Friday, November 16, 2012

The Thought-Life Sanctuary


“God tells us to make a sanctuary of our thoughts in which He can dwell.”
— A. W. Tozer (1897–1963)
The absolute pivoting centre of a Christian’s life is their heart sacrosanct and owned by God—a heart kept with all vigilance, through which acts of all kinds of obedience spring (Proverbs 4:23).
From the heart, thoughts come. When the heart is appropriately founded upon and centred in Christ, there is a thought-life sanctuary created. Such a sanctuary is safety of solidarity and stability; a rich devotional life. From the heart, thoughts come, apportioned to their source.
What is nurtured inwardly springs forth outwardly (Matthew 12:34).
The Thought-Life As a Sanctuary
There are two interacting facets of the A. W. Tozer quote, above. By conforming our thoughts to Christ we invite the Holy Spirit to dwell at peace within us. Only in conforming our thoughts to Christ will the Holy Spirit choose to dwell. There cannot be a home for holiness within a morally ignorant, crude and unrepentant vessel.
When we do something the Holy Spirit does something also.
By keeping certain that our cognitive space is sacrosanct—for the Lord’s use and access alone—we are graced with the congruence of heart and mind aligned. We are keeping our hearts pure, and our minds, therefore, have a poignant clarity about them.
This is God’s blessing. How can we be any better blessed than by the provision of a beautifully clear mind, able to think, to reason, to create, to care, and to discern?
The mind that has learned the practice of keeping the thought-life as a sanctuary for God alone to embellish is the nerve centre behind the joyous and abundant life.
Even further, when we partition life in ways that we can protect the source of our joy and abundance, we sustain the blessing—the gift given of God.
Enjoying God’s Presence In Our Minds and Hearts
God is the most personal prize by his Presence. When the Lord dwells in us through the Holy Spirit, we have a resplendence about us, in that life is purposeful, meaningful, and satisfying—even without cause for the pain our situations bring sometimes.
Sometimes we enjoy God significantly in the presence of others, but the prize of God’s Presence in our minds and hearts transcends the need of others. We are taking God with us everywhere. Wherever we go, there God is also.
Enjoying God’s Presence in our minds and hearts is available at our alignment to things of the Divine.
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Our thoughts are most precious. When we guard our hearts with vigilance, the Holy Spirit makes a home within us to dwell.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.

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