Love God By Learning the Way He Thinks

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Luke 10:27 (NIV)

To love God with your whole mind requires you to think like God.

Impossible? Of course, unless you’re connected to God through the Holy Spirit within. This connection initiates the renewing of your mind, directing you to think upon the things above and not the things below, to set your mind on the things of God as you abandon self-absorbed thinking.

This doesn’t mean you become a mindless robot, rather it means your thoughts start to match God’s thoughts and you’re perspective about people and situations start to match God’s perspective.

Thinking like God means:

• You trust his guidance and no longer rely on your own understanding.
• You allow God to interpret the facts, since he knows the whole truth.
• You measure your thoughts against God’s Word and God’s character.
• You take ungodly thoughts captive and bring them before King Jesus.

You will not be able to change the way you think without God’s help, but this dependence on him brings you to a place of strength, not weakness. Do you consider Jesus weak when he explained he only says and does what the Father tells him to do and say? We have Jesus-life within, transforming us into portraits of Jesus. How can we be Jesus-like if we remain independent of God in our thoughts and their resulting actions?

Start asking yourself, “What would Jesus think?” If you want to develop the mind of Christ, you need to begin thinking like Jesus. His thoughts were focused on the Father; he was in constant conversation with the Father. Jesus was self-forgetful, thinking more of others than himself.

Jon Walker is the author of Breakfast with Bonhoeffer, Costly Grace, and Growing with Purpose. He is managing editor of Rick Warren’s Daily Hope devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2013 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.