Day 3 – I Want Futile Thinking and a Foolish, Darkened Heart – Julie Earl

Romans 1:21-22

No one simply wakes up one day and says, “I want futile thinking and a foolish, darkened heart!” Since this isn’t typically a conscious decision to allow your heart to become foolish and darkened, how does a person get to that point? Romans 1:21-22 answers that question. “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools….”

Two things will make our thinking useless and our hearts foolish and darkened: #1 – Not glorifying God, and #2 – Not thanking God

In order to have wise thinking and light-filled hearts, we need to glorify God and thank Him! I’ve been a believer for 41 years, and I love Jesus passionately, but I need to grow in both these areas. Let’s look at how we can better glorify God and thank God.

Glorify God

The Mirriam-Webster online dictionary says we make glorious by “bestowing honor….”

We honor God by trusting Him and obeying what He says to do – His written and His spoken words to us. When we ignore what He says and say “no” to His promptings and His will, we are choosing not to honor and glorify God. But when we say “yes” to his promptings and His loving will for us, we are showing Him honor and glorifying His name!

“Magnify” is a synonym for glorify, and when we magnify something we make it larger in our sight. We need to magnify God in our sight and make Him the biggest thing in our vision every day. When the devil tempts us to focus on our problems, we need to pull out our magnifying glass and hold it on Jesus’ face. We need to fix our eyes on Jesus, and His wisdom and love will permeate the situation. Our thinking will turn from futility and our hearts will turn from the enemy’s darkness and lies to God’s light and truth.

Thank God

“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 KJV). It’s easy to gripe and complain, but God’s will is for us to give thanks. Why? Because He knows our hearts will be filled with His light, love and wisdom when we stay in an attitude of gratitude no matter the circumstances.

In everything that happens in our lives, we choose to stay grateful and walk in God’s light and love, or to gripe and complain and walk in the enemy’s gloom, darkness, despair and futility.

Now when we wake up every morning we can say, “I want wise, truthful thinking and a light, love-filled heart so I choose to glorify, magnify, honor, praise and thank God no matter what irritations and frustrations come my way today!”

We’d love to hear any insights the Lord gave you from Romans chapter one or anything else you want to share in relation to this study in the book of Romans!

Have a wonderful day in Jesus’ love for you!

Julie Earl with Crazy About You Ministries (CAYM)