Are We Guilty Of Thoughtful Or Thoughtless Words And Actions?
I told Ed I could have helped with a project, but I didn’t think of it until it was too late. He responded, “We have all said that it never crossed my mind to do something. On the other hand, we have also said, ‘I thought of doing that and decided against it.’”
Does our thinking get us into trouble? Or do we get into trouble because we didn’t think things out well enough? It seems wise to be careful of our thoughts because when they become words or actions, there is no taking them back if they are disastrous.
It’s easy to decide without thinking; it’s easy to think and still not decide; but our hardest godly thoughts are those that are fair and courageous.
Is “I think” the most exaggerated expression in the English language? If everyone thinks alike, is there much thinking going on? In our thoughts, how focused are we on remembering God knows our thoughts and intentions? Are we concerned about what God thinks of our motives fueling our thoughts?
Psalm139 stresses that God knows our thoughts from afar. (Verse2) “Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord.” (Verse 5) The psalm ends with David, the author of the psalm, asking God to deal with the intentions of his heart and lead him in God’s everlasting way. (Verse 23 and 24) “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”
God must help us address our thoughts and lead us to His peace, not our anxious thinking. We need God to stir up the right-thinking in our minds resulting in our correct words and actions. How easily our good intentions towards God get replaced by thoughts focused on ourselves and our own answers to our situations.
We may not face each day with our thoughts focused on the sovereignty of our Lord, Who comes with power and rules among us with a mighty arm (Isa. 40:10a). Part of being a person is the brokenness of thinking in terms of ourselves, because we want to live our life our way. We tend to think we know more than we do and that we can achieve more than we can.
Even when we must admit hopeless conditions, we may not be willing to acknowledge God’s power in helping us. The Bible speaks of Jesus traveling to Jerusalem and being met by ten men who had leprosy. They kept their distance and called in a loud voice for Jesus to have mercy on them. Jesus responded by telling them to go and show themselves to the priests. On the way, they were cleansed of their leprosy. Yet only one of the ten returned to Jesus and thanked Jesus for healing him. The other nine did not think their healing was enough of a cause for them to praise and thank Jesus (Luke 17:11-19).
What does it take to get you to think of God with praises and thanksgivings? We know God would have us be thankful to Him and each other. Yet, we often forget to thank God for even big life-changing blessings.
