Think About Your Thinking
By Glennys Elliott
As We Think Within Our Hearts, So Are We
Proverbs 23:7 (Paraphrased from NKJV)
“The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this; You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29b-31 (NASB) (Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Luke 10:27; 1 Timothy 1:5)
Lesson 8
Keep in mind the scripture above. We are to love the Lord our God with all our being, believing and focusing not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. We are to get a new way of thinking, renewing our minds, so that we will then know what His will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
We are also created for relationship: First, our relationship with the Lord our God and then with others. We are to encourage and love fellow Christians. We are to have a love for the lost and a desire to tell them about the forgiveness of sins, and salvation and hope of eternal life that is theirs through Jesus Christ.
In Lesson 8 we will focus on a few of the miraculous events in the Bible. A miracle is designed to increase our faith. A miracle displays God’s sovereignty and power.
The objective of this lesson is to emphasize what we have been studying. We are to get a new way of thinking (Think About Your Thinking), have our minds transformed by the power of the Spirit, and we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen.
Romans 12:2
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
Rather than relying on our emotions, past experiences, habits, justifications, etc. we can now get our information from the Bible, and through prayer, and then respond to the events and relationships in our everyday lives.
The definition of a miracle encompasses anything that would fall outside the scope of scientific understanding of the laws of nature.
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. That is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made from what was visible.”
Hebrews 11:1-4
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
If God created everything and everyone, there is nothing in our human reality that is out of His control.
“For nothing is impossible with God.” Luke 1:37
Read the following passages. What was the spiritual implication in these events?
- Genesis 3:1-5 Satan in the form of a serpent_______________________________
- Exodus 14:15-31 A sea opens up and the ground is dry____________________
- Exodus 16:4-8 Food falls from the sky_____________________________________
- Numbers22:21-35 A talking donkey_______________________________________
- Ezekiel 37:1-14 Dry bones come alive_____________________________________
- Luke 1:26-38 Woman becomes pregnant by the Holy Spirit________________
- John 2:1-11 Water becomes wine__________________________________________
- Luke 24:1-12 Crucified man comes back to life____________________________
- Acts 8:26-40 Now you see me, now you don’t______________________________
Can you think of other events in the Bible that use examples from our physical world to help us understand the spiritual world?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
God takes our physical senses and our human understanding of the normal process of events and situations and gives them spiritual meaning.
Physical Senses-seeing, hearing, tasting, feeling, smelling
- Seeing – “For we live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7
“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:40
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105
- Hearing-“Come, let us bow down in worship let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture the flock under his care.
Today, if only you would hear his voice.” Psalm 95:6-7
- Tasting– “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Psalm 34:8
“It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen[c] away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. 7 Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.” Hebrews 6:4-5
- Feeling- “Saul also went to his home in Gibeah, accompanied by valiant men whose hearts God had touched.” 1 Samuel 10:26
- Smelling– “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? 17 Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.” 2 Corinthians 2:14-17
Teacher’s Note–
I like to provide a visual, hands on object to emphasize a point. I will call these objects symbols.
With this lesson I provided a bottle of water. I emphasized that every time water is looked upon or ingested, it is a reminder of a physical necessity that also helps us understand the spiritual significance.
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