Biblical Thinking not Positive Thinking.
1 Kings 17:2-6; Philippians 4:14-17
In God\s training program
there are two things that are emphasized as foundational. One is volition: that
we have a responsibility to obey God’s command, and secondly, thinking. The
spiritual life of the believer is grounded upon thought upon an understanding
of what God says and a knowledge of His Word. It is a study of God’s Word that
entails principles of interpretation, of grammar, of word studies, etc., so
that we can have an accurate understanding of just exactly what God says to us.
It is through God the Holy Spirit working in our lives that we see these
principles apply to our lives. The foundational training is addressed to these
two elements. We have to learn to think according to God’s Word, to think
according to God’s will. But it is not just some academic thing, it moves
towards a transformation of character. As we study God’s Word and as we learn
about what he has done for us, as we accumulate that academic knowledge, then
as we apply it, it is God the Holy Spirit who uses that to transform who we are
into the image of Jesus Christ. It is ultimately about transformed character
and preparation for future ministry. Just as Elijah was being prepared for his
future ministry we are being prepared for our future ministry.
The key idea that we see
here is the idea of training. And when we reach a mastery of those skills and
abilities the Bible uses a word to describe that: wisdom. The Hebrew word is chokmah which is a word to describe the
craftsmanship of those who worked on the tabernacle. That is where our
spiritual life is headed, so that our lives become a work of beauty and skill
that is produced by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. That beauty that we
acquire with the transformation of our character glorifies God.
We see this exemplified in
some passages in Proverbs. For example, Proverbs 11:2 NASB “When
pride comes, then comes dishonor. But with the humble is wisdom.” The second
clause there, “But with the humble is wisdom,” connects wisdom, that skill in
applying God’s Word, to a foundational mental attitude which is humility.
Humility is an orientation and submission to God’s authority. It is contrasted
with pride. Pride is this sort of natural orientation or default position of
the sin nature—self absorption, self-reliance, and the whole focus is on self.
It is only through the process of God’s training that he begins to knock all
the rough edges off of our pride and our arrogance. We have to reach a point
where we are willing to submit to Him and orient to His authority and the Bible
uses that word humility to describe that. Humility is the idea of someone who
is completely oriented to authority and operates under that authority without
letting his own desires and will interfere with the accomplishment of the
mission. The Scripture says that Moses was the most humble of all men. He ran a
nation of somewhere between two and a half and three million complaining and rebellious
Jews and took them through the wilderness for forty years. That was an
extremely tough thing to do and demanded strong leadership, and it demanded
somebody of strong personal character traits, not somebody who is not just a
door mat. He was oriented to God’s authority. So before God can use us in any
kind of ministry or service He has to begin to deal with our pride. If we do
not deal with our arrogance, orient to His authority and develop humility, then
there is no spiritual growth. Humility is wisdom, a part of grace orientation.
In grace orientation we are learning to depend on what God provides and not
what we provide.
Two other verses in
Proverbs connect another idea. “The fear of the Lord is the instruction [or
training] for wisdom.” The word for training is a Hebrew word which has the
idea of instruction or discipline or training. The primary meaning that is
found in the better Hebrew lexicons is the idea of discipline. Discipline is
really training. Whenever we are training we are training for some job, some
mission or some ability. It entails discipline. We have to discipline
ourselves, we have to learn to think in terms of priorities and not do things
that we otherwise would like to do because it is a distraction from
accomplishing the objective. We have to learn self-discipline. Sometimes it is
imposed from the outside. The starting point for understanding the kind of
discipline we should have in the spiritual life is orientation to God’s
authority—the fear of the Lord. This word “fear” isn’t just the idea of a
respect for His authority but it also has the idea of recognizing what can
happen to us in terms of divine discipline if we are disobedient. There is a
certain level of fear or anxiety associated with disobedience. Proverbs 29:23
echoes the same idea. NASB “A man’s pride will bring him low, But a
humble spirit will obtain honor.” This
is ultimately exemplified in Philippians chapter two in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Proverbs 22:4 NASB “The reward of humility {and} the fear of the LORD Are riches,
honor and life.” If we want to have real life that is related to subordinating
our will to God’s will and learning biblical humility which is orientation to
God’s grace. Even the Lord Jesus Christ who was sinless had to go through that
training procedure that every one of us goes through. The difference is that he
did not have a sin nature to distract Him, but He still had to grow and mature
in His humanity and learn to trust God and be strong in His own spiritual life.
