Have you ever wondered what the most important part of the Christian mind-set is?    In the past few months I have read two men of God who have said very similar things in regarding this question. 

The Apostle Paul in several New Testament books places a strong emphasis on our thinking.   He speaks of the process of the renewal of our minds.  He instructs us to have this mind in us.   He further cajoles us to take every thought captive, and to be of the same mind.  Paul seemed to understand that we are or soon will be what we think in our heart of hearts.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his book Revival, writes concerning this matter.  His context is Exodus chapter 33 where Moses asked God to see His glory.   God responded with the promise that He would make all of His goodness pass before Moses.   Dr. Lloyd-Jones asserts that God gave Moses what he needed most, namely, the knowledge of the character of God.  He goes further to state: “our supreme need is a knowledge of the character of God.  It is an astonishing thing to have to say, but it is nevertheless the truth, that all of our troubles in the Christian life ultimately arise from our ignorance of the Character of God.”

A.W. Tozer in his classic book The Knowledge of the Holy reflects related to our aforementioned question concerning the most important part of the Christian mind-set with this succinct statement: “What comes to our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

The Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians Chapter 2 instructing them and us to:

³ Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself;
⁴ do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.    

Here Paul seems to position both selfishness and conceit as opposite of humility where all three reside primarily in the mind.   We also understand that selfishness and conceit are destructive in contrast to humility which is productive.   This is clearly taught as Paul details the example of humility which was lived out by Jesus.

It seems that perhaps there is a relationship between a proper or more fully developed understanding of the character of God and a mind that is moving persistently in the direction of humility.   Conceivably we should put forward the possibility that without a clear-cut quantity of humility we will fail to grasp a good deal of the true nature and character of God.

Could this be correlated to God’s instruction to Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:14 where God says first we must humble ourselves then pray.   Dr. Lloyd-Jones proposes that revival, the healing of our land, is in reality God making all of His goodness pass before His church.  No doubt in revival we will to a greater extent see God’s glory.   Therefore we must humble ourselves and pray and seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways, then God will hear from heaven, forgive our sins and heal our land.  Father show us Your Glory!