What Are You Thinking?

In Isaiah 55:7-9 it says, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. 'For My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways My ways,' saith the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.'"


Let's break this down!!

"Let the wicked forsake his way..."
There has to be a time in our lives when we realize that the path that we're on is leading to destruction. I don't know about you, but I've been there. Drinking, pills, parties, strippers, drinking & driving, depression, rage, anger...almost all of it lead to my destruction. Then something happened....

I realized that I was killing myself. It was a slow, painful process. I didn't like it. I didn't want it. I needed something better. I needed something more. My way of coping was killing me. I needed change. I had to change. I couldn't keep living like this.

So, I started forsaking my way, and I began looking for a different way of doing things. My life began to change.

"...and the unrighteous man his thoughts."
Romans 8:6 says, "For to be carnally (worldly) minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace."

I think we all desire to have life and peace. That's always been my desire. I was at a place where I was looking to the world for life and peace, and instead all I found was myself being numbed while I slowly destroyed myself.

All I thought about was doing things that were harming me. If you would have asked me I would have told you that I "have a life" just because I got out and did things. I went places, done exciting things. I took chances. I felt like I had a life and like I was living--but I wasn't. I was numb to the harm that was taking place. The chances that I was taking week-after-week were eventually going to kill me.

If you would have asked me if I had peace, I would have told you, "yeah!!" I was numb. You can't feel pain when you're numb. I had all kinds of emotional injuries that were in need of healing, and all I was doing was numbing myself so I didn't have to deal with the pain, all the while making things worse.

What it all boils down to is that I had a false sense of peace.

"...and let him return unto the Lord."
Before you return, there first has to be a walking away. During this time in my life there was alot of oppertunities for me to get to know God through Jesus, yet, each time I turned around and walked away.

I had grown up going to church. I knew church. I knew religion. And I didn't want anything to do with either one.

I thought I knew God, but I really didn't. Actually, I didn't know Him at all. I didn't have Him all figured out, and to be honest, to this day I still don't, but atleast I'm trying!!

None-the-less, I was making changes in my life, but I wasn't bringing God into the picture. I was doing everything on my own strength and power, and I was experiencing alot of failure. I knew what I needed to do, I just wasn't willing to do it until I realized that I couldn't do it on my own anymore.

I had to return to the Lord.

"And He will have mercy on Him..."
I found myself in a place where I could no longer cope with things going on in my life. I gave up drinking and I gave up pills. Things were going really awesome as far as my relationship with my wife. She was really loving the changes taking place. And then it happened...

We find out that my Mom had stage 4 lung cancer and that her time with us was going to be short.

I was stuck. I didn't know what to do. I worked hard to change my life and I didn't want to go back to the old ways of doing things. I had to cope somehow, and I knew that if I went back to drinking, Crystal would take Kyle and leave. I didn't know what to do. My whole world was crumbling around me. I didn't have the strength and power to deal with this on my own.

That's when it hit me: I needed Jesus.

In that moment I felt God's mercy. He loved me and this was what He had been waiting for. His arms were opened for me.

"...for He will abundantly pardon."
At that moment, I got down on my hands and knees and I prayed, "Lord Jesus, I can't go one more day without you. I need you in my life. I feel so weak and powerless, trying to deal with all of this on my own. I can't go back to the way I was. I need to move forward, and I now realize that without You, Lord, I can't. So, Jesus, please forgive me. I know that I have alot of sin in my life. I've done things the wrong way for so long, but now I'm going to change. I'm going to start doing things your way."

With those words, I got up changed. I was a brand new man. Jesus had forgiven me of all my sins, and He came into my life. He made me whole. He gave me strength. He gave me life. He gave me power, peace, joy, happiness.

My life has changed so much. I'm no longer the same guy that I was 10 years ago. I'm becoming more and more like Christ everyday.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts..."
We call ourselves "Christians," which means "to be like Christ." That's our goal in life. We want to act, walk, talk, and do things like how Jesus did them.

Many of us try, and we give up. We walk away and go back into the world broken and defeated, only to "return unto the Lord" someplace later in life and try again.

The things is, we can really be like Jesus. God set the bar high with His Son, but it's a goal that is reachable.

The first step is that we've got to start thinking like Him.

How do we do that?

Like I shared earlier, Romans 8:6 says, "For to be carnally (worldly) minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace."

We've got to first change the way we think before we can change the way we do.

Romans 12:2 says, "And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God."

The world thinks carnally, and we cannot be conformed to that way of thinking. Our thought process has to be transformed. It has to be changed. It has to be renewed, which means to "make new again."

We have to begin thinking spiritually, which we know brings life and peace. The way to think spiritually is to know Jesus, know His word, and to begin to see this world through His eyes. We have to have the same perspective of this world as Jesus does if we're going to think like Him.

Once you begin doing that then something awesome begins to take place: His thoughts become your thoughts.

"...neither are your ways My ways."
It's amazing, because once His thoughts become your thoughts, then your ways have to change. That's how you "prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God."

Proof requires action. Action requires doing. When you begin to do things the way Jesus does, then His ways become your ways. People look at your life and they see Jesus in you. They see that you have something that they don't have, and they want it for themselves.

The Bottom Line

"'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts,' saith the Lord."

The bottom line is His thoughts can become our thoughts, and His ways can become our ways. It's not impossible. It's obtainable. We can do it. You can do it.

Yes, His thoughts are higher. Yes, His ways are higher. God set the bar pretty high with His Son, Jesus. But He didn't make it so high that we can't reach it.

We're Christians. We're all called "to be like Christ," which is what the word "Christian" means in Greek. Are we acting like Christ? Are we doing things like Christ? Are our ways like Christ's?

If not, then we need to turn from our wicked ways and return to the Lord. We need to find mercy and forgiveness, and after that we need to change our ways. In order to change our ways, we first have to change the way we think.

Christians, we can do this!!

Non-Christains, you can do it, too. This message is just not for those who consider themselves to be saved, but it's also for those who are lost, as well. You, too, can change your life and become like Christ. All you have to do is follow the instructions in the blog and you're on your way!!

So, now with all that said, let me ask everyone this question: So, what are you thinking?