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’.