Episode #129 Mindful Connection & Loving God With Your Head – Life With God

Hey friends, it's Jen. And today we're talking about how we can love God with our heads.

We're in a series looking at how we're created for life with God and how we can bring our whole selves to him. This also means that because we're created for life with him, the unique aspects of how we are created can also suit that God given desire and purpose.

We can love God with our heads, our hearts, and our hands. If this concept feels new to you, I encourage you to jump back to the very first episode in this series where I'm laying the groundwork for where we're going here. I also encourage you to click the link here in the show notes for a super quick quiz that will help you identify the ways that you currently connect with God best.

Take the Quiz: How Do You Connect with God Best?

And today we're focusing on how we can connect with God using our heads.

That form of connection often comes through things like learning and curiosity and seeking him through asking for direction or insight or wisdom. It can also come with imagination and wonder as we seek to grow in our understanding of God and feel more connected to him as we grow and apply ourselves to learning.

This happens to be one of the ways that I connect with God best, and I don't want to limit our list here, but some of the ways that you might see this on display in your life can include that you're drawn to learning and study.

Maybe you like keyword studies or diving deep into specific topics. You long to grow in your understanding of God and you enjoy exploring your faith in that way.

You might have favorite pastors and preachers who illuminate the word for you in unique ways. You appreciate their messages by the way that they make you think, or details that you haven't heard of before, or the clarity that they can bring to confusing topics. You feel closer to God in these moments of revelation.

For me, as a Bible teacher, I love the times that I get to spend with God in the Word. I love when God connects themes or aspects of truth to other parts of the Bible, or when he shows me how a verse was on display in my life in a specific way, or he connects concepts to his grand story in ways that I hadn't noticed before. Those aha moments illuminate things and I feel close to God that way, both in receiving the insight and then also in ways that I get to share it with others.

I also feel connected to God in the way that he makes space for my questions. I have a lot of questions. And I haven't always felt like the church made space for my questions. But God has always made space for them. And exploring these questions, including doubts or uncertainties, and receiving comfort and revelation and conviction and instruction and encouragement from God, helps me feel more connected to Him.

So if these aspects resonate with you, you may also connect with God best using your head.

Now, as is the case for most personality or learning assessments and quizzes and things like this that are out there, We are all a blend of all of these things. We're talking here about bringing our whole selves to God.

So knowing that you connect with God best using your head doesn't mean that you ignore your heart or your hands. Or knowing that this isn't your strongest area of connection doesn't mean that you want to ignore it altogether either.

What's helpful to recognize here is where this might be a strength for you so you can maximize the opportunity to connect with God in this way.

As we talk about connecting with God using our heads, some of us have unfortunately experienced pain in this area.
Maybe like me, you've been in circumstances where you didn't feel like your questions were welcomed. Like you were supposed to just come to God fully with your heart and leave your reasoning, your questions, and your desire for understanding behind you. Maybe you felt like your head wasn't welcomed, and that's not true.

In 2 Peter 3:18, it talks about how we can “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Proverbs 1:7 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

And Proverbs 2:6 says “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding”

In James 1:5, it says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

In Isaiah 26:3, it says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”

In Joshua 1:8 (NIV), it says, “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.”

I could go on and on and on the use of our minds doesn't mean that we have to understand everything fully we can't right now, we will only know in part, it doesn't mean that God is figureoutable because he's not. He is beyond our understanding, but it also means that we get to engage with him using our minds.

We get to think on and meditate and dwell on thoughts of him.

We get to cultivate a love for his word, and we get to grow in our love for God through his word.

We get to bring our whole selves to him.

It's hard if we connect with God best via our heads, if we try to connect with him predominantly in other means and ignore the gift that we already have in our natural approach to connecting with him.

It's also hard if we disqualify that means of connection as somehow being less spiritual.

And it can also be problematic if we use our head to try and figure out God instead of using our head to connect with Him. I know from experience that I can read the Bible from my own understanding and leave with more information, but without growing my connection with God. Or I can read the Bible with God and ask the spirit to supernaturally empower that time of connecting and to fortify my connection with him in that way.

So whether connecting with your head is a strength or a weakness for you, I know that God wants to talk with you more about it. And here's our question:

God, what do You want to teach me about connecting with You using my head?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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