The mind is a seedbed. It is likened to soil.
Now the thing about soil is, it is no respecter of the seed you sow in it. It will grow what you sow. You sow one particular seed it will produce after its own kind, which is the importance of making sure what is sown in the seedbed of your mind is the truth.
When a farmer sows the seed, when he goes to bed he does not stress about whether that seed will grow or not because he knows the seed in the soil will grow.
For all of us, we have had seeds sown in our minds that have produced the life we are experiencing around us. And we don’t immediately connect those dots do we. We think life is random.
No sir, what you have occurring around you is an outcome of what was conceived as a thought that is producing fruit after its own kind.
Here’s an example. And I use myself. If I think you don’t like me, I will shape my world in response to that thought. When I come across you I might hide from you, ignore you or pretend you’re not there. I’ll certainly be insecure around you. Why? Because in my mind I think you think bad about me.
Taking it further, if you are somebody who is important to me I might start to perform to get your approval, or to get myself into a position where you who don’t like me now likes me. Or perhaps I have a need. I won’t ask you for help. why would you help me, you don’t like me.
Did you know there are a lot of Christians who think God does not like them. But what if that thought were not the truth?
You have got to clear the canvas my friend, and feed on the seed of the good news that God is for you. (Rom. 8:31)
What’s the proof of it? JESUS CHRIST!
JESUS is all Paul wanted to know.
Now, Paul knew a lot of stuff. Formerly Saul of Tarsus, raised under Rabbi Gamaliel, the elite of all legal academics as it pertained to all 613 laws of Moses, and all the laws built on top of that, Paul knew it all.
Yet Paul made this statement, “I have decided not to know anything amongst all religious thought except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:2)
Out of that thought Paul wrote the love chapter. (1 Cor. 13)
Because he started thinking right. Right believing leads to right living.
But what does God think about me?
Jeremiah 29 verse 11…
“For I know the thoughts I think towards you.”
Towards YOU. God thinks thoughts towards YOU. Yes YOU.
It doesn’t say “I know the thoughts I think.” It says “I know the thoughts I think TOWARDS YOU.”
Yes, YOU watching right now.
And what are those thoughts?
“Thoughts of PEACE.”
Wow, that’s a beautiful thought!
“Not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Don’t you take comfort out of the fact that somebody is thinking of you? Well how much comfort do you take out of the fact that God is thinking about you?
That He is thinking GOOD things about you.
And it is interesting to me that Jeremiah the prophet, revealing God’s thoughts, has to tell us, not only what God is thinking towards you, but also what He is NOT thinking towards you.
“I am not thinking evil (bad) towards you.”
Isn’t that interesting? Because it is as important to know what God is NOT thinking, as much as what He is thinking.
The last thing you want to be thinking is what He is not thinking!
And if God is not thinking bad towards you, why are you thinking He is thinking bad towards you?
Now, it doesn’t change the fact that God is thinking good towards you, but if you think He is thinking bad towards you, you will shape your life in responds to Him thinking bad about you.
So what sort of person are you going to be? Insecure. Afraid. You’re not going to ask Him for anything are you, let alone believe any of His promises are good towards you. Why? Because you think He thinks bad towards you.
So not only does God want you to know what He thinks towards you. He wants you to know what He is not thinking.
Problem is, many of us have been given mixed messages with regards to God’s thought life. God is good all the time, all the time God is good. Just don’t rob Him! Malachi 3 verse 9-10 says you have robbed God therefore you are cursed with a curse.
Oh my God! God is not good all the time. You start shaping your life around the idea that God responds to you according to your behaviour instead of His condition, which is love.
John had to do the same thing. He not only told us what love is but also what love is not.
Love is not that we loved God. It is that God loved us. (1 Jn. 4:10)
And all this time we thought God only loved us because we love Him.
And so we tried and we tried until we couldn’t try no more. Why? Because we made “self” the source of our supply.
God is love.
Out of His fullness as a source we have all received and the love of God we experience becomes our expression.