What's on Your Mind?
Today’s Verse:
And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand. ~1 Samuel 27:1
Our text this morning says that “David said in his heart.” David had been thinking for a long time about his situation with Saul. Despite the fact that God had repeatedly delivered David from Saul, David lived in constant fear and anxiety. The mind is the control center of our life. It is the starting point for ideas, desires, and decisions. What comes into our mind through sight, sounds, and speech can affect us for good or for bad. The mind can be the battleground by which our spiritual enemies can place strongholds in our life and hold us captive. What you think about determines who you are. Let us see David’s thinking at this critical juncture of his life.
David had succumbed to fatal thinking.
“I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul.” He convinced himself that Saul would kill him. From the moment he woke up until the time he went to sleep, David was consumed with fatal thinking. This kind of thinking lives in a world of negativism. It is a pessimistic mind. It is thinking that sees everything as impossible and believes that defeat is always imminent. Christians who have fatal thinking have no joy, no happiness, and no peace. They are difficult to motivate and see everything from a one-dimensional viewpoint. They do not have a positive outlook and assume that the worst-case scenario will happen. Fatal thinking will kill a marriage, kill friendships, kill a church, kill a vision, and kill any possibility of a long life.
David had descended into foolish thinking.
“There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines.” David went into survival mode. He resorted to logic. He strategized how to get out of harm’s way. He concluded that if he went into the country of the Philistines and joined forces with them, Saul would leave him alone. He thought, “There is nothing better for me.” He concluded that he should take matters into his own hands and that this was the best course of action to take. When God is no longer in our thinking and we resort to survivalist thinking, we have placed ourselves in a very dangerous position. This kind of thinking takes God out of the picture and assumes responsibility for our fate. This is no different from the kind of thinking where you assume the risk and try to find a way to Heaven apart from salvation by grace through faith. Let us remember,“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”
What David needed was faith thinking.
Faith thinking places our thoughts upon God for our fate and for our future. We walk by faith and not by sight. “The just shall live by faith.” Faith thinking thinks and prays in the realm of the impossible and not the possible. Faith thinking leaves matters in God’s hands and does not make any foolish assumptions. With faith thinking, there is no plan B. With faith thinking, we do the following: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Faith thinking keeps us from harm. Faith thinking is to look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.
What are you thinking? Let us be exhorted to “let the mind of the Master be the master of your mind.”
Have a Christ-centered God Morning!
Bible Reading Schedule: Leviticus 8-10