“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.”Isa. 60 (continuation from last week to awake)
“If thou prepare thine heart,”Job 11 (to me part of preparing my heart is watching the door of thought to keep it in line with God)
“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober,”1 Peter 1
(with minds that are alert; think clearly and exercise self-control; prepare your minds for action; girded with temperance; be perfectly attentive) This line from this week’s Bible lesson corresponds perfectly with our last Sunday Roundtable discussion on Genesis 2 and 3-regarding watching our thoughts. The story was broken down to alert us to how we can drift into negative ungodlike thinking. (below is my take away from Sunday’s class)
Story of Adam: evil suggestions start mildly then become aggressive:
1st: the mist (obscuring vision, darkness) where we start questioning, ruminating and entertaining error
2nd: the mist leads us into a deep sleep, a heavy human sense of things
3rd: then the material birth in which man is believed to be a creator(of children, home, work, etc.), me myself and I centered, thinking you did things, rather than God. Leads to the lie that you are getting along just fine without God.
4th: the talking serpent appears, you will listen and accept lies as truth
5th: tempted to eat fruit of tree of double mindedness, belief in good and evil, disobedience to God then justify which leads to blame, shame, fear
6th: doomed to till the soil, be miserable, this did not just happen suddenly but came with a falling away (thought obscured from God) God is always there we just don’t see Him. Here you limit yourself saying this is your lot in life.
The discussion reminded us that the grandeur your true heritage is daughter and son of King, Father Mother God. God fashions all things after his own likeness which we must claim!
The point was made to catch these lies and negative thoughts and stop them! If feeling heavy chances are these thoughts came before. It is never loo late to turn around.