July 12, 2025

Minding Your Thoughts

A Biblical Overview of Obtaining and Maintaining a Biblical Thought Life

Zechariah 11:12 And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.

Zechariah chapter 11 is a very technical description and picture of Christ’s ministry on earth. Time and space does not allow the full discussion of the richness of its contents. Suffice it to say that thirty pieces of silver was the exact price that the Jewish leaders paid Judas for the betrayal of our Lord. In verse 13, this silver was thrown to the potter, similar to the pieces of silver being used to purchase the potter’s field to bury strangers in as told in Matthew 27:6-10.

But these devotions are dedicated to our thought life. The phrase, If ye think good is an excellent description of the internal action of thinking. Many thoughts invade our mind, only those thoughts that we think good should be acted upon. The thoughts that we would consider to be wrong or inappropriate should never find reality through our actions. They thought it good to pay this Christ-like shepherd 30 pieces of silver for his work toward them, so that is what they paid him.

Before allowing your thoughts to become words or actions, weigh them in your own set of moral scales. If they weigh out to be good, devote yourself to fulfilling them. If otherwise, forsake them. This takes mental control and a strong will. Those who act out every thought and speak every word their thoughts tell them to speak will be found out to be mentally weak and of no self-control. There is a difference between a strong will and stubbornness. Those strong of will control themselves, evaluating the proper course of action and endeavoring to do and say only that which is proper, decent, and acceptable in the sight of God. Those who are simply stubborn bludgeon ahead with each thought that enters into their mind with no regard for others, their surroundings, circumstances, or the will of God. If ye think it good perform it with all your might. If that which ye think is good is wrong? Well, that’s a devotion for another day.

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

Dr. William Howe