Faith in Action - Thoughts ...

Monday, August 10, 2009. “Faith in Action” touches important basic questions. How do we live faith? What do we do when we believe in Jesus, in God? Today we have added another keyword: “thoughts”. How does faith influence how we think?

Jesus taught his people that faith is something which changes my whole life. It changes my existence - he spoke about a “new birth”. And he talked about the differences between the “old life” and the “new life”. He talked about thoughts, about words, about emotions and about actions. Everything is influenced and transformed if we walk the “path of faith”.

My thoughts are changed when I follow Jesus. By absorbing his ideas about life, his ideas about priorities, his ideas about what is important, my own ideas and thoughts are transformed. Jesus said that it is crucial that we gain freedom from the bound which bind us within this world. He was talking about the freedom from various desires, from targets to become great, to gain fame, to become rich. He was talking about the love of God which wants to fill our hearts. He was talking about the Spirit of God who wants to come and live in every Christian.

Jesus changes my thoughts about the poeple around me. He loves all these people on earth - all my friends and colleagues, all my enemies, all the people who generate problems either deliberately or accidentally. When I start to share the view of Jesus into our society, my whole world of thought will change dramatically. He sees society as a big vanity fair, where the God's kingdoms of love and the kingdom of lostness fight for power and influence. The Holy Spirit wants to take us into a state where we live in complete truth, full in peace with God and with ourselves, fully in peace with other humans. This peace with others might be a peace which is coming from my side - the others may still fight me. But I will learn how to love my enemies.

Jesus changes my thoughts about my own situation, about my person. I might be frustrated, perhaps I see myself as someone who does not have much (that can happen even when my bank account is quite healthy). But I am so highly appreciated by the eternal God, that all worldly categories of worth will fade in the light of God's love and attention. The same is true for the people around me. We are created as his children, with unbelievable value, everyone of us. We are created to perform our tasks jointly, to help each other, to supplement each other with our gifts and talents, to share what we have. It will change our life if we start to value the people around us as Jesus values them.

Thoughts will lead to actions. Thoughts will change my emotions. Thoughts will change my words. When we change our thoughts everything else will also change. ... more texts