There is so much to be said for meditating on what we learn in the Word of God and then using critical thinking skills to translate what God is doing in us. Some call it heart faith. Dutch Sheets calls it, nurturing the seeds of faith in his book, “How to Pray for Lost Loved Ones”. This is important to the believer for true transformation of the heart.

Critical Thinking

When critical thinking meets meditation we can have a powerful explosion of growth, maturity and possibly evangelism as we get fired up about what now has been revealed to us. Like a cow chewing the cud, it goes up and down until the digestion is complete. The same is with the Word. We renew our minds, meditate on it and then it goes back to our minds for critical thinking or the reasoned process.

The Ruled Mind

Human beings can learn a massive amount of information but what we do with that information is what makes the difference. We can have what some call mental assent instead of real heart faith. Jesus says:

Matthew 12:33-34
 ³³“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. ³⁴“You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.

Mental assent or the ruled mind agrees with the Word of God but in crisis it does not work. The work of grace and maturity is a journey. Jesus Christ, the hope of glory is ever growing in us ever increasing as we allow Him room to take what is in our heads and make it life to us in our hearts.

True Faith and Heart Change

Hebrews 5:11-13

¹¹Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. ¹²For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. ¹³For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. ¹⁴But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

This scripture talks about the teachings or word of righteousness. This refers to a changed heart. In other words you still want us to tell you what is good and bad since you do not have a renewed or changed heart.  This change comes when it is written on the hearts of men through revelation of the Word whether experiential or spiritual. Meditation and true rest in the Lord is a powerful tool in this process with Holy Spirit (Josh 1:8, Ps 1:2, Rom 10:17, Rom 12:1-2). A renewed heart desire to know good from evil from the heart now and flows out of love. The difference is when it is on tablets so that the mind will be ruled by the law (1 Corin 3:1-5).

George Muller says that we should read the Word and meditate on it. As we do this we become better acquainted with God’s character and nature. This is beyond justice and holiness. We begin to see the love, grace, mercy, might, wisdom and faithfulness.

The combination of meditation and critical thinking helps us to see God’s character more clearly, and can transform our hearts and renew our minds in a powerful way as we yield to the Holy Spirit. This can be a quick process or a long one. The main idea is to rest or trust Holy Spirit to lead us into all Truth as we are growing in our faith. When crisis or tests come and we are found wanting, we need go to the Lord and corporate with the process. He is faithful and will not test us beyond what we can bear.

Be encouraged.
Read, meditate and rest.

Rest is good. It gives our spirits time to catch up with what God is showing our minds and often helps in the process of writing the revelation on our hearts.