I think we often are unaware of how entrenched our worldview is and how it influences who we are, how we think, and what we do. Our worldview is, in essence, our heart attitudes, those values, beliefs, expectations, and desires that form our thoughts and decisions. It is how we interpret what happens to us, what others do and say to us. It determines how we respond.
The New Century Bible, in one phrase of this passage, says: “I will put inside them a new way of thinking.”
I think that, as Christians, we are often (blissfully?) unaware of how much our secular, sinful society affects our thinking. We don’t realize that how much of what we accept as normal actually taints our relationship with the Lord. However, in this passage there are hints for us. If we take the idea of “a way of thinking” from the NCB and substitute that idea wherever it says “heart,” we can see what God is talking about. A new way of thinking—a way of thinking that lines up with God’s will—causes us to walk in His statutes, keep His ordinances, and obey them. This is an interesting trio. At first glance, it seemed to me to be a redundancy, but I believe that God put all three things there to teach us something.
• To walk in something is more than simply to give intellectual assent. It is to fully engage ourselves in that thing. Walking in a very involved activity. It requires your eyes to map out where you should go, your legs to take you there, and your arms to keep you balanced. To walk in God’s statutes, we must fully engage our entire selves. It isn’t enough to simply say that we believe God’s way is best; we must live it out in our decisions and behavior.
• In keeping ordinances, there is both a positive and negative side. It means both to do God’s will and to refrain from sinning. I think we sometimes act like our relationship with God is some kind of give-and-take. “I’ll do this for you, God, but then I need to do this for me.” But serving God isn’t like that. We don’t have rights in our relationship with Him. He is Master; we are slaves. That concept is very uncomfortable for many Americans who have completely bought into the idea of self-determination. No one owns us! But, that isn’t true. The Lord Jesus owns us twice! He owns us by the right of creation and He bought us back from sin with the price of His blood. And the fact is, if we want to have new thoughts, we need to totally surrender to God, trusting Him to take care of us. It isn’t as if we serve a hateful Master who abuses us. We serve a loving God who only wants the best for us: “those who seek the Lord lack no good thing” (Psalm 34:10).
• Finally God says that we are to obey His ordinances. The KJV actually says to do them. It has the sense of the ordinances actually becoming who and what we are. They occupy our thoughts, our times, our energy. When someone looks at us, they virtually see God’s laws in us. And what are God’s laws? They are His Word, in essence, His Spirit. When we surrender totally to the Holy Spirit, we easily obey His laws because His laws are the description of His character.
What’s interesting about all this is that these three things will—guaranteed—change our worldview forever. If we want to change how we think, we need to fully embrace the Holy Spirit in our lives. We need to fully walk in God’s statutes, totally surrender to God, trusting Him to take care of us and allow His Word to fully occupy our thoughts and energy. We need to be completely taken over by His will and His ways. The question always remains: Are we willing to do this?
© 2011 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.
