Lately, the Lord has been helping me to take more and more control of my thought life. Of late, He has been giving me freedom from what I like to call 'vain imaginations'. So this morning I was doing some additional research into this type of thinking and came across two scriptural references that are related. I looked up "vain imaginations" and it is from Romans 1:21 KJV: "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
The other verse that includes vain thinking if in Philippians 2:3-4 NIV: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, [4] not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others."
As I dug into the original Greek , I found it interesting that words translated vain in these two verses have a couple of different roots. The Greek Word translated vain conceit, is "Kenodoxia" and it means vain glory, groundless, self esteem, empty pride. The focus is on empty or fruitless, as in 'they tried in vain'. The Greek words translated in the KJV as vain imaginations are "Mataioo" meaning empty, vain or foolish and "Dialogismos" meaning the thinking of a man deliberating with himself, internally. I guess they basically mean the same thing, empty internal thoughts or concerns about oneself. The key is that they are fruitless and self focused. For me the only fruit they bear is temptation and sin generally, as they lead me down paths of pride and selfishness, neither of which is blessed by the Lord.
It works this way in my life. I imagine that people are looking at me, talking about me, noticing me for an endless number of reasons, most of which are quite ridiculous. It might be the car I am driving, its either good looking, or dirty and so I think people are thinking about me, as I am driving it. How often do we think about the other people we see driving, and how often is that thought more than a momentary judgment on their driving ability? Other times it is based on my appearance, my clothes, or hair, of carriage, and I think people are noticing me, thinking about me, or talking about me. Again, if I am grocery shopping, how often do I spend time thinking about others? If I do, its related to how I think they are thinking about me, and really for almost no other reason. It is this crazy self-focused perspective that takes me out of connection with the Father, because I am listening to my own empty thoughts, rather than listening to Him. Ultimately it is fruitless (for the Kingdom) thinking that only causes me to have anxiety or pride, and neither is beneficial to me. I could go on and on, as there is seemingly no end to the different imaginations I have about myself.
My desire is to become more like the Lord, and learn to listen to the Father at all times. Jesus demonstrated this in His life as a human, which means its possible for me to do as well. Listening to the Lord, grounds us in His perspective, rather than in our selfish perspective. We can have imaginations, but they are based on His call and invitations to relationship and Kingdom service. He desires that we have dreams and visions for our future, but wants them to line up with His purpose and His relationship in our lives. Sometimes He releases dreams and prophetic words over our lives to help us focus our thinking and imaginations. He wants our thoughts to bear good fruit, not empty conjecture, anxiety or pride.
I can remember, as a child, playing games, like baseball, basketball or other pursuits. Part of my thinking was how great I could be, re-enacting last minute heroics, and such! That was all good for a child, as God wants us to have hopes and dreams. As an adult, the Lord actually has even higher thoughts than those about us, for He sees us from His eternal perspective and sees all that we are capable of doing, in Him, and it is far greater than the momentary glory of a game winning last basket. We have in us the ability to effect eternal change, to walk in His authority and Power, to wage spiritual warfare, to bring healing and deliverance, to release life changing power, and He wants us thinking about those things!
So this morning, I am encouraged to recognize those empty lines of thinking and stop them before I get started. I want to think about things that will bear good fruit! I want to learn to listen to the Lord, and to do that I need to stop my own talking (internally). Lord, I pray that you will open my eyes to how You see me, open my ears to hear what You have to say to me and about me, and learn to rid myself of my vain imaginations!
Amen!
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