Why Do Our Thoughts Matter?

Hi, this is Bernie Dake. Welcome to the Salvation Army's Words of Life. The aftermath of a natural disaster leaves individuals and families in fear of what tomorrow may bring. However, after a crisis, the Salvation Army focuses on serving the whole person, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Our national network of trained disaster staff and volunteers can be sent to wherever they are needed, prepared to serve first responders and survivors. No matter how big or small your donation makes a difference, visit helpsalvationarmy.org to offer your support. Welcome back to Words of Life. I'm Cheryl Gillum, and I'm with... Bernie Dake. Thanks, Cheryl. Welcome. Welcome, Bernie.

It's good to be home. Yeah. You know, we're here in our second week of our series, Pathways, with Major Mike Harris. Throughout this series, we're discussing our thought life as Christians. Last week, Mike discussed the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, which was John Wesley's philosophy of how a Christian should develop their theology through Scripture, tradition, experience, and reason.

This week, Mike continues by simply asking why our thoughts matter. So, Cheryl, how do you differentiate the role of our heart versus our mind, not biologically, but spiritually? Well, I think that our minds are the access point into our heart.

That's kind of how I differentiate them. The thoughts come into our mind, and the more that we kind of marinate on them or believe them, you know, the more it kind of gets down deeper into our heart, and it becomes actually something... It becomes a part of our belief system. Yeah. And it doesn't mean it's true, just because you... No, it doesn't mean it's true, but then that becomes a heart issue or a heart thing that you have to begin to deal with.

Yeah. This comes up later, too, when he talks about just trying to... why we need to know what the Bible says in its context and how that affects us. Because it is... A spiritual issue can become a biological issue.

I mean, those things become... Mental health has become such an apparent thing over the course of these last 18 months that I just think it's so important. That we saturate our minds with the truth. Yeah. Right? Because, again, that truth is the access point into our heart, which is where we live out of.

Because you'll read in Proverbs where it says, guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flows the well springs of life, you know, but it begins in the mind. And where that light is, the light of God, the word of truth that we can get rid of the darkness. That's right. I like that.

That's a good illustration. Well, as we dive into this important subject, we'd love to hear your thoughts, questions. Anything you'd like Mike to elaborate on, please send us an email, radio at uss.salvationarmy.org or call us at 1-800-229-9965.

Hi, I'm Megan Hoffer, and I want to invite you to check out another show brought to you by the Salvation Army. Heartbeat is a one-minute show about real life. Heartbeat touches on topics ranging from finances and prayer to dating and mental health.

If money is important to God, then it should be important to us. Recently, I began feeling like my life was on autopilot. The alarm goes off, get ready for work, battle the morning commute, rush to get home. If you are looking for a short message of hope to challenge you and brighten up your day, subscribe to Heartbeat wherever you get your podcasts or visit salvationarmysoundcast.org. Well, hello. This is Major Mike Harris again, and we're doing another session on our series called Pathways, where we're looking at the importance of thought life. And today we're asking the question, why do thoughts matter?

Why do thoughts matter? I say to you that our ability to reason, to think, may be the greatest expression of love that there is. If you go back to Genesis chapter 2, I love Genesis chapter 2. It's this image of total perfection. It is absolutely wonderful. And as you picture Genesis chapter 2, maybe even close your eyes as I'm doing right now, you can have this image of this paradise, four rivers running, the Pishon, the Gishon, the Euphrates, the Tigris, all these rivers running through, just nourishing the ground. And everything is green, trees and bushes everywhere.

It's just absolutely glorious. And it also says in Genesis 2 that God got Adam to name the animals. And so as Adam is naming the animals, we get this image that even nature is at one with man. There's no fear between man and animal.

It is absolutely perfect. Everything in unison, everything in union. And very significantly, in fact, most importantly of all, man is at one with God. We read in Genesis how God would take a walk through the garden in the cool of the evening.

