April 25, 2025

Minding Your Thoughts

A Biblical Overview of Obtaining and Maintaining a Biblical Thought Life

II Samuel 19:18 And there went over a ferry boat to carry over the king’s household, and to do what he thought good. And Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, as he was come over Jordan;

…And to do what he thought good. I once attended sales training for newly hired sales professionals for a large organization. The new employees were fired up, ready to go, prepared to work hard and earn a lot of money. They all had to go through an extensive process just to be hired and now they were set. That is until the Vice President of Marketing came to speak with them.

“A year from now, half of you will not be here.”  This was his opening statement. His statement was kind of deflating, kind of depressing, kind of unfriendly, kind of negative, but one hundred percent correct. Over the years he had worked with hundreds of salespeople. He knew that professional sales could be the highest paid hard job, or the lowest paid easy job there is.

The vice president expanded his remarks in explaining why so many failed to achieve their goals. He said that they knew the products, had the talent, understood their territories, even would write out plans and notes in their day timers of what needed to be done to be successful. But most would fail to do that which they knew to do. Their territories were large, sometimes an entire state or more, and their managers were hundreds of miles away. No one would be there day to day to make sure they did what they knew to do; they had maximum freedom to either succeed or fail.

James 4:17 states: Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. The sales reps knew what to do that would produce good results, but for whatever reason many would not do those things. When you have a thought to do good, put it into action. As King David said to his son Solomon, “…be strong, and do it.” Before the term “do it” was a slogan for a shoe company it was a Bible teaching. It is very good advice.

You know the good things that should be accomplished, you have those thoughts…  So be strong, and do it!

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

Dr. William T. Howe