Thinking Like People of Faith
You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. — Jeremiah 29:13
Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. — Hebrews 11:6
Author
Dr. Roberto Miranda
Summary: Faith begins with a different way of thinking and seeing life. As we enter God’s ways, we need to renew our minds: leave behind ideas learned from the world and adopt those of the Kingdom, where the weak can be strong, we must serve to receive, and give to have. This transformation lasts a lifetime, but we must begin it. If we retain a mindset divided between the fleshly and the spiritual, we live in confusion and do not receive from the Lord. Let us identify ourselves as people of faith and consider the matters of life according to the laws of the spirit, not only human reason.
Changing the way we think, the way we see things: That is one of the most important elements of the concept of faith. Do you know where faith begins? Faith begins in the mind, in the way we think.
A person of faith thinks about and sees life, and understands the events and affairs of life, very differently from someone who is not a person of faith, someone who thinks only in rational, human, material terms. We need to undergo a change of mindset to be able to think in terms of faith.
That is why the Apostle Paul, in Romans 12:2, speaks of “not conforming to this age.” By that he is telling us: “Do not get used to thinking the way the world thinks; instead, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, your way of thinking, your understanding.”
When we enter into God’s ways, we have to discard much of what we have learned in the world and replace it with the concepts of the Kingdom of God. For in the world of faith, things work very differently from the way they work in the material world.
In the world of faith, more is less, and less is sometimes more. In the world of faith, children are the ones who enter the kingdom of heaven, while adults and those who are very mature and sophisticated remain outside. In the world of faith, the weak are the ones who are strong. In the world of faith, you have to die to live. In the world of faith, you have to serve to receive and to be served. In the world of faith, you have to give to have. In the world of faith, you have to make yourself small so that God will lift you up.
It is a strange thing. The vision of faith is very different from the human vision. And unfortunately, many people in the world—or rather, in the church—come from the world and enter into the economy of the gospel without making that change in their minds. They go on thinking the way the world thinks, but God wants our minds to be transformed, to be changed, when we enter into the gospel. And that is a lifelong process.
But many of us do not even begin it. We remain as we were in the world. We are neither one thing nor the other. And so we are partly carnal and partly spiritual, and it is a terrible confusion. We receive nothing because, as the Apostle James declares, “let the double-minded man not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” A person who is indecisive, unsure, and uncommitted does not accomplish much in the Kingdom of God.
We must define ourselves as men and women of faith. People who reckon with the things of the world according to the laws of the spirit and not the laws of reason.