When I was a young Christian, I thought a lot about God as I was reading and trying to learn about this new faith I had entered. My personality is such that I like to categorize and analyze. So I was very content with abstract concepts of omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence to think about God.  When I would try to describe God to others using these concepts, I would say things like God is so knowledgeable, he knows your deepest, darkest sins. Or God is so powerful, he could wipe away the entire universe with just a blink. Or God is everywhere at once, so he sees everything you do in secret, even when no one is around. In hindsight, using such destructive and negative examples spoke more about who I was than about God.

I also spent time reflecting on God’s moral attributes such as love, holiness, mercy, justice and goodness. But again, I would usually focus on the darker aspects. I would say God loves us so much that he forgives us and has mercy on all of our sins even when we deserve to die and go to hell for them. Or only God is good while humans are wicked and deserve his justice. Or God is so holy and hates sin so much he can’t stand to be in its presence.

Over the 40 or so years since becoming a Christian, my thinking about God has improved. But some of the darker thoughts continued. I was convinced about God’s goodness, mercy, love and power. But what if he chose to treat me differently?

I would read in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well,” and think “What if God doesn’t provide these things? I mean there are a lot people in this world that lack basic necessities.”

Or I would read in Romans 8:38-39 that nothing in creation is able to separate me from God’s love. But then I would think “That’s easy for Paul to say. But what about that particular sin I can’t seem to overcome?”

Thoughts that questioned God’s goodness and love were always lingering in the back of my mind. I knew God loved the world and wanted his good for us. Yet I couldn’t help think I might somehow be excluded. Perhaps for me, there was some sort of “catch” to God’s love. I didn’t realize how much these negative thoughts about God filled me with fear and anxiety. I felt I was always one misstep from hardship and loss, one mistake from slipping through God’s fingers, one blunder from tragedy.

In Romans 12:2, Paul famously says we are to “be transformed by the renewing of [our] mind.” In Colossians 3:10, Paul says our new self is “being renewed in the image of the creator, bringing you into possession of new knowledge.” Our minds are renewed with new knowledge of God. Our thoughts about God, and the accompanying feelings those thoughts create, preserve the vision we need to thrive in God’s kingdom as Jesus’ apprentices.

Here’s a good example. In Philippians 2:5, Paul encourages the apprentices in Philippi, “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” He then proceeds to describe how Jesus didn’t consider equality with God to be used for his advantage, but became nothing, a servant. What were Jesus’ thoughts and attitude toward God that enabled him to do this? It was his knowledge of the Father. Jesus knew his Father. That knowledge, along with the accompanying thoughts and feelings that knowledge inspired, poised him to live confidently as a servant and to give himself fully to God and others.

Here’s a wonderfully insightful description of Jesus’ knowledge and thoughts by Dallas Willard:

“To live and lead like Jesus we need to think like Jesus. He knew who he was speaking of. He knew to whom he was introducing others. He knew Elohim’s capabilities, purposes, and priorities. Jesus knew and acted on the fact that Yahweh is limitless, boundless, and unrestrained in power, grace, mercy, peace, joy, hope, and love. All things are possible. All things. Jesus knew his Father’s name, and he knew when to invoke it to do his will, creatively, adventurously, and joyfully, for himself, for the well-being of others, and ultimately for the entire world.” –The Divine Conspiracy Continued: Fulfilling God’s Kingdom On Earth

I remember reading another quote by Willard that opened my mind to the possibility of new thoughts about God. It was his definition of joy. I used to think joy was simply a more intense form of happiness. So, when I read Paul’s encouragement to “Rejoice always,” I thought he meant I needed to make myself happy by thanking God for what he’s done for me regardless of the tragedy, suffering, or loss I was currently experiencing. I think it goes without saying that this didn’t work most of the time and I would feel guilty that I wasn’t doing it correctly.

But then I read Willard’s definition. “Joy is a positive outlook of hopefulness based upon a pervasive, overall sense of well-being.” I know this sounds melodramatic, but that single thought broke profound shackles in my thinking about God. It freed me to begin exploring a different way of thinking about God. It allowed me to begin exploring the idea that I’m really safe in God; that God’s love and goodness will actually prevail in any and every situation; and that while I may experience pain, tragedy and loss, I am protected from harm and that everything is ultimately redeemable. 

I honestly cannot express how much this one thought has impacted my life. I’m learning that I truly can live in constant joy — the pervasive, overall sense of well-being. I’m learning that this joy is equally at home in times filled with sorrow and pain as in times filled with gladness and delight. This thought has helped me to deal with issues like anxiety, anger, discontentment, and jealousy.

I recently heard a lecture by Willard where he says, “If you want to get rid of anger as a burden, you have to understand that the care of God goes past any harm that people can do to you.” That has proven to be very true.

This isn’t a Stoic idea of “focus on what I can control and accept what I can’t control”. Far from it. This is joy! This is one of God’s virtues. God is joy. And that joy underlies how he thinks about himself, his world, and you! The creation of the cosmos was an act of delight and joy. Creating you was an act of unqualified joy. God takes great delight in you and rejoices over you. You are well in him. 

So let’s try on some of these thoughts about God:

• God created you as an act of boundless goodness. You and your whole life is a good thing. You are a gift from God and he takes great delight in you. There is no limit to the goodness of God’s inten­tions for you or his power to carry them out.

• God knows everything about you because he adores you so much. Like a parent lovingly counting the fingers and toes of their little child, God lovingly counts the hair on your head. He delights in all of the little details about who you are. 

• God is able to do more than we can possibly imagine. He is poised to do incredible good for you and through you. And he wants to share that ability with you. He wants to form you into the kind of person that he can empower to do what you want through eternity in his vast creation.

• God is present with you all the time because he loves being with you. He is closer to you than your next breath. He is as close to you as the air that touches your skin. He eagerly waits for you to wake up every morning so he can spend the day being and talking with you.

• God permeates his creation. His presence makes his world beautiful and good. He knows every aspect of his creation and can easily control it. Every thing and every event is filled with his glorious presence. Therefore, this world is a perfectly safe place to be.

Some of these thoughts may seem far-fetched due to our darkened thinking. But they are rooted in a knowledge of God shared by Jesus, Paul and the other New Testament writers. And as this knowledge renews our minds, it can transform our thinking and feeling, and ultimately our daily living. These new thoughts can enable us to have the mindset of Christ and to be poised to do good to God and others like him.