What Was I Thinking?

Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place?

Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies.

They will receive the Lord’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their Savior.

Such people may seek you and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob. Psalm 24:3-6

I'm not sure how to distill the vast wealth of treasures in this verse down to coherent thought, but as I read these verses this morning, it struck me that this is a summary of what the Lord has been teaching me through His Word thus far in 2011.

I've come to the conclusion that the one that we tell the most lies to is ourself.  I am quite good at it.  I tell myself things like "I'll never get it right," "I can't do it," "it's too hard," "The Lord is disappointed with you..." and these things tempt me to fear other falsehoods like "if you keep messing this up, God is going to give up on you. He can't forgive you endlessly."  When these are the thoughts that my mind is dwelling on, my emotions spiral out of control.  They start to lead me and I run to idols (for me, food) for comfort, I waffle in unbelief and my prayer life loses it's power.  I become a wounded warrior and I cower in the dark.  It's not a good place to be and having tasted the difference between darkness and light, I praise God that He lovingingly calls me forth out of darkness.

Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think upon these things."

The Greek word translated "think" here is logizomai.  It's an accounting term that tells us to take an inventory, reason, reckon, think on.  It's the same word as Paul uses in Romans 4 when he tells us that Abraham believed the Lord and it was "credited" to him as righteousness.  So, we are instructed to take an inventory of our thoughts.  What am I counting up in my head?  What am I accruing as who I am and what I can or can't do?

God wants us to dwell on what is "true".  Psalm 25:4-5 reads, "Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." What I can consider truth is greatly effected by my emotions but the truth of God's Word is unchanging.  "LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless" (not perfect, but as much as it depends on me, there is nothing between me and God or man that I have not tried to make right) "and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart."

Do you want to receive blessing from the Lord?  Do you want to have a right relationship with God our Savior?  Read His Word.  Hide it in your heart.  Find out what is really true about Who He is, who you are and what He can do in and through you.  Take an inventory of your thoughts.  How do they measure up with the truth of God's Word?  Have you become good at telling yourself lies?  Let's allow the Lord to begin changing that - beginning today.