Episode #305 What Do Your Thoughts About God Reveal? – Unforced Rhythms of Grace

Hey friends, it's Jen. Today I wanna share a quote with you that simplifies everything about our relationships with God. But it's also one of those things that is simple, yet not easy.
I'm rereading Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline, and he says:

“To think rightly about God is, in an important sense, to have everything right.

To think wrongly about God is, in an important sense, to have everything wrong.”

Now this is something I wish I had learned a long time ago. I am regularly uncovering mistaken, distorted views that I've had about God. Even now, I know that there are things that I have misunderstood about him. That I have not believed about who he says that he is or that I have just doubted in how he cares for me.

There are still ways that God will uproot broken beliefs I have about him, and that's not something that stresses him out, that's not concerning to the Lord. He is patient and he will keep showing us more of who he truly is. But I didn't know how important this was for years, decades even as a believer. I thought the most important things were for me to behave rightly, for me to think and learn and do correctly, and that was actually informed by a wrong thinking I had about God.

I thought he was after my performance, I thought he was after me proving how much I loved him or wanted to follow him. I even would pull myself back when I messed up in sin because I assumed that he didn't want to engage with me. Those wrong thoughts led me to wrong actions and I got askew because I thought wrongly about God.

We're in this series looking at spiritual disciplines, and we've been talking about worship. Everything we offer you here on Good God Talks is to help you experience more life with God. And this topic is vital to that. What we think about God matters because it changes what we receive from him, how we approach him, if we approach him, how we perceive how we're supposed to live according to what we think he's like or would want for us. And this isn't a requirement to then be like, oh, you just need to figure out how to think correctly about God in every way right now. No, this is an ongoing invitation to see and know him more clearly, to ask him to reveal who he is to us in greater ways. That we would see him and see ourselves rightly because of him, and then we get to live according to that revelation.

In Romans chapter 12:2 it says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Now, this includes our whole thought lives, but it doesn't exclude the thoughts we think toward God. To think rightly about God is important and it puts everything in right order and right perspective. And so God will continue to transform our thoughts by the renewing of our minds. And that includes transforming the thoughts we think about who he is and what he's like. How we think about God shapes everything we believe and feel and do. And so we want to embrace every opportunity to think more rightly about God and to leave behind mistaken perspectives, misunderstandings that we have had of him, lies that can be replaced with the truth.

And so our question for today comes in two parts:

God, will you show me one area where my thoughts about you need some renewing? And how can I think about you more rightly?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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