{"id":2733,"date":"2016-02-20T14:29:56","date_gmt":"2016-02-20T19:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=2733"},"modified":"2016-02-20T14:29:56","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T19:29:56","slug":"a-prayer-for-gods-thoughts-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/02\/a-prayer-for-gods-thoughts-2.html","title":{"rendered":"A Prayer for God’s Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMy thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,\u201d says the Lord. \u201cAnd my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.\u201d (Isaiah 55:8)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFor, \u2018Who can know the Lord\u2019s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?\u2019 But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.\u201d (II Corinthians 2:16)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I am not smart enough to live successfully. Don\u2019t smirk; neither are you.<\/p>\n

“Bounded rationality\u201d is the common sense notion that we all make decisions with limited information processed by limited channel capacity in our very limited brains. Bounded rationality dis-illusions our self-reliance; but then, illusions need to be \u201cdissed.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a natural born fool. Which makes it utterly surprising that God would trust me with massive responsibilities: I\u2019m a husband, a father, with a business, a wide scope of relationships, a home, cars, a retirement portfolio, and vision for my future. What was God thinking? Knowing what I know about what I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m tempted to question God\u2019s judgment.<\/p>\n

Then again, these blessings lead me to suspect that God may be up to something shrewd. What if life is a set up for failure? What if God grants leadership that forces me into a bankruptcy of soul and therefore dependence? Here I stumble across the entire purpose of the entire universe. Everything in my life sets the stage for God\u2019s next to last word: \u201cUnderstand this! My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which sets up his last word. When failure forces me to admit my bounded rationality, God responds, \u201cAh, but you also have the mind of Christ.\u201d Catch that? Humility enables me to share in Jesus\u2019 mind and his boundless rationality. Paul\u2019s claim that I have the mind of Christ is ridiculously audacious. Of course my thoughts cannot be God\u2019s thoughts, but his thoughts can be mine! Right inside the three pound lump of mush that is my brain I have Jesus\u2019 thoughts at work.<\/p>\n

Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m considering today what I cannot consider. I\u2019m auditing my incompetencies. I\u2019m embracing my small mindedness and celebrating it in humility. Which is why and how God teaches me to pray. I am on the planet these few years to learn conversational dependence. And that humility with his mind thinking through me allows me to pray with his wisdom, his perspective, his attitude, his insight, his creativity, his logic, his memory, his common sense, and his strategic foresight. I can live beyond myself because he has come to live within me. It\u2019s all too much to fathom. My bounded rationality kicks in; I\u2019m too small to understand it. But my faith gives me access to his boundless strength!<\/p>\n

Response<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cJesus, you are brilliant and wise. When I give you access to my life you give me access to yours. Today I need your way of thinking. I have a challenge or two before me that push me out beyond my pay grade. I can\u2019t think fast enough or clearly enough. But you can and do. Do so now, in me. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Through the day and beyond<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love the simple prayer of Pastor Morris Vaagenes: \u201cI can\u2019t. You can. Please do. Thank you.\u201d Borrow this through the day and begin to think very differently!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cMy thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,\u201d says the Lord. \u201cAnd my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.\u201d (Isaiah 55:8) \u201cFor, \u2018Who can know the Lord\u2019s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?\u2019 But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.\u201d (II Corinthians 2:16) I am not smart enough…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,7,4,25,3,1],"tags":[1615,1614,1334,705,1064,225],"class_list":["post-2733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-bible-prayer","category-daily-prayer","category-god","category-jesus","category-prayer","category-uncategorized","tag-audacious-prayers","tag-bounded-rationality","tag-gods-thoughts","tag-humility","tag-the-mind-of-christ","tag-wisdom"],"yoast_head":"\nA Prayer for God's Thoughts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/02\/a-prayer-for-gods-thoughts-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Prayer for God's Thoughts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cMy thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,\u201d says the Lord. \u201cAnd my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.\u201d (Isaiah 55:8) \u201cFor, \u2018Who can know the Lord\u2019s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?\u2019 But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.\u201d (II Corinthians 2:16) I am not smart enough…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/02\/a-prayer-for-gods-thoughts-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-20T19:29:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark and Jill Herringshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Prayer for God's Thoughts","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/02\/a-prayer-for-gods-thoughts-2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Prayer for God's Thoughts","og_description":"\u201cMy thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,\u201d says the Lord. \u201cAnd my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.\u201d (Isaiah 55:8) \u201cFor, \u2018Who can know the Lord\u2019s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?\u2019 But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.\u201d (II Corinthians 2:16) I am not smart enough…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/02\/a-prayer-for-gods-thoughts-2.html","og_site_name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","article_published_time":"2016-02-20T19:29:56+00:00","author":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/02\/a-prayer-for-gods-thoughts-2.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/02\/a-prayer-for-gods-thoughts-2.html","name":"A Prayer for God's Thoughts","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-02-20T19:29:56+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-20T19:29:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/29563cda917dd596f93dba2ff3a7fedf"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/02\/a-prayer-for-gods-thoughts-2.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/02\/a-prayer-for-gods-thoughts-2.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/02\/a-prayer-for-gods-thoughts-2.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Prayer for God’s Thoughts"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/","name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","description":"Prayer, Daily Prayer, Simple Prayers, Quick Prayers, Prayer Requests","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/29563cda917dd596f93dba2ff3a7fedf","name":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/94f\/94fb184ea80985d82e603e3d8dd0056bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/94f\/94fb184ea80985d82e603e3d8dd0056bx96.jpg","caption":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw"},"description":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw and their four children have been ministering in their local church since 1990. 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