Think It Over

In light of our holiday festivities and travels I haven't had time to write but I have been reading! Here's a quote from "Think" by John Piper that fits my current thought processes. Enjoy!

"Recall that in 2 Timothy 2:7 Paul says, 'Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.' So many people swerve off the road to one side of this verse or the other. Some stress 'Think over what I say.' They emphasize the indispensable role of reason and thinking. And they often minimize the supernatural role of God in making the mind able to see and embrace the truth. Others stress the second half of the verse: 'for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.' They emphasize the futility of reason without God's illumining work.

But Paul will not be divided that way. And I am writing this book to plead that we follow Paul in this - that we not swerve to the right or the left, but embrace both human thinking and divine illumination. For Paul it was not either-or, but both-and. 'Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.' Notice the little word for. This is one of those crucial connecting words that makes us ask the question; Why is it here? It beckons us to ponder.

This word 'for' means that the willingness of God to give us understanding is the ground of our thinking, not the substitute for it. Paul does not say, 'God give you understanding, so don't waste your time thinking over what I say.' Nor does he say, 'Think hard over what I say because it all depends on you, and God does not illumine the mind.' No. He emphatically makes God's gift the ground of our effort. He makes God's giving light the reason for our pursuing light. 'Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding.'

There is no reason to believe that a person who thinks without prayerful trust in God's gift of understanding will get it. And there is no reason to believe that a person who waits for God's gift of understanding without thinking about his Word will get it either. Both-and. Not either-or."

~~~excerpt taken from John Piper's book entitled "Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God" on pages 64-65
~~~emphasis on last paragraph is mine