Right Thoughts

07.25.14

1 Peter 4.12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

Peter was addressing what he sensed might be a problem for his readers: they might've be thinking something was wrong, that they'd screwed up, or worse, God was punishing them for being less than the people He’d called them to be. Peter was addressing their thinking and what their thoughts may be telling them.

Last night, I was at a meeting with some friends and one of the friends, a beautifully gifted 17-year old woman, was expressing her frustration or angst, or disappointment that she wasn’t becoming the person, in her mind, that she thinks she needs to be for the Lord. I thought: Darlin’, you don’t see what we see, and what a remarkable person you already are. Before I said a word the team leader said gently, “You’ll be the person God is creating you to be.”

It’s not that her thoughts weren’t forbidden, it’s just that she thought (and expressed) that she felt like it was all up to her – more effort, more Bible reading, more prayer; more, more, more. I think she represents many of us who cannot shake the self-imposed performance factor in our relationship with God and in our approach to our spirituality. It ain’t up to us. It’s all God. When will we get it?

Sometimes our thoughts – as noble as they may sound or appear – are just plain old wrong. We think the wrong thing or jump (all too quickly) to the wrong conclusion. Peter counsels us: Don’t do that. Think it out, trust in God, and remember above all, remember He’s in control…of everything. Trials come to make us better, not bitter. The choice is up to us to accept them as from God’s hand, and to realize there isn’t anything in our lives that hasn’t passed through the Father’s hands for our good.

Isaiah confronted Israel’s wrong thinking when he addressed the stupidity of their viewpoint of idolatry: "No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” (Isaiah 44.19) In other words: guys are ya that stupid? Is that what you really think!? As my former pastor used to say: Stinkin’ thinkin’ will leave you sinkin’. Cute. Clever. True.

Dear friends, do not be fooled into thinking that somehow it’s your fault and that this fiery ordeal that has come on you to punish you, because you did something to deserve a beating at the hand of God. Don’t fall into that trap. The trap is real. And the trap in ever-present in life…

Father, for me and my friends today I pray You help us in our thinking about You, about trials, and in the way we think about You and trials. You are on our side. When we pass through the waters, You will be with us; and when we pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over us.

When we walk through the fire, we will not be burned; the flames will not set us ablaze. For You are the Holy One of the Church, our Savior! May we remember that and walk in that today – Amen.