Second Sunday of Advent
December 9, 2007
"May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
- Romans 15:5

What are you thinking? This is a critical question to always have before us because of all that proceeds from our thought life. What thoughts are we sowing? It is the thoughts that we sow that reap actions. If we continue to sow the same thoughts this can lead to repeated actions and habits which leads to character which ultimately defines our destiny. It is fair to say that our lives are about the battle of the mind and the way we are thinking.

King David in the Old Testament comes to mind. He had seen the beautiful Bathsheba and began to lust after her in his thinking. Bathsheba was not his to have but he chose in his thinking to have her even though it was a great sin. His thoughts of adultery with her occurred in his mind before that they happened with his body. The origin of the battle was with his mind and thinking.

In Romans 12:2 we have incredibly important instructions regarding our thinking, "Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may judge what is God’s will, what is good, pleasing and perfect."" Applying this verse to King David, God's will would have not been for him to commit adultery. Sin never brings harmony with one another in keeping with Christ Jesus. King David’s thinking was obviously not transformed by God. He went with the unredeemed thinking of the flesh and not the life giving thinking of Christ which led to a lot of pain.

What are you thinking? All your thoughts should be compared to the mind and thinking of Christ. And whatever thinking we have that is not transformed and conformed to the mind of Christ needs to be. The essential concern we should have is to think the way Jesus thinks whose aim it is to bring us to the fullness of life. Remember, everything flows from our thinking. That means we must dig and seek and search in order to find out what Jesus is thinking. Prayers, scripture, church teachings, listening to the saints and holy ones etc. help us to be conformed and transformed by the thinking of Christ.

As we think according to the mind of Christ and thus act, the glory of God will thunder through us.

We are infinitely blessed!

+ Fr. John