My Mind? Foolish. God’s Mind? Life.

If God really existed, would you like to know His mind?

Well, He does and Christians can.

Now, I am not saying that believers in Jesus can thoroughly know the mind of God. He is just too immense. For example, He possesses perfect knowledge of everything that occurred at Creation. No one on earth knows the how and workings of this event. Where did all this in which we live and breathe come from? We would have had to been present before Creation to know these things, but since we are created beings, that is clearly not possible. Although this is just one example, it is a very large one.

We could continue. How does the Lord God go about knowing the numbers of the stars? Human beings cannot count them all. Well, if you want to attempt it, go ahead. Inform me when you finalize your results. Even if we could count the ones we can see or detect, we would still fail, because some stars—even galaxies—are too distant. The universe is expanding at the speed of light, so these stars will continue to evade detection.

And how does the Lord God Almighty know about every sparrow that falls? How does He do that? What process does He use to count the number of hairs on everyone’s heads? (And perhaps the unbeliever should ask, ‘Why does He care?’) We are talking about an intelligence—a spiritual intelligence, not an AI computer intelligence—that we just cannot comprehend. I hope you believe me when I tell you that no matter how intelligent computers become, they will fail to do these things.

So, it should be no surprise that this immensely knowledgeable Lord has given us the ability to know His mind in a way we can understand. We can know enough of God’s mind to know the truth, truth that teaches us how to live in Him and with people here, on the earth. How? We can know His mind by reading the words He spoke to and through His prophets and apostles. He spoke to them in words they could understand, and they wrote them down. This is how we know God’s mind—at least enough to live this earthly life.

Knowing God’s mind about this life is not difficult. However, our hearts have been darkened, and our sinful brains reject simple truths, the simplest of which is that God exists (Romans 1:21). At one time in my life, I rejected this truth, as well. If I’d taken the time to look at the creation that flourished around and above me and thought about it, the reality of God would have been difficult to deny. But I was a fool. These are some words from the mind of God: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good” (Psalm 14:1).¹ Now, the word “corrupt” here does not mean the kind of corruption we talk about when a government official is accused of taking bribes. Corrupt here means “ruined,” or “spoiled,” or “decayed.” So, I was being ruined when I denied the existence of God, and that ruin would have continued if He hadn’t graciously rescued me. The word “abominable” carries with it the meanings of “loathsome” and “abhorrent.” Even though I didn’t think this way about myself at all, I was. And, looking back at my life, I cannot help but agree. And, unfortunately, my old sinful self still wants to pull me to ruining, loathsome ways. When I don’t heed the words that God clearly spoke to His prophets and apostles, I leave what I know God’s mind to be. I ignore it. I justify my actions. Please allow me to be brutally honest. Sometimes I love ruin and abomination.

Would you agree that this is foolish?

May the Lord be merciful.

The last part Psalm 14:1 tells us that none of those in this condition can do good. True. How can a man or woman who is decaying and abhorrent perform something good? I mean, a stinking, decaying corpse has nothing to offer but food for fly larvae.

I write this brief look at a verse from Psalm 14 to help us grasp how we can know the mind of God. Believing He exists is the beginning of a process that will keep us from the ways of the fool. Ignoring His words leads us to one place and one place only—decay and abhorrence. There is no other destination. He does not want that for us. He wants to pull us out of a ruinous place, a place akin to a garbage pile on its way to the incinerator.

¹All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Gif courtesy giphy.com