Resources/Articles
How Good Is Your Thinking?
How much you know does not hurt you.
It makes you more responsible.
It has been medically and psychologically concluded man can organize, categorize, relate, and determine and course of action. That should be no surprise to you. God placed that ability within each of us. Thinking gives man the freedom to act upon his own volition. What each person needs to understand is, “as a man thinketh within himself, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). The wise man’s statement implies the blessings of good thinking and the destruction of bad thinking. Although many people want to excuse their actions by saying, “I did it without thinking,” the truth is you do think before you act. You may not have though long enough, but you were thinking.
Although 1 Corinthians 2:11 says, “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him?” (NASB), a man’s thoughts will soon be displayed in attitude or behavior. Such was the case in Genesis 6:5. Man’s thoughts were evil continually. WHen you consider sins like false teaching, fornication, lying, stealing, divorce, gossip, anger, and pornography, they are all direct results of bad thinking.
What has been your thinking lately? How upset are you at the plumber? How disappointed are you at yourself because you failed the test? Are you angry at what your brother in Christ did to you? Have you thought about those who need encouragement, and you failed to give it? Why did you not attend the last Bible study? What made you spend more time watching a movie than with your family? Is the way the government is being operated leading you to indifference/ What is “making” you jealous?
One of the challenges to thinking is how often we allow others to do our thinking for us. People are conditioned by parents, friends, neighbors, or co-workers to think a certain way about the Bible, political candidate, money, marriage, church, etc. Why can we not obtain the facts and do our OWN thinking? What do YOU believe is important? Why are YOU doing what YOU are doing? What are YOUR values? Does the pace of YOUR life allow time for you to think and meditate?
There are a lot of questions listed above on which you can think. View them in light of Isaiah 55:8: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways saith Jehovah.” God’s thoughts excel ours. Do you think you should change your thinking and let God’s thoughts, revealed through the Bible, motivate and guide your thinking? Thinking can be a lonely work, but God gives us the ability to think to stimulate our bodies to act upon His will regardless of the circumstances we face in life or thoughts of others. It is God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20).
If we depended more upon God’s thoughts to direct our thoughts, then our speech would be words of truth, hope, courage, conviction, love, and faith. Jesus spoke about our words coming from our hearts (Matthew 15:18). He says those words “defile the man.” Our Lord knows blessings and curses can come from our mouths (James 3:10). It should not be this way, but it happens. The reason it happens is because our thoughts consider both blessings and curses before they are uttered. The seriousness of this matter is in understanding how our thinking affects our eternal destinies. Therefore, we can never excuse our beliefs or actions as something someone else made us feel, think, or do. Our thinking results in the words we speak and the things we do. Each man is held accountable “of himself to God” (Romans 14:12).
Since our eternal destinies are affected by our thoughts, what would assure us of better thinking?
(1) Right thinking requires right information. You cannot do your best thinking with poor information. That is why God’s wisdom provides man a guide which is neither developed by himself nor obtained from nature. This information will give one the truth about the God who created him, and the way which pleases God and blesses man (Luke 2:52). It is man’s duty to keep these commands, because they keep man’s thinking on what are good, lovely, pure, honorable, and praiseworthy things (Philippians 4:8).
(2) Thinking takes time. The writer of Psalm 1:2 said of the righteous man, “But his delight is in the law of Jehovah; and on his law doth he meditate day and night.” Read and study the right information, and diligently look at the ways to practice what you know. Do not say, “I don’t have time.” If you take time to call a friend, drive a car, wait in a doctor’s office, or watch TV, you can take time to think good things. Do not underestimate the value of solitude. Jesus often withdrew himself from the pressing crowds to be alone. Meditating is needed when pressures from the world and its cares tend to crowd out God. To eliminate the possibility of half-heartedness, stop and meditate. Take time to think. You will be glad you did.
