Bible Text: Proverbs 23:7 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | As he thinks in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 23:7, KJV
You tell me what you are thinking and I’ll tell you what you are likely to do in the future. Why? Because you can almost always draw a straight line between what you are thinking and what your behavior will be in the future. Is this really so remarkable? Long ago the writer of the Old Testament book of Proverbs pondered the relationship between what we think and what we do. He summed it all up, saying, “For as he thinks within himself, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7, KJV).
In the world of computers there is a phrase that says, “Garbage in and garbage out.” In the event you haven’t discovered the wonderful but sometimes frustrating world of computers, you need to know that a computer does exactly what you tell it to do–neither more nor less. You tell it to do lofty things, and it will respond accordingly. But it doesn’t produce beautiful smiles or bouquets of flowers upon command. You see, computers aren’t programmed for that.
But, like the computer, your heart and soul responds to its input. Even the secular world has learned that. Visualization, they call it. The golfer in his mind pictures the ball going right up the fairway or into the little cup where the flag is. The soccer player, in his mind’s eye, visualizes the ball flying over the hands of the goalie as he scores the winning point. The business world has also gotten a handle on the concept. Think and Grow Rich is the title of Napoleon Hill’s book, and he’s right in the sense that how you think about yourself, negatively or positively, becomes self-fulfilling.
Your thinking is vitally important, and that is why it is so necessary to gain God’s perspective, to see life in terms of what really counts. So what if you succeed in making a bundle of money and you lose your wife or family in the process? Who cares if you become the chairman of the board of XYZ Oil if you don’t have time to take your son and go fishing?
God’s perspective is the only frame for your life that will produce lasting results. Once you have gained His perspective, your thinking about life begins to take on guidelines which produce right living. The question then becomes, “What does God want me to do? What is His purpose, His will for my family? Where does He want us to go? It isn’t a matter of where do I go… and you guys can follow. You think in terms of the whole. You begin to visualize success from God’s vantage point. And it’s much different from the way our culture sees it and most of us see it, as well.
Negative thinking produces negative results. “As he thinks in his heart, so is he” (KJV). Purge out wrong thinking and negative, incorrect thinking. Ask God to help you deal with it, then go to work programming right thinking. How? Start with including a passage from the Bible every day.
I would like to suggest you begin by memorizing, yes, I said memorizing, some important passages such as Psalm 23, Psalm 90, Romans 8, and Philippians 4, where Paul talks about our thinking. He says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” Yes, memorize Proverbs 23:7, which says, “As he thinks within himself, so is he…” You control your thinking or else your thinking controls you, and God have mercy on us when we become victims of ourselves. Think about it
Resource reading: Philippians 4
