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 and stir 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 sometime ago. It hit me after I woke up in the morning, read my bible, and prayed. You are in your 30s, you are not married, neither has your career picked up. The inner voice said to me. Shivers ran down my spine almost immediately. I began to wonder if I would ever be successful, find a husband, and become a mother.
I began to feel like a failure once again as my mind was wrapped in these thoughts which 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 meltdown I opened the bible app and the word of the day was Jeremiah 29:11, which says, “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.” 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 I’d been familiar with. It accompanied me through some of life’s most painful moments such as when I got deported. That single incident made no sense at the time and it felt as if a death had occurred. Yet, God reminded me through this scripture that his thoughts for me were good and as such, I had to trust him completely.
Who else knows that trusting God sometimes is hard? To trust him when we can’t see any progress is where the real work begins. His timelines differ from ours. We frequently act on impulse, and because we are often shortsighted wanting things to happen right away, we have no regard for what lies ahead of us - which God often takes into careful consideration. It's no surprise that the book of Isaiah emphasizes how different his ways and thoughts are from ours. “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 Thinks About His Children
To the human mind, a woman in her mid 30s should be married. And the “biological clock” doesn’t believe differently. Mine sometimes says to me: time is running out! And if such pressures are not enough, my career seats away in a far corner staring me down. Everything around me screams: Late! Late! Late!
I get sad sometimes. This is because I feel that 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, then 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)
According to this scripture, God's children are constantly on his mind. If mere humans can think 6000 thoughts per day on average, how much more can the Creator of the Universe? And if his thoughts towards us are numerous, and Jeremiah says they are peaceful and not evil, assuring us of a future and hope, then we have nothing to fret about.
Related Post: Why I Despised God's Will for My Life
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