How God Thinks

Isaiah 55.8

Sermon by Dr Peter Masters

How vastly different God’s thoughts are from ours! Here is what He thinks about our indifference to Him and about showing mercy and love to us by sending an atoning Saviour. Here also is a comparison of God’s views and ours on matters that decide our eternal calling.

‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.’

And our subject is broadly ‘how God thinks.’ I do remember looking at this text about four years ago, but really to examine some of the things deeply into the chapter. And now I’d just like to think about God’s thoughts and how they compare with our thoughts.

God has thoughts. Of course, the Bible must accommodate to our limited human understanding. And even when speaking of Almighty God, it must sometimes use descriptions and terms which are not exactly right, but to help us to understand. God, it says, has thoughts, just as we have thoughts. But right at the beginning, we must ‘distinguish’ God’s thoughts – it means or relates to the making of plaits, such as someone may wear in their hair, or weaving things together. God has thoughts, a weaving of ideas together. But God’s thoughts, well, they’re above this description really. Because while we have current weaving of our thoughts, thinking things out, figuring things out, forming ideas and opinions and reactions, God doesn’t work like that.

All his opinions or his views, if we can call them that, always have been. God’s thoughts are infinite. They are so numerous. They are beyond human comprehension. And he never thought them out. He always had them. His thoughts, his knowledge is intuitive, perfect, massive, comprehensive, and unchanging. So you see, the idea of calling God’s thoughts ‘thoughts’ doesn’t really do justice to him as he is described in the scripture. It’s to help us to see that God has a personal being. And he thinks, although he thinks on an altogether different scale from us, he’s so wise. His thoughts are so complete and far reaching.