In my last post, I shared about trying to use the “Mind of Christ” (2 Cor. 2:16) while a short term missionary in Jamaica. Here are some other thoughts about our “Mind of Christ” as Christians.
Unfortunately, we can often get the wrong idea about this blessing. We might think it means:
- I’ll always know why things happen and why God is moving in a certain way.
- I should always be able to see a good result if God is leading.
- I should be able to control my circumstances and the evil in this world with my prayers (and that includes other people’s actions nd decisions).
- I won’t ever make a mistake if I’m being led by God and walking in His will for me.
- When good things don’t result from my good choices, it must mean I didn’t make the right choice to begin with.
These faulty perceptions about living the Christian life bring discouragement, doubt, hurt, and even anger. We begin to question whether we ever had the wisdom of God or were being led by Him.
Regardless of these imperfections, God will indeed fulfill His purpose of glorifying Himself and fulfilling His plan.
J.I. Packer writes in Knowing God,
For the truth is that God in His wisdom, to make and keep us humble and to teach us to walk by faith, has hidden from us almost everything that we should like to know about the providential purposes which He is working out in the churches and in our own lives. “As thou knowest not what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child; even so thou knowest not the work of God who doeth all” (Ecc. 11:5 RV).
Someone has said, “It doesn’t matter how much money you have; everyone has to buy wisdom on the installment plan.” Having the Mind of Christ is also learned on the installment plan: little by little, with experience, and sometimes disappointment and confusion.
But the sweet fruit of wisdom does grow.