Tired Thinking
Our Thoughts Are Not God’s Thoughts
Scriptures: Prov. 15:13; 17:22; 2 Cor. 10:3-5; Rom. 12:2; Phil. 4:8
Introduction:
The title of message this morning is “Tired Thinking” with a subtitle of “Our Thoughts Are Not God’s Thoughts.” This will be a two part message.
There is an old negro spiritual we sung years ago when I was a child that says “I’m tired Lord, my soul needs resting; I’m tired Lord, my soul need resting, I’m tired Lord, my soul needs resting, but I can’t stop now until my work is done.” I want you to think about this song for the next two weeks because what we decide in our minds is what our bodies will follow. Many of us are tired mentally which leads to our being tired physically. Our minds are tired resulting in thinking patterns outside of what our true potential are in Christ. If we can get back on track with how we are thinking there are many areas in our lives that will come back into balance and thus have a positive impact on our physical health.
Before I go further I want to share two stories with you. Both of these stories will demonstrate the power our minds and illustrate the truth of God’s word. The first story is about a friend of mine whom I was stationed with in the military. It was common for those serving in the military to smoke and my friend was no exception. I would often talk to him about quitting but he always smiled and told me to leave him alone so he could his enjoy his cigarette. This went on between us for years. When I was discharged from the military, we stayed in touch and I would continue to harass him about his smoking. Several years ago he suffered a stroke while he was at work. While recovering from the stroke he noticed that he no longer had a desire to smoke (and he has not touched another cigarette since.) I asked him recently if he missed smoking and he told me that not only did he not miss it, but that when he had his stroke apparently the part of his brain that influenced his smoking was affected. He did not have any withdrawals or anything from his sudden stopping of smoking; it was as if his stroke caused his brain to turn off the brain’s need for nicotine. Addiction happens in the brain so when he had his stroke, apparently the part of his brain that signaled his need for nicotine was affected and after many years of smoking, his mind shut it down. He did not have to try any methods to stop smoking as the stroke did it for him.
My father on the other hand stopped smoking later is his life. He stopped by choice. He went through withdrawals and his mind never stopped craving the nicotine. For my father, smoking was one of the ways in which he coped with stress. When he was stressed he craved the sensation he received from smoking. After he stopped smoking, the desire to smoke was ever present with him. He told me once that he would literally dream about smoking when he was asleep. Later in his life he developed emphysema and had to use oxygen. Even when there were times when he could barely breathe he told me he still craved the cigarette. What was the difference between my father and my good friend? In the case of my friend, the stroked changed part of his brain that changed his desire to smoke. If he had not had the stroke he would probably still be smoking today. In the case of my father, he chose to stop smoking and he used his will to change his response to the impulses that were triggering his need to smoke. While his mind still craved the nicotine his spirit man overrode the impulses. He refused to give in to the request of his mind that it needed nicotine. This was not something that happened overnight and there were times when my father would slip one, but for the most part after he stopped, he faithfully fought the urge to restart.
Both of these stories illustrate to us the power of our minds and how we think. People say that the mind is a powerful thing and we do not yet realize just how much power we have within us. The power of our mind is so great that if our thinking becomes hindered it can kill us. When our thinking becomes so tired it begins to take a physical toll on our bodies. Hear what was recorded in Proverbs.
Proverbs 15:13: “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance; but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.”
Proverbs 17:22 says “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”
Both of these verses point to the same truth – how we think will bring health or death to our bodies. It’s about our minds! It’s about how we think!
I. Thought Vs. Thinking?
A thought is an idea, plan, and/or opinion that are formed in our minds. It is something that can be spontaneous based on a situation or stimuli or something we consider during our actual process of thinking. Thinking on the other hand is defined as the action of using our minds to produce ideas and/or decisions. It is the activity of thinking about something long term to reach a conclusion versus just simply having a thought about something. Let me give you an example. If I wake up in the morning and I hear rain falling I might have the thought “it’s raining outside” and go on with the rest of my morning. I thought about the rain and then I moved on to something else. I did not dwell on it, but thought about it and continued on with my morning. This is what we do many times throughout the day and we often forget about the “thoughts” as soon as we move on from them. But when we pause and think on something, it has the potential to produce a memory.
