![]() Almost every talk show and reality show is dominated by the focus on feelings. Our television networks today fill their time slots with programs that focus on feelings rather than objective facts. If people in Syria were like the people in our culture today, they would have delighted in seeing Naaman bare his soul on television. You see, these feelings will make a good story back home in Syria because people there are interested in feelings. Perhaps the reporter would have encouraged Naaman’s feelings of anger by the question. Had a news reporter interviewed Naaman, he would have asked the general, “The prophet told you to dip in the river Jordan and not the rivers of Syria. If this person never buys bread, then he can never feel my pain! Does this person know how I feel when I buy a loaf of bread. It had nothing to do with whether the individual was honest or not. I remember a few years ago when a presidential candidate was asked, “How much is a loaf of bread?” The question had nothing to do with being president or serving in political office. The important thing to realize is that our culture today seems to be focused on feelings even more that the culture of Naaman. The lesson for us is that our thinking can also keep us from obeying God and receiving salvation. Had Naaman not reconsidered his beliefs and overlooked his emotions, he would have died a leper. Naaman became offended because of his faulty beliefs about what the prophet ask him to do. Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. This is one of the great lessons in the story of Naaman we talked about this morning. If our thinking is faulty, our feelings and emotions will prevent us from obeying God. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.Ĭ – Consequence of your belief about the event (behavior)ģ) Man’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions can keep us from obeying God.įeelings and emotions are actions the comes from our thoughts or thinking. Luke 6:45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts-murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. Matthew 15:18-19 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. Matthew 12:33-34 Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. I believe this is why God addresses the thoughts of man as well as the behaviors in Isaiah 55:8 (your thoughts…your ways). Our behaviors are the result of what is in our hearts. Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.Ģ) The golden calf in the wilderness (Exodus 32:1-6) This relates to the sin problem recorded in the beginning of the Bible. The point: In general, there is a conflict between the thinking and actions of humankind and that of God. Isaiah tells us that our mind and God’s mind are as different and as far apart as heaven and earth. ![]() The tendency is to follow our thoughts and ways rather than God’s. Until we seek to know the thoughts and ways of God rather than our own, we will not obey God. ![]() There were many times in Israel’s history when they would cry, “Lord, Lord,” but they would not feel compelled to obey God. Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Perhaps of the essence of this message is found in the words of Jesus to the Jews 700 years later: Unless we relate the thoughts and ways of God in verse 8 with the thoughts and ways of men in verse 7, we will miss the sense of the passage and what God wants us to hear. Why does verse 8 talk about the thoughts and ways of God? Because verse 7 talks about the thoughts and ways of evil men. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 7 Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Isaiah 55:6‑9 Seek the Lord while he may be found call on him while he is near.
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