October 23, 2025

Minding Your Thoughts

A Biblical Overview of Obtaining and Maintaining a Biblical Thought Life

Luke 6:8 But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth.

Once again, we read of the fact that Jesus can know the thoughts of others. Frankly, I do not know if the above statement means that He knew their thoughts as we would, through perception, reading their body language, general knowledge of what they believed, or if He knew their thoughts because He, being God in the flesh, knew all things. One thing is certain, He knew what they thought, and He was right.

Sometimes it would be great to know what others are thinking. Sometimes it would be horrible. My wife and I were privileged to raise three children, one son and two daughters. Most of the time, I would know what my son thought. He is much smarter than I am, he has his mother’s intellect, but even so I could predict his actions with a pretty good certainty when he was young. This is probably because I was once a young man. But, my daughters… I had no clue. Each time I thought I knew what they thought, I was wrong. Mom understood them, I didn’t.

But Jesus understands our thoughts probably even better than we do. King David alluded to this in Psalm 19:12 when he wrote: Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults? In keeping with this king’s character it is not believed that David was asking God to forgive his secret faults in that he was covering them up and hiding them from others, for David seemed to be quick to ask forgiveness for sins. Another interpretation is that David is asking God to forgive the faults he did not even know that he had. Faults, or sins, that he had no conscious knowledge of, no thoughts of, these concerned the king as it should all children of the King of kings.

There is a great comfort in knowing that the Father in Heaven knows all my thoughts. Even the ones that I don’t know I have.

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

Dr. William Howe