Minding Your Thoughts
A Biblical Overview of Obtaining and Maintaining a Biblical Thought Life
I Corinthians 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Not only can we not know all the “mind of the Lord,” we cannot know all the mind of anyone. People only let you see, or know, that which they want you to see or know about them. Sometimes we can’t even know our own mind. The mind is a very complicated organ. It is a world in and unto itself. Your mind is capable of both conscious and unconscious thoughts, it has both short and long term memory, and it is continually filled with information from the five senses, yet is never completely filled. Our minds have both real and imagined thoughts, happy and sad thoughts, pleasant and unpleasant thoughts, serious and whimsical thoughts. Yes, the mind is an amazing thing.
King David, the sweet psalmist of Israel (II Samuel 23:1), wrote in Psalm 19:12 …cleanse thou me from secret faults. Debate can rage about the exact meaning of this quote, but one thing is sure, David knew that there are secret things. Secret things of the mind are hidden things. Consider this, the Lord God has a mind filled with secret things, things that we cannot know regardless of how much we may search them out. Yet, the Lord God knows every secret thing of our minds, even the things that we do not readily know. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Not only does He know how many hairs are on your head (Luke 12:7), but He also knows all the thoughts in your mind. Therefore, He can instruct you very effectively and personally.
True, we may not know the whole mind of the Lord (we only know that which He has chosen to allow us to know) but we have the mind of Christ. Is this a contradiction? Let’s find out tomorrow.
But something to think about today. Has it ever occurred to you that when we open the Bible, God’s Holy Word, we are opening the mind of God? We do not look into His mind (His Word) for the purpose of instructing Him, but rather to be instructed of Him. After all, the Bible is not a book that men read, it is a book that reads men.
May the Lord Bless and be pleased with your thought life today.
Dr. William T. Howe
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