May 13, 2025

Minding Your Thoughts

A Biblical Overview of Obtaining and Maintaining a Biblical Thought Life

Ecclesiastes 10:20 Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.

Words once spoken can never be retracted. They take on a life of their own and fly to the most damaging places. Solomon, the wise king, knew this in his day, and it is still true in our day. In a play about church work there was a character that was the gossip of the church. Her favorite saying was, “I never spread rumors unless they are good, and boy is this good…,” then she would proceed to repeat the most outlandish untruths. It was funny because it was laced with reality.

The way to protect what we say is to protect what we think. Solomon wrote to not only curse not the king with our lips, but to also curse not him in our thoughts. If we would do the latter, violating the former would be impossible. True, we have no king in our land, but the principle could be extrapolated to cover all leaders in their God ordained places of leadership in life.

Arguably the most sobering verse of the Bible could be Matthew 12:36, But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Thoughts find expression through words and actions. Control your thoughts and you will control your words and your actions. More than one preacher has said something like this, “What you are thinking about today you will be doing in the future.” How true! What is your future?

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

Dr. William T. Howe