October 31, 2025

Minding Your Thoughts

A Biblical Overview of Obtaining and Maintaining a Biblical Thought Life

Nehemiah 9:17 And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.

We seem to live in a time wherein if something did not happen in the last 24 hour news cycle it never happened. How many times have politicians made statements that directly contradicted statements they made years ago, yet no one holds them accountable. To many people history is irrelevant. This mindset is short-sided at best and extremely dangerous at worst. The old adage is true: “Those who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

The same is true with the things of the Lord. Many today fall into a category that demands to see proof of God to believe God. Unless they see someone healed they do not believe that God can heal people. Unless they see some manifestation of God they will not believe that God exists. Unless God does some great thing they will not accept Him, put their faith in Him, and certainly will not obey Him. On one hand this is sad; on the other hand this is expected.

Consider the people of whom Nehemiah is speaking in today’s verse. He is speaking of those who were led out of Egypt by Moses through the strong arm of the Lord. Ten miraculous signs from God were hurled upon Egypt finally forcing Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go free. In the wilderness God provided time and again for the Israelites in direct, miraculous, and immediate ways. However, those people, the same ones who saw God’s mighty works firsthand, refused to obey Him, they hardened their necks against Him, they rebelled, and even wanted to return to bondage in Egypt rather than live by faith in the wilderness.

Why? Why would a group of individuals who were direct and immediate witnesses of such wondrous works from the hand of God continue to refuse Him? Because …neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; They saw the works and were not mindful of them. This illustrates that some people will not believe, even if they see. Today we may not see the wonderful works of God firsthand, but we read about them in His Word. If God did perform great works demonstrating His power and ability the same would probably happen today, yet many would still not believe.

As for me, I’ve chosen to believe He can, even if I see no evidence of such. Why? Because I can read about His wonderful works in the pages of the Bible and choose to accept that rather than that which men say. Just because He raised Lazarus from the dead over two thousand years ago does not mean that He can’t do it today. He can, and He will; it’s called the resurrection of which I believe. Become mindful of the past miracles of God as found in His Word, for those predict the future of His wonderful works yet to come.

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

Dr. William Howe