Food for Thought

“How precious to me are your thoughts, God. How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.” – Psalm 139:17-18

The psalmist is telling us that God’s thoughts toward us even outnumber the grains of sand on the seashore. Since most of us live near the beach that is quite an image. The God of the universe, who created you and who numbered all your days, is thinking about you and me all the time.

I must be important to God for Him to be so intentional about the details of my life. The more we understand His ways, His plans for us and His purposes on the earth, the more we understand the position we hold in His heart.

God loves us more than we could ever comprehend. His love for us is greater than anything we could ever hope for. Yet, when it comes down to it, many of us have a hard time balancing what God says about us and what we believe about ourselves.

As Pastor, I have days when I feel God’s presence as if He is sitting right next to me. Other days when my thoughts drift to the problems and circumstances of life He doesn’t seem as close. My prayer is that through this series, God will work in each one of us on the whole issue of I how I think of myself and how I think of Him.

I have come to fully understand that all the promises written in His Word personally apply to me. They apply to you as well. They apply to us as they did to Peter, Paul, or John. God has excellent plans for you, just as He had for the disciples; you are important to Him, and in the same breath, you play an important role in His plans.

In order to align our thoughts with His thoughts, we must understand His word. Study the scriptures. Write down the verses that jump out at you and ask Him why your heart stirs as you read them, and what He is saying to you through them. We cannot come in contact with God’s living Word and fail to see God’s thoughts on virtually any subject.

This incredible God we serve designed you for this day, for this era of uncertainty. He designed you to be a solution in a time of stress and turmoil and to have faith when others are struggling. You are where you are for a reason, and whether or not your emotions agree with this, God is with you.

He will do everything He promised. He will bring about big things through the small changes you make in 2015. Psalm 84:11 says, “ For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

Discussion questions:
1. How are God’s thoughts different than our thoughts?
2. Do you believe God is the authority, even for our thoughts? Why or why not?
3. God’s voice is not the only sound clamoring for attention in our head, so how do you know if it is from God?
4. Pray and ask God to help you keep Him near the forefront of your mind throughout each day. To say it another way: “think God’s thoughts.” When you do this, it quickly becomes a habit.
5. Read His word. It’s amazing how, once you’ve done even a small amount of Scripture memory, God will bring to your mind passages He wants you to apply in a particular situation.