry, a church that I serve in, a high school booster club that needs my administration.  I share my heart every morning with the Lord and I have to trust the future of my family to Him.  All of it.

CHALLENGE: Just for today - take your thoughts captive, compare them to scripture and then make them obedient to Christ. 

“Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge!

How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!”

(Romans 11:33)