Psalms 107:43 says: Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the LORD.
The fact that our quiet times are about fellowship with God, sharing our innermost questions, desires and needs with him and listening to his comforting, loving and directing voice, does not mean that we should leave our brains, our thought-processes, our learning abilities and our insights outside our innermost holy place where we consider who our gracious, almighty God really is!
As much as we fully commit our hearts, emotions and passions in considering God, we should also commit our ability to concentrate and understand to our personal devotional time, through which we enhance our intimate relationship with the Lord! The ancient Church leaders called on us to contemplate God. If "contemplate" is not part of your regular vocabulary, use consider! Consider is a word that the Holy Scriptures use!
Psalm 107 is a psalm that recounts the history of God's dealings with Israel. The call to consider God's love comes at the end of the psalm.
In Psalm 8 the psalmist considers the wonders of the heavens and everything God has made, thinking about God’s greatness and the strange truth that mankind is more important to God than any of the natural wonders.
In Psalm 119 we are called many times to consider God's wise commandments.
In Isaiah 41:20 we are called to consider God's greatness compared to the futility of idols.
Jeremiah calls people to consider their ways in the light of God's awesomeness (2:19).
Jesus reminds us to consider the beauty of the lilies and thus learn about God's provision.
In Romans 11:22 we are urged to consider both the kindness and strictness of God.
In Hebrews 12:3 we are urged to consider the example of Christ in the face of hardship.
We are to think about God! We are to think about his remarkable works of creation and his sustenance of everything, including ourselves!
Most of all we need to think about what the coming of God to us in Jesus Christ means: God’s anger about our sins that Jesus carried, God’s grace by which we are forgiven in Christ, God’s power by which we are enabled to win through the resurrection power of our Lord and with faith consider the implications of God’s call to surrender to him – he who owns all authority in heaven and on earth.
We are to think about the meaning of being filled with the Holy Spirit and that the Spirit enables us to follow the example of God’s Son. We are to think about God with our brains awake and sharpened. We are to consider his revelations in nature, in Scripture and most of all in Jesus Christ, and in honesty and in awe conclude that God is good and that we are saved and safe!
Apply this truth during your personal time with God: Engage your brain’s contemplations with your heart’s passions!
Soul seeking personal worship, engaged with our intellectual considerations, results in complete surrender of heart and mind to Christ.
And Worship plus Consideration equals Contemplation!
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