October 13 Devotional: AW Tozer (Cultivating Spiritual Disciplines)

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Perhaps they have committed sins of the mind. . . .

To think God's thoughts requires much prayer. If you do not pray much, you are not thinking God's thoughts.

If you do not read your Bible much and often and reverently, you are not thinking God's thoughts. Those thoughts you are having--and your head buzzes with them all day long and into the night--are earthly thoughts--thoughts of a fallen race. They are the thoughts of a lost society. They should not be our thoughts. Paul said, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus " (Philippians 2:5 KJV). There also has to be a lot of meditation. We ought to learn to live in our Bible. Get one with print big enough to read so it does not punish your eyes. Look around until you find a good one, and then learn to love it. Begin with the Gospel of John, then read the Psalms. Isaiah is another great book to help you and lift you. When you feel you want to do it, go on to Romans and Hebrews and some of the deeper theological books. But get into the Bible. Do not just read the little passages you like, but in the course a a year or two see that you read it through. Your thoughts will one day come up before God's judgment. We are responsible for our premeditative thoughts. They make our mind a temple where God can dwell with pleasure, or they make our mind a stable where Christ is angry, ties a rope and drives out the cattle. It is up to us. What should you then do? Examine yourself. Have you found yourself in that awful circular grave, not making any spiritual progress? Have you found that the passing of time upon which you have leaned so heavily has become a broken reed and is not helping you at all?

Verse

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

Thought

To be Christian we must think Christian. Transformation is by mind renewal. There are patterns of thought, attitudes, habits that the Spirit wants to replace with those compatible with the faith walk. What we think is crucial.