April 16, 2025

Minding Your Thoughts

A Biblical Overview of Obtaining and Maintaining a Biblical Thought Life

April 16

Judges 20:5 And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead.

Perhaps the only thing worse than knowing what others think about you is not knowing what others think about you. Each person you meet has a thought about you, just as you do them. The way you look, how you act, what you say, and even things they may have heard about you before they meet you help them form an opinion about you. This opinion may be good or bad or even indifferent. Knowing what they really think about you, or toward you, is a difficult thing.

Evidently though to the man quoted in today’s verse it was not difficult to know what the men of the city thought about him. They wanted to kill him. There was murderous intent in their thinking. Their thought of him was only to destroy him. At least he knew where they stood, he knew what he was up against. Knowing the thoughts of others can be a blessing or a curse. Thank the Lord for those who are for you, the ones you know you can count on, and then pray for the others.

The only person who ever lived that knew without a doubt that which others thought of him, was Jesus Christ. He testified of this fact to Nathanael in John 1, saying, …Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. This amazed Nathanael, as it should amaze each one. Jesus knows us, all about us, even before we come to Him; He knows us. In the very next chapter of the Bible (John 2) one verse (25) proves that our Lord knew what was in the hearts of all; And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

Yes, Jesus knew that which all thought about Him. He could handle it. We probably could not.

May the Lord bless and be pleased with your thought life today.

Dr. William T. Howe