Minding Your Thoughts
A Biblical Overview of Obtaining and Maintaining a Biblical Thought Life
Ezekiel 20:32 And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.
As a whole, the nation of Israel was determined to change their religious culture. They desired to adopt false religion; their forefathers struggled with this, and now in Ezekiel’s day the nation was once again leaning to false worship. So, God stopped it. For more insight into God’s indignation and manner of dealing with it read the balance of this chapter of Ezekiel’s prophecy.
Did you notice that which God told the prophet to tell his listeners, And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, … There is a principle of God’s Word that is illustrated here, and in order to highlight it even further, let’s use a business term. There is a term that is often used in the real estate industry called “Right of First Refusal.” As memory serves, this term means that if Party A desires to purchase a parcel of land, but Party B (the owner of the land) does not want to sell, then Party A can submit a Right of First Refusal offer. That means if Party B ever decides to sell, Party A will be offered a chance to purchase the land prior to it being offered on the general market. Therein, upon deciding to sell the parcel of real estate, Party B would be obligated to allow Party A the right to purchase, or not purchase the property.
There are many variations of this type of agreement, and this is an oversimplification of the term, but there is a spiritual lesson we can learn from this. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are His children, we are His people. We must understand that God has, in effect, the Right of First Refusal over any of our thoughts, plans, or actions. The mark of a mature believer in Christ is how they deal with God saying no to their thoughts. There is no question that He has the clear-cut ability to make those thoughts of our mind to not come to pass. The only question is this, have we acknowledged that He has the right of refusal? Doing so will make your relationship with Him so much sweeter, because you will know He is watching out for you and protecting you, sometimes even from yourself.
Many have started down a path that they desire, think is right, and are sure is the way to go only to have God step in and stop those plans decisively. They had thoughts in their mind and were working to make them come to fruition. The thoughts they had shall not be at all. Consider King David. He had hopes of building a Temple, but God stopped him. It was not God’s desire for David to build the great temple, that was Solomon’s task. The time to find out God’s will is before not after. Before undertaking anything just spend time, whatever time it takes, to truly learn: “God, is this your will?” Finding the answer to that question may just save you money, time, energy, and/or embarrassment, for sometimes in those rare occasions our Lord must say that the things that come into our mind shall not be.
Remember, this truth goes both ways. Sometimes the things we want shall not be, also the things we think will happen, but do not want them to happen (things we fear) also shall not be. All because God’s loving, all knowing, and infinite wisdom occasionally stops things that are in our mind from coming to be.
May the Lord Bless and be pleased with your thought life today.
William T. Howe, Ph.D.
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