This incredible image of oneness. And of course, also in Genesis 2, we see the creation of woman, therefore the creation or the finish of the perfection, if you will, that God had created there. And of course, we also know that there was one caveat in the midst of all this. Yes, in the middle of the garden, there were these two trees, the tree of life. Had Adam and Eve not sinned, they could have had access to that tree and still be alive in perfection to this day. But of course, we also know there was that second tree, that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Nonetheless, by the end of Genesis, we knew the rules. Genesis 2, excuse me, we knew the rules and we saw that perfect garden. What we also don't see in Genesis 2 is any independent thought of man. There's nothing that pertains to the way that Adam and Eve were thinking. That shifts immediately in Genesis chapter 3.

You know the story. The serpent comes along, starts to talk to Adam and Eve, starts talking about that tree and Eve says, oh, we can't touch that one. No, no, we'll surely die if we touch that one. And the serpent says, no, you won't surely die.

God just doesn't want you to think like he thinks. And then it says this. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. Therefore, the first sin, very sadly, the first decision of a rebellious mind was to disbelieve God. God says you will surely die.

The serpent says, no, that's not going to happen. Adam and Eve believe the serpent over God. The first decision made of a rebellious mind was to disbelieve God. And it was also the first time that mankind had thought independently from God. And of course, therefore, the first consequence was a separation from God. And now we had learned to think independently of God and quite frankly, all hell broke loose. Adam and Eve had children.

Oh, we know this story, don't we? Cain and Abel, they make sacrifices before God. Abel comes out and sacrifices the fat portion of the newborn lambs and that pleased God.

Then along comes Cain and he presents some fruit and vegetables. That did not please God. He rejected that sacrifice.

What happened next? Well, Cain's mind starts to wander. He was upset that his sacrifice had been rejected.

So he hatched this plan to lure his brother away and kill him. And now murder had entered the hearts of mankind. So you can quickly see that our thoughts are not only important, but they are also the catalyst of terrible things that firmly go against God's will. So how can we change it?

How can we improve it? How can our thoughts align with God like they once were in the Garden of Eden? Well, of course, the answer is, and it's the answer to everything that's good, the answer is Jesus. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, the lost heart, the lost mind. And he went to great lengths to accomplish it. And his method was self-sacrifice. Listen to this paraphrase. I've got it from Philippians chapter 2 verse 8.

And it's offered by Eugene Peterson in The Message. And this is how he phrases that portion of scripture. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God, but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what, not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave becoming human. Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process.

He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death, the worst kind of death at that, a crucifixion. Jesus chose to die this way so that our hearts and our minds might be realigned.

And that level of sacrifice was needed in order that man could be returned to its original state of oneness with God with a pure heart and with a sound mind. See, our thoughts are that important, that important that Christ died for them, because the heart and the mind are completely intertwined, a reflection of each other. In Matthew chapter 16, the Pharisees came challenging Jesus and the disciples, not for the first time and not for the last time, but this time they were bothered because the disciples didn't wash their hands before they ate. Sounds rather like an issue a person would have with a nine-year-old, but the washing of the hands was a tradition, and the disciples were not keeping that tradition.

To which Jesus responded, and I say this with something of a smile, he said to the Pharisees, Are you so dull? Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

These are what defile a person, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them. So again we see in that portion in Matthew where Jesus is saying, Out of an evil heart basically come evil thoughts, but out of a pure heart, a heart that is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, come thoughts that are pure and consistent with the will of God. One of the dangers that we see in our will today more than ever is we are trying to manage and dictate people's thoughts. If God allowed Adam and Eve the ability to think to the point that they rebelled against God himself, then we have to respect another person's free will, their ability to think as they want to think. We don't have to agree with it.

We don't have to like it. But we have to accept it as a magnificent symbol of God's love. Now it doesn't say that anyone's thought process is right or wrong.

It just says we have the right to think as we want to. But on our part we need to allow our redeemed, changed and pure hearts to speak louder to this world, making our actions and words more persuasive. And we must be vigilant in protecting our thoughts and making them captive to Christ.

Friends, therefore, in our thought process, in our actions, we need to be the example and show people what it is to be like Christ. The Salvation Army's mission, Doing the Most Good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support.

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