Loving God With All Your Mind

Loving God with All Your Mind

And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength…(Mark 12:30)

–all thy mind (ὅλος σοῦ διάνοια) = the totality of your process

*Our love for God includes how we think about Him, ourselves, others, and every aspect of life itself.

-When we allow ourselves to believe lies about God, ourselves, others and other aspects of life, we are living below our means as children of God.

-God’s truth (Bible) is the ultimate reference point for our thought process.

–thinking detracts from our love for and worship of God.

-Every moment, we must if we will think and live according to our truth or God’s truth.

Believing Lies is Devastating! (Genesis 2-3, 11)

Lie #1: Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods (3:4-5)

*We have the capacity to be like God*

Truth: And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (2:16-17)

*Obeying God always brings *

Devastation: I will greatly multiply thy sorrow…in sorrow shalt thou eat of [the ground] all the days of thy life…God sent him forth from the garden of Eden…(3:16-24)

*Believing a lie brought the greatest curse upon mankind*

Lie #2: And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name (11:4)

*Ultimate satisfaction comes from glorifying *

Truth: I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me…I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (Isaiah 45:5; John 10:10)

*True living comes only from submission to and rest in God*

Devastation: the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (11:9)

*Believing the lie of self-glory drove man from God’s intended blessing*

• truth never fails and following it always brings God’s blessing.

Working It Out Later Doesn’t Cut It!

When Satan whispers in a man’s ear, encouraging him to do something foolish (at best) or sinful (at worst), the man sometimes goes ahead against his better judgement, figuring he’ll be able to work it out.

-In the face of temptation, uncertainty, and gray areas, we often go forward with no like we know what we’re doing. As for the fallout? We say. “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.”

-Instead of careful searching, examination, meditation, and application of God’s truth, we often plow ahead right into devastation—and it doesn’t have to be that way!

• With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. (Psalm 119:10)
• Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way. (Psalm 119:37)
• And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts. (Psalm 119:45)
• I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. (Psalm 119:101)

Feelings and Thinking Must Be in Scripture

-Often, we know what is right (biblical), but our feelings tell us that they are right and, unfortunately, feelings often win out.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (Gen. 3:6)

*saw. pleasant. desired. took. Eve’s feelings won over her thinking.

-Even when we know the right thing to do, we often choose to the wrong thing anyway, whether out of expediency, convenience, or just sheer laziness. Then, the folly of is what follows.

-We come up with excuses for why we did the wrong thing.

• For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. (Romans 7:19)

-We, like Paul, must recognize that we are to do, say, and be right apart from the power of the gospel and the enabling Spirit of God.

-It’s a recognition of this spiritual battle that will keep us in constant consideration of our thought process—of whether it is based upon truth or lies.

-The thought, I’ll work it out later, this battle and opens the door to neglect Bible-based decisions for feeling-oriented choices.

**Discussion: What are some feeling-oriented choices that can win out over Bible-based decision-making?

Majorly Devastating Lie: ACT NOW, LISTEN LATER

Example: David’s sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12)

-David didn’t forget God’s way of doing life (i.e. no adultery).

-It seems he assumed his position as king would provide whatever he needed to work it out later—so he pushed passed God’s Word and followed his feelings.

• Side note: Psalm 51 shows us that God can right our wrongs—and does!

-So when we fall prey to lies, is it gullibility or ?

-In most scenarios, in the moment, we think we know better than God. We know in our heart/conscience what’s right, but we choose what’s wrong.

-Compounding lies: God won’t ; God won’t care; it’ll work out

-Pride takes root and sprouts into us following our own heart instead of trusting God’s best.

*Our identity as children of God calls us to live according to truth, not the lies that our feelings throw our way.

-Jesus died and rose again to us from those lies!

-Truth-based living is a lifelong struggle, but rest assured that God is sanctifying you if you are in Christ.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the LORD, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)

Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. (Psalm 86:11)

Next Week: Commonly Believed Lies About God

Examples:

• God is not a whole lot different from me
• God isn’t actually involved with or concerned with the details of my life
• I can earn God’s favor
• There are many ways to God
• Church? I can take it or leave it

*Study taken from Lies Men Believe by Robert Wolgemuth