Fortune Cookie Faith

I had finished my egg roll, egg drop soup, and cashew chicken. I poured myself another cup of hot Jasmine tea and opened my fortune cookie. Who knew a blog post would follow?

The little piece of paper hidden inside my cookie held an interesting message. Fortunes usually contain a statement that will be true if the person holding the message makes it come true. I read my fortune that day and wanted to live the message as a truth for my life.

My fortune said: “To think is easy; to act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult of all.”

To think is easy.

According to healthybrains.org, “Your brain is a three pound universe that processes 70,000 thoughts each day using 100 billion neurons that connect at more than 500 trillion points through synapses that travel 300 miles/hour.” It’s a wonder we don’t have a constant headache!

King David praised God saying, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Psalm 139:13–14). 

God created our brains and then caused us to think millions of thoughts each day. Our brains don’t even shut down when we sleep. Thinking is easy because that’s what God created us to do. It’s also why God knew we would need his guidance.

The apostle Paul was mentoring Timothy when he said, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Timothy 2:7). One of the most helpful things we can do for our lives is to think with God’s guidance. We can gain knowledge as we think, but we gain understanding as God applies his wisdom to our thoughts.

To think is easy . . .

To act is difficult

Forbes Magazine published an article about the twenty-five biggest regrets in life. The list confirmed the message I got in my fortune cookie. All of us have millions of thoughts, but our lives are altered by the actions, or inactions, our thoughts produce in our lives.

Forbes Magazine listed these as people’s greatest regrets:

  • Working too much at the expense of family and friendships.
  • Not standing up to bullies in school or in life.
  • Not maintaining friendships.
  • Losing a true love relationship.
  • Worrying what others think too often.
  • Not having confidence.
  • Living the life a parent wants for us, rather than the life we want for ourselves.
  • Not seeking a dream job. Not pursuing joy. Taking life too seriously.
  • Not disconnecting from technology often enough.
  • Not taking fun trips with family and friends.
  • Not healing a broken marriage or friendship.
  • Not trusting the inner voice and allowing other voices to carry too much influence.

A sin occurs when we choose to do wrong. I used to tell my kids that mistakes were normal and we all make them. I didn’t punish my kids for making a mistake. I did, however, punish them if they chose to do something wrong when they knew to do what was right. That’s the difference between a mistake and a sin.

God will never let us “fall” into sin. He will, however, allow us to choose the path that leads to that fall. Our common sense and God’s Spirit will re-direct and warn us before we fall. God doesn’t want us to fall, doesn’t cause us to fall, but he also doesn’t promise to keep us from falling. God made us with a free will and then gave us a mind that would be able to know how to use our free will. 

It’s easy to think about things. Our problem is we don’t always act on the thoughts God provides.

To act as one thinks is the most difficult of all.

There are a LOT of verses that discuss the importance of our actions. The apostle John taught, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). James said, “You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18). King Solomon said, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13–14).

Our three-pound brains create about 70,000 thoughts each day. Many of those thoughts lead to our actions. Our most difficult task begins with our most difficult choice. Paul taught us to, “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). 

If we want to act on our best thoughts we need to remember to think with God. If we want to walk in his ways, we need to obey the voice of Christ, through his Holy Spirit. Godly actions will require us to think with biblical priorities.

None of us will do that often enough. We certainly live in an era of “arguments and lofty opinions.” We also live with constant access to God’s word. We simply have to make the difficult choice to submit every thought to Christ and then obey his direction.

Fortune Cookie Faith

I opened that fortune cookie, read it, and then passed it to my husband. I liked the message and wanted to share it with him. Normally, I would have left that little piece of paper on the table before leaving the restaurant; but that day I took it home.

Sometimes a fortune cookie gives you a message for the moment. Sometimes a fortune cookie becomes a thought, which when submitted to God becomes an action. One of my 70,000 thoughts that day was, “I want to write about this.”

I hope my fortune cookie faith was a blessing to your thoughts today. God wants us to revere his voice and obey his daily direction. It’s our whole duty and it’s our great reward.

That cashew chicken was really good, but God used a fortune cookie to provide his thought that day.

When you aren’t sure what you believe

One of my neighbors has a sign in their yard that is creating discussion among those of us who regularly walk past it. The sign represents what most of our culture now believes. Interestingly, it represents what a LOT of people in our churches also believe. 

It can be a frustration for some of us who teach biblical truth, which is “ancient” thinking. I spent some time thinking about the more current “belief” statements listed on the sign. Why are so many Christians these days struggling to fully believe the word of God? Why are so many doubting Scripture in light of popular beliefs? 

