It is so easy to slip into other “mindsets”. You know how it is. For instance, my family moved to another country… and within months the four of us began to change.
Each of us began to adopt new ways. My mind began to see into another way of thinking.
Our ways have been enriched by the ways of this people group we landed amongst! Their ways slowly became our ways. I like to think that I kept the best of their ways, and mixed them with the best of “my” ways – and my mindset is now richer because of what I gained from their lives and their ways of thinking.
The Bible introduces us to the rich mindset of God found in the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God to us. Shaped over hundreds of years by God inspiring writers – prophets, and apostles, the Bible is showing us the mindset of God Himself. What He wants from us, what He Himself is like. And it shows us where the world has been and where it is going to be in the future.
God chose to come into this world through a small, insignificant tribe, now called the Jews. He could have chosen any peoples on the globe, but He chose Jews. And over the centuries God revealed Himself through the Jewish people. The Old Testament is full of God’s revelations to us. But we have to read it to have His ways revealed to us.
The Bible was written by Jews. The writers were inspired by God. We can now, today, follow Jesus because way back in Old Testament times Jews were led of God and He inspired Jews to write His Word for us. [See below: Bible search results for “all Scripture”]. It’s a different era now, but the ways of the Jews back then reveal to us the ways of God for us today. Any who accept Jesus as the Messiah, as Lord of all – are His people. When a person is born again – he/she becomes a child of the King. All born again believers are His people now!
How do you view the Old Testament? The Old Testament is a mysterious, deep mine, full of God’s revelations. It is a rich minefield full of God’s nuggets of truths — about our life as God sees it, about God Himself, what He’s like, and what His plan is for the ages.
Christians follow the God of the Bible. So it behooves us to continually mine the depths, take out nuggets deep in this mine, and make them ours. Our mindset changes as we read the Bible and adopt its truths.
2 Timothy 3:14-17 Amplified Bible (AMP)
14 But as for you, continue in the things that you have learned and of which you are convinced [holding tightly to the truths], knowing from whom you learned them, 15 and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings (Hebrew Scriptures) which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus [surrendering your entire self to Him and having absolute confidence in His wisdom, power and goodness].
16 All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage]; 17 so that the [a]man of God may be complete and proficient, outfitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Christians follow Jesus, or as the first Christians, Jews, called it, “The Way”, or The People of the Book. (See more here: The People of the Book). See these articles and others here at www.thepeopleofthebook.org:
How to Enter the Kingdom of God
We follow the Way. Every day as we follow the Way, sneaky sirens lure us by their ways of thinking. We can so easily be influenced by the myriad of philosophies around us. These ways of thinking are not from God. They are from mere men.
Romans 12:2
And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you].
Do you really want to follow the thoughts of a mere human? Or do you follow the very distinctive Way of Jesus the Messiah – God Himself come to earth as a man? Mere human thought — or God’s? Which is it? Which one is supreme in your mindset?
Isaiah 25: verse 1
O Lord, You are my God;
I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have worked wonders,
Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.
If we want our way of thinking to be permeated by God’s way of thinking, then it behooves us to read the Bible and know it well. Then our ways will be His Ways – His ways of thinking will be our ways of thinking.
FOR MORE:
About God Today *series
How to Study the Bible: Study Guide
The People of the Book – https://www.thepeopleofthebook.org
Book: Bounce, by Aaron Fruh …renew your mindset (BakerBooks): “Learning to THRIVE through Loss, Tragedy, and Heartache”
Bible search results for “all Scripture”:
2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture
is inspired by God
and profitable
for teaching,
for reproof, for correction,
for training in righteousness;
But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets.” Then all the disciples left Him and fled.
Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’
After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, *said, “I am thirsty.”
but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;
The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.”
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,
as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
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