Written by Evi Idoghor
They say humans think on an average about 6000 thoughts per day. Our mind is constantly on the move that sometimes we have to make a conscious effort to get away from the chaos that swirls around it.
These thoughts, some of them good (and bad) often dominate our minds—stirring up all sorts of emotions such as joy, happiness, sadness, fear, and terror. That is why Philippians 4:8 encourages believers to meditate on things that are true, noble, lovely, virtuous, and praiseworthy because if we constantly think about bad things, it will begin to affect us negatively.
I had one of those despondent moments a few days ago. After I woke up in the morning, read my Bible, and prayed, then suddenly it hit me!—you are going to turn 33 this year (by God’s grace,) you are not married, neither has your career picked up. Immediately, shivers were dispatched down my spine. I began to worry if I was ever going to become successful, find a bae, and become a mother.
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I began to feel like a failure once again as my mind was wrapped in these thoughts that filled me up with enormous fear. These types of thoughts are few and far between. However, when they happen, they tend to destabilize me and I have to find ways to snap out of the funk. So, fast forward a few days after that breakdown, I opened the Bible app and the word of the day was Jeremiah 29:11.
I decided to read it in the translation my physical Bible is written in—“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (NKJV).
I was mind-blown.
There have been countless times when something happens in my life, and the next time I read my Bible; I find either a response or a contribution to the conversation surrounding the event. After I read that scripture, I began to realize that it did not matter what thoughts I had for myself—God had better thoughts for me.
Jeremiah 29:11 is a passage of scripture that has been such a staple, accompanying me through some of life’s most painful moments—like when I was deported. That single incident made no sense at the time, and it felt as if death occurred, yet God reminded me through this scripture that His thoughts for me were good and I just had to trust Him completely.
Trusting God sometimes is hard, I will be real. His timelines aren’t like ours; we often act on impulse. Since we tend to be shortsighted most times, as a result, we want things to happen immediately—without giving much thought to what lies ahead of us. Little wonder the book of Isaiah reiterates that His ways are far-flung from ours, and so are His thoughts—“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55)
God Is Thinking About You
To the human mind, at 33, I should be married because my biological clock is saying to me—Time is running out! Other than that, I should be far-along in my career. Everything around me screams late! Late! Late! I get sad sometimes because I feel like I am falling short of people’s expectations for my life. However, if I want to be true to myself, I must become who God created me to be—not what somebody else thinks I should be. And if that means taking a longer route, His grace is sufficient for me as I make that journey.
“How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.”—Psalm 139:17-18 (NKJV)
The children of God are constantly on the mind of God. If mere humans can think on average a whopping 6000 thoughts per day, how much more the Creator of the Universe? And if His thoughts towards us are innumerable, and Jeremiah says that they are peaceful thoughts and not evil, guaranteeing us a future and hope, then we have nothing to fret about—like State Farm, we are in good hands.
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