When researching in the word of God, you have to understand the words, although the same in sound our current English, many times they have a completely different meaning. For example Acts 13:18 says “And about the time of forty years suffered he their manners (G5159) in the wilderness.” Manners in our contemporary language means (1) a way in which a thing is done or happens, (2) a person’s outward bearing or way of behaving toward others; but on the other hand, according to the Bible, it means: to bear one’s manner, to endure one’s character. The Bible’s word definition is also based on the context specific and not general. The use of the concordance in the blog is to make sure the proper understanding of the scripture is received. Thoughts, Thoughts, and more Thoughts From the time we are conceived, the beautiful process of development begins…starting with the brain. Notice this, nothing can happen in development without the brain and this causes me to think: “When does one actually begin to think?” However, this is not a blog that is concerned with thought development on the science side, but the development of thoughts in correlation to the word of God. Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts…and then some more. Have you ever considered the amount of work goes into thinking? We take for granted thinking because we tend to not pay attention to it, but I am writing to tell you: it is necessary to pay attention to the way we think. It is such an amazing thing to ponder: "the way we think." However, it is also such a necessary thing to do. Have you ever thought about how many books are dedicated to the subject, how many lessons are given, and how many people profit from teaching us how to "think better." Thinking better is a gift from God, it gives a peace to ALL situations because of our knowing that God will not put more on us than we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13). How are we thinking in our hearts? Do we actually realize and understand this: how we think and what we devote our focus to is what we emulate in our daily lives. Look at the scripture above, the Lord is letting us know that eventually, our outer man will reflect our inner man. So often we try to hide our true selves because we want to keep friends, people we are dating, our jobs...our social groups, but we can only hide for so long before circumstances cause the truth about us to come out. Thinking in plain sight What is amazing about God is He sees us from the inside out. Proverbs 15:3 says "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good," so we can't hide us from him. Like stated before, we can hide our actual thoughts by saying what we feel everyone wants to hear, but only God can truly read between the lines. I would tell my friends, I was ok with a lot of things, but on the inside, it was just the opposite. I knew I was lying, but I considered their feelings above God. But I am so grateful for the mercy of the Lord because he forgave me for it all. Back to the topic: Jeremiah it says "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings" Jeremiah 17:9-10 (KJV). Our thoughts may be hidden to others, but God sees it all…to Him, or thoughts are in plain sight. If our thoughts aren’t hidden to the Almighty God, why do we lie to ourselves and to others? I believe some of the reasons are: 1. We are ashamed of our thoughts towards another 2. We can’t handle the response of the true thought 3. We don’t see ourselves as having anything valuable to the conversation 4. We feel we will lose our friends Thinking like this does not attract blessings, but rather stress and curses. Let’s consider what are actually our thoughts and the thoughts of the enemy. The thought of the Lord concerning us is to give us an “expected end,” as stated in Jeremiah 29:11. Heart and Mind A lot of times, we will say “that wasn’t on my mind and in my heart” or “that’s not how I really feel,” but what isn’t noticed is the heart and mind are interchangeable in first in the Bible and second in our lives. Our heart dictates to our mind what to think, and the mind dictates to the heart how to feel. Accordingly, the mind controls the heart and the heart controls the mind. Whatever issue we deal with in our hearts, we deal within our mind. Sometimes when we are hurt by the actions of another, we don’t deal with it, we bury it. If we are to attract the blessings that God has for us, we must dig up the issue and face it…properly. God desires for us to have a clean heart and if we are not willing to forgive, then God is not obligated to forgive us. Matthew 6:12 supports this by saying “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. To sum up, this note, what we nurse in our hearts is what we will display. Leviticus 19:17a (NLT) tells us "Don't nurse hatred in your heart...," so we are to nurse or ponder on the opposite. If we want to receive blessings we MUST meditate on God's word so we are aligned to receive them. I would like to end this with a saying I hear Bishop McCoy say often "My mind is a Christ mind, and I will let no material mind and I will let no carnal mind come in and super rule my Christ mind, because I recognize that wherever I am God is," so let's choose to think right. The Scribe
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AuthorI am an authorized scribe for Bishop Alvin J. McCoy. Bishop McCoy is the Prelate and Founder of Apostolic Ministries Inc. with ministries in several states. Bishop McCoy is married to Elder Lisa McCoy and has authored two books: One God, One God Only and Words of Life. CategoriesArchives |