Let God’s Word Be Your ‘Food for Thoughts’! (Part 2)

Today we will take a look at a passage from the prophet Isaiah, that reiterates that the way we think affects our experience. God is speaking in this passage:

“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth.’” (Isaiah 55:8–11)

Notice, God begins with thoughts, and He says that, by nature, our thoughts are not His thoughts. How, then, can we begin to think God’s thoughts? God gives the answer in the words that follow. God’s ways and God’s thoughts are on the heavenly plane, and our ways and our thoughts are on the earthly plane, far below God’s. But God’s Word brings His ways and His thoughts down from heaven into our lives and hearts, producing the results we need.

God goes on to say in the same passage, concerning His Word:

“It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.” (Isaiah 55:11–13)

This is the result of God’s Word coming down from heaven, entering our hearts, occupying our minds, and replacing our ways and our thoughts with God’s ways and God’s thoughts. God’s Word brings His ways and thoughts down to our hearts and lives. As our minds are filled with the Word of God, we begin to think the thoughts of God. Our whole thought life is completely changed.

The results are stated here in beautiful language: peace (you will be led forth with peace), joy (you will go out with joy), praise (even the things of nature will praise—“the trees of the field will clap their hands”), and fruitfulness (in place of the thorn bush and the brier, the myrtle and the pine will grow). That is what happens in our lives when God’s Word comes in and we receive it and begin to meditate on it. Our own ways and our own thoughts are like the thorns and the briers; they are unproductive and unhelpful. But when they are replaced by God’s Word, then instead of the thorn and the brier, we bring forth the pine and the myrtle.

I want to suggest that you should view the substitution of God’s ways and God’s thoughts for your own ways and thoughts as being the key to success. You should also cultivate the practice of meditating on God’s Word day and night. Meditating on God’s Word is learning to think God’s thoughts by receiving His Word into our hearts and minds.