John 15:12-27 | What am I going to do about it?

The pressures of this world often make us have valuation errors. Certain things that are incredibly valuable lose their value to things that simply are not valuable in the slightest. Modern marketing techniques understand this all too well. They understand that you will be more inclined to buy their products if you are made discontent with any other product. It is how the human mind works. We tend to want what is best. Or so we think. All the enemy has to do is sow discontentment or make us think other things have greater value than they do in order to get us to go off track.

The issue I see I am having is one of valuation. It is easy to place too high of a value on other people's thoughts toward me and devalue the thoughts of God towards me. Something the Lord has had to correct me on was a subtle belief that the thoughts of God toward me would always be negative. In that being the case, it devalued God's thoughts as simply being settled. I couldn't change His thoughts toward me, but I could change other's thoughts toward me. So what do I focus on? Other people.

As the Lord has corrected things in me, I have had to realize the value in the thoughts of God toward me and recognize the clear teaching that I can in fact be pleasing to God. The blood of Jesus has made me pure and righteous in the sight of God, so His thoughts toward me are good thoughts. I want to stay in that and walk worthy of the calling with which I was called. This is a healthy mindset for the believer. I don't want to get caught in the trap of thinking I cannot please the Lord. So now that is in order, then comes the part of putting proper value on the thoughts of men. Scripture ultimately teaches that in comparison to the thoughts of God toward us, the thoughts of men are utterly worthless.

How does this work as far as application is concerned? I think it is a flaw in our understanding of application that thinks we have to do something. An application that affects the change of mind is critical to what flows afterward. We cannot be fruit focused. My application looks like building upon the foundation of the word of God and heeding to truth. It looks like being fully convinced that the thoughts of God are far more valuable than that of man. Living out of the place of faith in that is what needs to be happening.

What application are you taking from this?