So in the situation I just gave you, supposed I woke up, heard the rain and then began to consider how the rain will impact my day. When I begin to consider how the rain will impact my day, it is at this point when the initial “thought” proceeds to the process of thinking. When I begin to plan around the rain (cancelling my golf plans, etc) this thinking process is more than just a passing thought. What I am doing now is focusing my thought processes into a stream of thoughts and reaching decisions based on all of these thoughts flowing through my mind. Now the conclusions that I reach are based on my understanding of the situation. I have not checked the weather forecast to see how long it will rain, I just heard the rain, thought about how it will impact my day and then came to conclusions about what I must do based on the rain. You see the difference? Let’s do an exercise. I am going to walk you through the difference between having a thought and thinking.
I am now going to say a color. Blue! When you heard me say the color blue you probably thought about the color blue. Maybe your thought was blue is your favorite color or the color of your car. Let’s try another one. Blue, yellow, red, green, purple, white, orange, pink, grey, green, black, red. I said these colors so quickly because I wanted you to have a thought about the color without transitioning to thinking. Did you hear all of the color’s I named? One of the colors I named twice. Do you remember which one it was? It was green. Do you remember the fifth color I named? It was purple. There are some people whose mind function in such a way that they would have easily been able to answer these questions, but they are not in the majority. My point with this exercise is to demonstrate what it means to have a thought.
I want to do one final exercise to demonstrate thinking. Think about the color blue. Now I want you to think about everything that is blue. For example, water, a crayon, car, etc. Now think about something that you own that is blue. You see the difference? You were able now to spend some time thinking about the color blue versus it just being a quick thought before you transitioned to something else. So what is my point?
II. Renewing Our Minds
Here is my point. Our minds are tired and our thinking is off because we are still treating God’s word as a “thought.” We are not thinking about God’s word, we just give it a thought. How can I say this? Look at what is recorded in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. It says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” We live in the flesh but our weapons are not of the flesh. God has equipped us, if we choose to use them, weapons for our warfare that will bring fortresses. The first weapon is how we think! We have to start seeing ourselves differently. Those thoughts that rise up against the knowledge of God, we are bringing them into captivity to the obedience of Christ. I am able to do this because I am doing what Paul said in Romans 12:2 when he said “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
I don’t know about you, but when I start looking at my life, I am glad that I am more than my thoughts! I am glad that I am more than my past actions! I am glad that I am better prepared for what I might face in the future. Yes my mind gets tired and I get tempted to start thinking like I used to think, but praise God, I can think differently now. My flesh may continue to have thoughts that are not of God, but I can cast them down. I can bring them captive to the obedience of Christ!
When I face adversity and my thoughts say there is no way out I can bring the thoughts to the Word in Psalm 34:17 which says “The righteous cry, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.” Praise God!
When I get angry and my thoughts says “go for it” I bring the thoughts to the Word in Proverbs 15:18 which says “A wrathful man stirreth up strife; but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife.” You see I am working on renewing my mind and getting my thoughts in order.
When I got laid off last year and my thoughts ushered in fear saying I wouldn’t be able find another job for a while I had to take the thoughts to the Word in Proverbs 3:26 which says “For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.” Then I began seeing myself with the job – but I had to get my thoughts in order!
When I needed encouragement and my thoughts said “you can’t do it” I took them to the Word in Philippians 4:13 which says “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” Then I began to do all things!
When my thoughts remind me of my sins and all the times I have failed God I take them to the Word in Hebrews 8:12 which says “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”
When I am praying and my thoughts say that prayer will not be heard I take them to the Word in Isaiah 65:24 which says “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.”
This is not how my mind works – I have to focus. I am working to renew it. My mind likes thinking the old way. My mind likes to entertain thoughts that it shouldn’t because that’s the way it has always worked. But I am renewing it – one day at a time!
As I close this morning I want to take you back to the beginning. Are you tired this morning? Is your mind tired? Are you having thoughts that are disruptive to your walk with God? I will continue this next week but before I close I want you to consider these points:
• Do you realize that you cannot worry with a single thought? In order to worry, you must think!
• Do you realize that you cannot be depressed or angry with a single thought? You have to think to get to that point.
• Do you realize that you can’t love with a single thought? Many people have gotten in major trouble thinking they were in love because they “thought” they were. It takes some thinking to get to the point of love!
• Do you realize that you cannot accept Christ and renew your mind with a single thought? You must think about it. You must ponder it and make a conscious decision.
Many people treat God’s Word as a thought. We do not do a lot of thinking about God’s Word, we just give it the occasional thought. As long as God’s Word is an occasional thought our minds will remain where they are and we will continue to be tired. Are you giving God’s Word an occasion thought or are you renewing your mind by thinking on His Word.
I will leave you with Philippians 4:8: “Finally brethren, whatsoever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
