The Way You Think

The other day, as I was talking to our staff here on the Bill Rice Ranch I said, “Wouldn’t the world be clearer if we lived in a cartoon world?” You know the old cartoons where you can see what each character is saying because there is a little text bubble above their head. If you lived in a cartoon world, you would hear what people are saying by literally seeing what they are saying in the text bubble above their head. I continued, “Can you imagine if we lived in a world where you could actually see what people think?” In the cartoon world, there are little text bubbles floating around everyone’s head with everything that is in their head. To be honest, I don’t think I would want to know what people are thinking, but it kind of goes to show that there are two different worlds, the world inside you and the world around you.

In Zephaniah, you see that way you think determines the world you inhabit. If you want to change the world, start by taking heed to the world within your own heart. Twice in Zephaniah the Bible mentions exactly what is in the heart of groups of people and what they are thinking. The only reason we know what is in their heart is not because there is a text bubble, but because God knows us to our core and can reveal what is in our hearts.

For example, Zephaniah 1:12, speaking about God’s own people of Judah, says, “And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees.” The picture is that God will search out the corruption among His people. It continues, “[These people] that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.” These people were thinking, “God is indifferent. God is just a great clock winder. He winds things up, then takes His hands off. God is not going to help us or hurt us. God just doesn’t care.” In Habakkuk that prophet felt the same way initially, wondering if God was going to do anything about wickedness. God will and is working whether you know it or not.

So, these people were thinking God was not going to do anything. In their hearts was indifference, and what was in their heart affected what was in their mouths and hands. In Zephaniah 2:15 there is a group of pagan people and God says, “This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me.” Only God knew that they thought they were really something. They had pride.

In Zephaniah you realize that God rules both the Jew and the Gentile. God rules the world without and God knows the world within. A question to ask ourselves is, “What story am I telling myself?” The Bible says that the heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” God can. The Bible says that as a man “thinketh in his heart, so is he.” The way you think determines the world you inhabit. I’m not saying that if you think happy thoughts, the world will all of a sudden be different physically. I’m saying that joy, sadness, sin, vengeance and all the things you feel in inside are a matter of the heart. The way you think determines the world you inhabit. What stories are you telling yourself?

How should we react to this truth? First, verify your view of reality. If the way you think determines the world you inhabit, just verify your view of reality. It is a sad thing when we know things that just aren’t so. It would be better to be in ignorance and know it than to think we know something that is not so. How do I know something is real? I may think it and perceive it, but how do I verify that what I am thinking is reality? I have to go to the God who made this universe, who made my mind, and verify my view of reality through what God has said. There are so many voices in the world, so much confusion, verify your view of reality with the absolute truth of God.

Second, manage your inputs. We are living in a day where there is noise 24/7. Many of us put little buds in our ears on different occasions to listen to podcasts. There is no way your pastor, your church, or the people you physically know have nearly as much input into your mind than the podcasts you ingest every day. There is a huge mismatch between three-hour podcasts and going to church three times a week, which would be more than most people would do.

We tend to hold God in one hand and the world in the other. Zephaniah 1:5 talks about “them that worship the host of heaven [pagans]…and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham.” They held God in one hand and the world’s thinking in the other. The Bible says, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after tradition of men, after the rudiments or the world, and not after Christ.” So, manage your inputs because the way you think determines the world you inhabit.

Finally, have a plan for thinking. How do you do that? Do you think about the way that you think? Most of us do not, but God thinks about the way you think and God cares. It does matter. How much of God’s Word are you ingesting every day? Do you have a plan for your Bible reading, Bible understanding, and even podcasts or apps that can help you understand the Word of God? That matters. How much time are you spending on the way you are thinking?

The indifference of God’s people and the pride of God’s enemies were all functions of the way they thought in their hearts. They believed the wrong things about God because they did not listen to God’s prophets about God Himself. Today, make it a matter of deliberation. Verify your view of reality, manage your inputs, have a plan for thinking because the way you think determines the world you inhabit.