Topic: Loving God with Your Mind [RICK WARREN Devotional 5 May 2021]
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Loving God with Your Mind
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
James 1:22 (NIV)We’ve been looking at Mark 12:30: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength” (NLT). One way to restate this verse is love God with all your talk, all your feelings, all your thinking, and all your doing.
Although every person is called to do all of these things, God created each person to be stronger in one area. That means God has shaped you more naturally to be a talker (heart), feeler (soul), thinker (mind), or doer (strength).
Today let’s look at the thinkers, who most readily love God with their minds.
Do you know that you can love God with your intellect? When you develop and strengthen your mind, it’s an act of worship.
One way you can recognize a thinker is by this: When thinkers become believers, they fall in love with the Bible.
Psalm 119:97 says, “How I love your law! I think about it all day long” (GNT).
There is no other book in the world like the Bible! It has the answers to life’s questions, including why God put you here on earth.
We need thinkers—because the world needs consideration. Somebody has to be thinking through complex issues and the implications of what the rest of us are doing. We need people who think through tough problems and bring solutions to the table.
But thinkers need to be careful to also practice humility. The Bible says, “Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom” (Proverbs 3:7 NLT). Why? Because God is God, and you’re not.
Humility is a choice. James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord” (NIV). Humility is something you do to yourself. And it’s not denying your strengths; it’s being honest about your weaknesses.
Thinkers also need to be careful to practice what they know. If you know it, then do it! James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (NIV).
Your personality is unique and precious to God. When you use it to serve him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you bring him glory!
- Is it harder for you to acknowledge your strengths or to be honest about your weaknesses? Why do you think this is so?
- Make a list of the things you believe in. Are you acting on those things?
- How are you developing and strengthening your mind as an act of worship?