Higher Thoughts and Higher Ways

Daily Bread

Daily Bread Devotions by Chuck Myer Daily Bread Archive | Sign up for our resources

From the psalms we read,

“You thought that I was like you” (Psalm 50:21 – NASB)

Before God saved me, before He illuminated His Word to me, I lived a life steeped in seeking self-gratification. And as I went about this course of life I purported to know God, having settled on my own understanding of who He was and what He was like and what He thought and how He went about doing things. All of this so-called knowledge, this so-called understanding was based on what I “thought.” I had self-servingly made God to be as I “thought” He should be, the obvious intent always being that He be suitable to my way of thinking, my way of doing things. I was so smug in my self-righteousness, so arrogant in how I would, when asked, go about explaining God, who He was and what He was all about.

The day came, and thank God it did, when this haughty person was humbled down, brought to my knees by the conviction of the of the Word of God, the Holy Spirit using it to cause me to cry out, “O God in heaven, yes, I am a sinner! I am guilty as charged by Your Word! I am guilty of sinning against You! I repent O Lord!” I called out for God to save me through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, placing my faith in Jesus, in who He was and what He had done. I knew then and I know now that on that evening, down on my knees before God, I was born again by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. And then . . . I started to know,

“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.'” (Isaiah 55:8-9 – NASB)

If you would read Psalm 50, you would see that the text I used from it is taken from a context that is a rebuke. It now serves as a reminder to this believer. I had at one time, in my lost state,”thought that” He “was like” me. I had “thought” that His “thoughts” were like my “thoughts,” that His “ways” were like my “ways.”

As the Spirit works to conform me into the image of Christ I am now acutely aware of how little I know about the God I once claimed to know so well. But now, in my new state in Christ, I have determined to know Him, His “thoughts” and His “ways.” I have, by His grace, determined to gain understanding of Him through the counsel of His Word, for . . .

“From Thy precepts I get understanding” (Psalm 119:104 – NASB)

Brethren, our Father in heaven has “higher thoughts” and “higher ways,” and I would suggest to you that He would have us strive to know those “thoughts” and to know those “ways.” That said, it is noted for us to beware, to beware that we would ever think He is “like” us (cf. Numbers 23:19).

Have a good day . . . and take time to be in God’s Word, reading, pondering, applying yourself to knowing His higher thoughts and His higher ways.

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