That prepared Him for His future ministry on the cross. Hebrews 5:8 NASB
“Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He
suffered.”
This was foundational in
the life of the apostle Paul where in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 he stated NASB
“…for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn
in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting
myself!” So God works to wipe out our arrogance. “Concerning this I implored
the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, ‘My grace
is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly,
therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ
may dwell in me.” So we have to orient to God’s authority and that comes through
a process of testing. James 1:2-4 NASB “Consider it all joy, my
brethren, when you encounter various trials,
Basically humility
involves three aspects. 1) a submission to God’s Word. The Word is the
representative of God’s authority; what His Word says we are to do. As we study
God’s Word we learn about God’s plan, God’s procedures for taking us through
spiritual growth to spiritual maturity. So we have to submit to that plan. 2.
We have to learn to accept His provision. He supplies for us that which we need
to accomplish His will in our lives. It is that provision of His Word and the
spiritual resources that is based on grace. So ultimately, humility has to do
with understanding the grace of God, understanding what God has supplied and
provided for us. If we don’t learn to rest in His grace provision then when the
real battles occur and the opportunities to serve Him occur we are not prepared
to engage in those battles and opportunities on the basis of supplying God’s
provision, we end up trying to do it our own way.
That is the situation we
find Elijah in. 1 Kings 17:2, 3 NASB “The word of the LORD came to
him, saying,
He responds in obedience.
1 Kin 17:5, 6 NASB “So he went and did according to the word of the LORD, for he
went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the
1 Kings 17:7 NASB
“It happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain
in the land.” The brook dried up, then
God told him where he was going next. Elijah has to trust completely in the
Lord that when the time comes God will continue to take care of him. [8] “Then
the word of the LORD came to him, saying, [9] ‘Arise, go to Zarephath,
which belongs to
Elijah learned about grace
partially in the first test; now he has to learn a few other things. Grace
orientation means that we align our thinking and actions with God’s policy of
grace, which means we understand that all that we are and have in this life
comes from the kindness and benevolence of God and that nothing is due to our
inherent abilities, talents or efforts. There are a lot of extremely talented,
hard-working people who have nothing. Ultimately everything that we have comes
from God. In the process of grace orientation there are four things that get
developed. The first is humility. We have to learn to orient to God’s
authority: it is not about me, it is all about God. We have to learn to submit
to His authority and His direction in terms of His Word and to put into
practice that which he commands. When we do this and we are oriented to His
grace and provision, and we understand that he supplies everything for us, and
that it doesn’t matter what is going on around us is because we are totally
provided for by God, then we can have a relaxed mental attitude. This gives us
the ability to rise above the details of life, where our mental attitude, our
emotions are not shaped by our circumstances. No matter what the circumstances
do or how they change we are going to be relaxed, happy and have peace because
of what God has provided for us. The essence of this is that we are going to
humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.
Elijah applies the lesson.
1 Kings 17:10 NASB “:So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he
came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and
he called to her and said, ‘Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may
drink.’ [11] As she was going to get
{it,} he called to her and said, ‘Please bring me a piece of bread in your
hand.’ [12] But she said, ‘As the LORD your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of
flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few
sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and
die’.” Often people mistake boldness for arrogance, but when you are resting in
God’s provision then you can be bold and confident without being arrogant. When
he then asks the woman for a piece of bread that is too much for the woman. She
said: “As the LORD your God
lives.” She is going to prepare a meal and die. Elijah’s response is not to
empathize and he doesn’t apply many of the modern principles of pastoral
ministry to the circumstances, he just goes straight to the Word of God.
1 Kings 17:13 NASB
“Then Elijah said to her, ‘Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a
little bread cake from it first and bring {it} out to me, and afterward you may
make {one} for yourself and for your son’.