Ordering Your Private World, Week 8

Wisdom & Knowledge, Part 1 (Chapter 8)

“The ordering of our private world cannot take place without strong mental endurance and the intellectual growth this endurance produces….People whose minds are not strengthened for endurance are by no means always unintelligent. They simply have never stopped to think that the use of the mind for the purpose of growth is a necessary part of a God-pleasing life-style.” (p. 90)

Some of us may have gotten by on natural talent or ability for some time. But by our mid-30s, many of us have reached a point where endurance and discipline matter at least as much. This is especially true in the mental area.

Amusement = function without thought (a=without, muse=thought). Functioning without thought leads to disorder in the private world.

“Like others, I am convinced that Christians ought to be the strongest, broadest, most creative thinkers in the world….In Christ there is a foundation of truth that ought to make our ideas, our analysis of things, and our innovations among the most powerful of the age. But because there is an essential laziness and internal disorganization in many Christian lives, this is not always the case. We are forfeiting one of the great gifts God provided through Christ.” (pp. 93-94)

“Thinking is a great work. It is best done with a mind that has trained and is in shape just as competitive running is done with a body that has trained and is in shape. The best kind of thinking is accomplished when it is done in the context of reverence for God’s kingly reign over all creation. It is sad to see great thinking and artistic work accomplished by men and women who have no interest in uncovering knowledge of the Creator.” (p. 97)

Romans 12:1-2
I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. [2] And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

2 Cor. 10:5
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,

1 Cor. 2:16
For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Matthew 22:34-38
But when the Pharisees heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence, they gathered themselves together. [35] And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, [36] "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" [37] And He said to him, " 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' [38] "This is the great and foremost commandment.