September 3, 2025

Minding Your Thoughts

A Biblical Overview of Obtaining and Maintaining a Biblical Thought Life

Acts 14:2 But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.

In a book about the U.S. Civil War there was a character that was against everything. No matter what everyone else thought, this man was opposed to it. One of the other characters in the book said of this man, “He is so contrary that if they threw his dead body in the river it would float upstream.”  This may be an extreme example, but the word picture is wonderful for sometimes this is how the believer in Christ should be.

Years ago, a dentist from the Fort Worth area was literally booed, hissed, and had to prematurely leave the stage of the Phil Donahue show because of the dentist’s stand for Jesus Christ. Far too often the same thing happens to people today just as it happened in the day of Acts. One group affects the minds of others against someone else. Sadly, this type of thing occurs far too often in homes, churches, the workplace, and in society in general.

Many news media conglomerates of our day have as their goal much more than just giving the news, they hope to formulate the minds of their audience toward their desired outcome. Your mind is being bombarded every day with messages from various sources to sway your thinking toward a chosen position. It is incumbent upon every believer to filter that which comes into their mind through the teachings of the Bible.

A simple example of this was the report on the radio some years ago that a woman in her seventies gave birth making her the oldest recorded birth mother in history. But wait a minute, the Bible states that Sarah was in her nineties when she bore Isaac. This causes a dilemma, is the news broadcaster to be believed or the Bible account believed? Upon hearing this I decided to believe the Bible, therefore dismissing the thought that was being put in my mind that the Bible is irrelevant and the seventy-year-old woman was the oldest birth mother.

Our Word of God is the final authority of that which those in Jesus Christ are to believe and practice. Many may try to affect our minds, but those inputs must be checked by the teachings of God’s Holy Word. Remember, you and God make a majority even if others think you are so contrary you would float upstream.

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

Dr. William Howe