I read an intriguing verse today in Isaiah 10:7.  When I read the Bible at home, I read the New Living Translation.  I love its clarity.  Here is the verse with that fascinating turn of phrase: “But the king of Assyria will not understand that he is my tool; his mind does not work that way.”  Think of that phrase, “his mind does not work that way.”

God is dealing with the children of Israel.  They needed the chastisement that God would bring to correct their rebellion and bring them to turn back to Him.  Our sovereign God moved the King of Assyria to act as His instrument.  In the king’s arrogance, he had no place in his mind to entertain the thought that anything else was going on accept him, acting on his own…the master of his own fate…forging destiny as a one off.  That is hubris.  That is arrogance.  Oh sure, we are responsible agents of choice.  But in our pride, we can feign these autonomous lives. 

We shape our minds how we desire.  We wrap our worlds around our vision of what is good and ought to be.  Our ambitions often determine the footpaths of our decisions.  Of course, we make our decisions; and then, our decisions make us.  We train our mind to work the way it does.

The gospel Christian begins with new birth.  Then, we spend the rest of our lives renewing our minds and training our minds to think in God’s kind of ways (Romans 12:1-3).  We absorb God’s thoughts and what He has revealed about Himself.  That absorption begins to make our minds work in particular ways.  How does your mind work? 

The king of Assyria had no room in his mind for any thought that did not contain himself at the center.  It was all his doings.  He was a lone actor.  He had no vision to humble himself before the sovereign One who was orchestrating the whole action and accomplishing His own plans through the king’s hubris. 

God is big.  We are small, O, so small.  To hold that thought in our mind is a start to learn to have our minds “work that way.”  How does your mind work?  How does mine?

God is so great and so infinite in His wisdom and planning, that He even uses the rebel’s vain thoughts to achieve His ends.  I can rest in that kind of a world, notwithstanding its turbulence.

The G7 met this week.  The USA-Iran deal was signed.  Musk is a trillionaire.  Russia and Ukraine now sustain a war that is longer than World War I.  On history moves.  “Why are the nations so angry?  Why do they waste their time with futile plans?…But the one who rules in heaven laughs.”  Psalm 2:1,4.  A mind working in Psalm 2 kinds of ways has peace.  We rest in God’s sovereign care.  We keep our eyes open as we live understanding that God is at work accomplishing things that we could never imagine…through us. 

Let’s humble our minds before Almighty God and work hard at training our minds to work that way.  It is a mind stayed on such things that is a mind given to the thrill of living and the wonder of such a great God taking notice of us, and accomplishing His plans through us…even when we cannot discern the action.  What a great God!  What a peace-inducing conviction. 

Onward to the work of training our minds to work…that way.  O the glory of a renewed mind, thinking God thoughts after Him.  O, the discipline required to develop a mind that is reflectively reconstructive of God’s own.  It’s a lifelong adventure, simultaneous with being a peace inducing pursuit.