I'm one of those weird people that actually likes school. I just love to learn, so being a good student has always been a natural outpouring of my passion for knowledge. But when I look at scripture, I believe this passion should be the norm rather than the exception.

Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27 all teach us the importance of loving God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our MIND.  

If we truly want to be followers of Christ, we have to engage Him with more than just our emotions. We also have to experience Him with all our intellect. Os Guinness says it this way:

"Loving God with our minds is not ultimately a question of orthodoxy, but of love. Offering up our minds to God in all our thinking is part of our praise. Anti-intellectualism is quite simply a sin."

Ouch. Never quite thought of my couch potato days as sins. So does that mean that we replace all those mindless hours of TV-watching with in-depth Bible study? Not necessarily. I believe there are other ways to leverage our minds for God, whether that be a visit to a musuem that expands our intellectual horizons or just reading a good book that reminds us how powerful words can be.

And since we're focusing on the power of prayer this month, I'd like to propose prayer as another means of spiritual mind-stretching. Check out what Jeremiah 33:2-3 has to say about it:

"This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it - the LORD is his name: 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'"

Did you catch that? The Creator of the Universe, the One who made everything around us from scratch, wants to peel back the layers of His creative genius to teach us "great and unsearchable things" we do not know. These "unsearchable" things can't be found on a library shelf or through a Google search - they can only be discovered by calling on God. So if you want to challenge that brain of yours, call on Him for some supernatural mind-blowing today.

Making It Personal

• What do you think about the quote, "Anti-intellectualism is a sin." What does this say about the kind of student you are right now?
• How can you stretch your mind today as an offering of praise to God?
• What types of "great and unsearchable things" would you like to know?
• PRAYER FOR TODAY:
  God, you are the Maker of heaven and earth, so you hold the keys to the mysteries of our planet and its people. Open my mind today to experience a greater understanding of You and all that You have created around me. Give me the discipline to praise You by utilizing this great mind You have given me. Make me faithful in my pursuit of knowledge, so that I might be a good student of your "great and unsearchable" wisdom.