My Way vs God's Way

“Than you no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding” (Eph. 4:17-18)

When Jesus said, “Don’t use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do,” (Matt. 6:7), He was referring to the content of their praying.

Think with me for a moment. Do you know of anywhere in the Bible, where Christians are encouraged or commanded to empty their minds? We are told to “renew” our minds (Rom. 12:2), and of course this occurs when we stop being conformed to the pattern of the world, and flush out the bad thoughts with godly thoughts from the Word itself. Renewing is hardly an endorsement to empty our minds.

Over in the Book of Philippians, Paul told the saints there that whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, good repute. . .let your mind think on these things (Philip. 4:8).

God desires for His people to fill their minds with His Word. Our minds are flushed when we replace the old with the new. But that’s the key. Whatever bad things you jettison from your mind, you always replace it with truth from God. We are never ever to worship, serve or function on an empty mind, nor are we told to be emptying our minds.

Therefore, knowing this, I am going to be very discerning not to engage in a practice that encourages the emptying of my mind.

Praying in a gibberish tongue does exactly that. Because it is nonsensical, rather than filling my mind with wholesome words by my praying, I am only emptying it.

Note: Turn things around. What if the Holy Spirit were to do that to us? Since we feel confident to pray to God in gibberish, what if God answers us back the same way? Fair is fair!

If you were to participate in a yoga class operated by a believer, and you were told to sit down with your legs crossed, arms to the side, chin up and eyes closed and then hum for a few minutes only thinking of the sound of your voice, nothing else, would you? I sincerely hope not.

But for the sake of argument, let’s say you did that. You took deep breaths, hummed with your eyes close, meditating on the sound of your voice, how do you think you would feel after doing this for a couple of minutes?

You would feel good, refreshed, more relaxed and at peace. What did you put in your mind? Nothing. You said nothing, thought nothing. All you did was zero in on the sound of your voice. In fact, you may have liked it so much that you may had to catch yourself dozing off because it was so relaxing to empty your mind of the hustle and bustle of life.

You walked away from doing this with a positive experience. Therefore, you conclude, meditating the way it is taught in yoga is good for me. I gained a positive experience from it.

Now let’s say you were told to do the same thing, but this time you are told to think about things that are true, good, lovely, right and pure. In essence, think about Jesus Himself.

How would you feel after a couple of minutes? You would probably have the same positive experience. The only exception, this time rather than emptying your mind and feeling good about it, you filled your mind with good thoughts that pushed out the bad thoughts, and felt good having the confidence that you were doing what the Bible teaches. In other words, you chose to gain the same experience God’s way.

When I prayed in a tongue, I felt good inside and believed that I was drawing closer to God. I don’t know what I was saying, but I do know what I was feeling.

But then, I also realized that I got the same feeling praying with the understanding of my mind. When I prayed to God and understood the words I was saying, I would go away with the same feeling, but this time with the confidence that I was doing it God’s way. After all, I knew enough of the Word to know that God never ever tells me to empty my mind. He wants me to purify it with His Word. Memorizing Scriptures and meditating on the Word are nuts and bolts of discipleship.

Since Jesus said in Matthew 6:7, not to pray as the Gentiles do using meaningless repetition, which does nothing for a person’s mind except empty it, I found it also interesting that we are told over in Ephesians 4:17, that “we are to no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.”

The word, “futility” means, “empty” or “useless.” Why? What is wrong with an empty mind? It feels so good to just flush it now and then.

If you empty your mind and not replace the space with Scripture, then the results are – “being darkened in your understanding” (v. 18).

An empty mind is a dark and useless mind. It will bring you some positive results, but you will get such things not the way God intended. Does it matter that we do things God’s way?

Being led also by the Holy Spirit, Paul said, “What then is the outcome? I shall pray with the spirit and I shall pray with the mind also” (1 Cor. 14:15).

In other words, Paul says, I will do both at the same time. I shall pray with the passion of the spirit as well as pray with the understanding of the mind. Keeping in thought the principle set forth in the Bible, that I shall never empty my mind in order to gain a positive experience. To do so would only mean that I was more concerned to choose to satisfy the desires of my flesh, and do things my way and not God's way.