Are you sure you believe everything the Bible says is still true today?

R.C. Sproul was an American preacher who passed away in 2017. He was speaking about the struggles people have with their faith when he said, “The issue of faith is not so much whether we believe in God, but whether we believe the God we believe in.”

If you aren’t sure what you believe, consider asking yourself if you believe what your God has said. Do you still believe the Bible is pure truth? 

What did the neighborhood sign say?

The neighborhood sign identifies what most people believe in our country. The sign reflects the beliefs of the vast majority of those under forty. The sign reads:

WE BELIEVE:

BLACK LIVES MATTER

NO HUMAN IS ILLEGAL

LOVE IS LOVE

WOMEN’S RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS

SCIENCE IS REAL

WATER IS LIFE

INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE

 

Every one of those beliefs sounds like something all people should believe. And that is the problem.

Why should anyone, especially a Christian, take issue with a sign like that? 

I thought a lot about that as I walked. The problem with signs like these is not that they speak lies. Instead, these signs speak only partial truth, usually for a political purpose. The danger of statements like these is they only reveal one layer of thinking. Partial truth is truth minus the consequences. 

What should Christians believe?

EVERY LIFE MATTERS TO GOD.  

John 3:16 begins with the words “For God so loved the world.” Every life matters to God, but in the same breath we must say, “Not every life is acceptable to God.” God gave his Son for everyone, but only some give their lives back to God. 

ALL HUMANS BREAK LAWS BY MAKING ILLEGAL CHOICES. 

Romans 3:23 is clear truth: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Another great truth of Scripture is that human beings needed laws and ultimately needed a Savior because they couldn’t keep the laws that were given. 

GOD IS LOVE (1 John 4:8). 

God’s love is the only perfect love. Christians should believe that love is defined accurately by God because his character is love. If God’s laws label certain expressions of human love or lust as wrong, then it is the humans and their emotions that are wrong. 

WOMEN’S RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS, BUT WOMEN DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO WRONG JUST BECAUSE IT’S THEIR PREFERENCE. 

Politically, this belief statement is a contradiction of the first. Do people really believe that every life matters? Do some lives matter more than others? God loves the world and all of us have rights, including the right to choose wrong. 

SCIENCE IS REAL IF THOSE WHO DEAL WITH CREATION ACKNOWLEDGE THE CREATOR. 

“In the beginning God . . . .” Nothing existed apart from what God created. Nothing exists today that God has not allowed. This world had a beginning and will have an end because God has ordained that. Science is a study of the creation but will never fully comprehend or explain the Creator. 

WATER IS ESSENTIAL TO HUMAN LIFE, BUT JESUS IS ESSENTIAL TO ETERNAL LIFE. 

He told the woman at the well, “But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). 

INJUSTICE IS A THREAT. SO IS PARTIAL TRUTH. 

Our culture feels entitled to live according to personal values and beliefs, but our evening news is a good indicator of why people need higher standards than human standards. We all know John 3:16, but John 3:17 is equally important. This world will never be just; that’s why God sent his Son (John 3:16). Verse 17 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

How can Christians bring unity to our divided culture?

Christians, myself included, need to focus on John 3:17 with an enormous sense of humility. If Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world, we shouldn’t condemn the world either. There was a lot of “condemnation” of that rainbow-colored “belief” sign in our neighbor’s yard. Instead, maybe we should be looking at the common ground. 

Almost all people want our culture to feel kinder, more compassionate, fairer, more educated, more understanding, and a LOT LESS divided. People want to feel safe and want their children to be safe at school. Almost all people are looking for more happiness, joy, and peace with one another.  

Most people would like the values of Christianity, even if they don’t acknowledge them as the values of Christ. Christians are the minority opinion now, but we have a lot in common with most people. Let’s start there and earn the privilege to invite them toward God’s standards of truth. Common ground is a good beginning. So often, Jesus started there. 

John Henry Newman spoke words of wisdom saying, “We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.” R. C. Sproul’s words are worth considering again: “The issue of faith is not so much whether we believe in God, but whether we believe the God we believe in.” 

When you aren’t sure what you believe, believe the God you believe in. He is sovereign because he is perfect. God isn’t as trendy right now as we would wish, but his ancient truth is also eternal. Trust that God’s word is full truth and provides the additional layer of consequence to the partial truth our culture is preaching.

I’ve often said, “If it isn’t fully true, it can’t be of God.” 

We know what to believe when we know Whom to believe.