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“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”—Isaiah 55:8–91
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The universe is one of God’s thoughts.—Friedrich Schiller
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Astronomers have spied galaxies 12.3 billion light-years from earth. To put that distance into perspective, consider the fact that light, traveling 186,000 miles per second, only takes eight minutes to travel the 93 million miles between the sun and planet earth. By the time it reaches us, our sunlight is only eight minutes old. But light from the furthest galaxy takes 12.3 billion light years to get here. That distance is virtually incomprehensible! And God says that is at least the distance between His thoughts and our thoughts. Your best thought about God on your best day falls 12.3 billion light-years short of how great and how good God really is.—Mark Batterson2
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If we let God’s thoughts, as they are revealed in the Word, come in and fill the chamber of our minds, our views and feelings regarding both God and ourselves will be so different! If we let God’s thoughts in, it will be like Jesus coming into the midst of the mourners and saying, “Why are you making such a commotion, and weeping? The damsel is not dead, but sleeping.”
As the minstrels and other mourners were put out of the house by Jesus, so must our thoughts be put out of our hearts by God’s thoughts. Then, all being still, the sweet voice of the Redeemer will be heard, “Maid, arise!”—William Hepburn Hewitson, adapted
God’s thoughts, his will, his love, his judgments are all man’s home. To think his thoughts, to choose his will, to love his loves, to judge his judgments, and thus to know that he is in us, is to be at home.—George MacDonald
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The humble creatures of earth and air and sea show forth God’s thought. Insects are ingenious. The firefly that plays hide-and-seek on a summer night shows us that insects had a flashlight before we did.
God made it so.
The ichneumon fly has a drill with which she can bore a hole four inches deep in a tree and deposit her eggs.
God made it so.
Beetles and carpenter bees have drills. The carpenter bee can drill a hole fourteen inches deep.
God made it so.
There is a certain ant that makes a tunnel through a foot of solid stone.
God made it so.
The sawfly, which worked before man had a saw, has two tiny saws, working alternately back and forth, side by side, to produce grooves in trees.
God made it so.
Spiders are real engineers, surpassing the architects of the Brooklyn Bridge in many ways.
God made it so.
The oak tortrix draws the edges of a leaf together with thread until he has made a comfortable shelter for himself.
God made it so.—Author unknown
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I want to know all God’s thoughts; all the rest are just details.—Albert Einstein
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All powers, all laws, are but the fair
Embodied thoughts of God.—John Stuart Blackie
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God demonstrated our importance to Him in two great acts. First He created us in His own image, and second He—through Jesus Christ—died for our sins. God thought so much of you, believed in you, and saw you as a person of such worth, that He allowed His Son to die so that you could live. When we begin to see ourselves in light of God’s actions on our behalf, then we immediately begin to have more confidence. There is nothing more humbling than the realization that if you were the only person on this earth, Jesus would have died for you. That makes you priceless.—John C. Maxwell3
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Salvation is defined this way: God thought it. Jesus bought it. The Holy Spirit wrought it. The Devil fought it, and I’ve got it.—David Brandt Berg
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How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them,
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I am awake, I am still with you.—Psalm 139:17–184
Have you ever tried to count the grains of sand on the seashore? For those of us who have tried, it is absolutely impossible! There are so many in just a scoop of your hand that it becomes incomprehensible to think that we could even begin to count them.
In this scripture verse, the psalmist tells us that God’s thoughts toward us even outnumber the grains of sand on the seashore! What imagery. The Father, who created us and who numbered all our days, is thinking about us all the time. He never stops thinking about you. ... And they are not thoughts of condemnation and judgment, but thoughts of love. How precious are His thoughts toward us.
In our limited understanding, this is just too good to be true ... but it is true.
God is thinking about you right now!—Author unknown5
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God’s Words are His thoughts expressed in words. The Bible has much to say about God’s thoughts.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, “I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace (good) and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” The NIV says it this way, “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you.” He goes on to say in verses 12–13, “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” The Lord thinks good thoughts about us! … He plans to prosper us, give us a future, and give us hope! … His thoughts toward us are thoughts of peace and good. He thinks good thoughts of us. And we can know what those thoughts are! All we have to do is ask Him. …
God’s good thoughts about us are too numerous to list all of them. But I must talk about His thoughts toward us that are written in Psalm 139. I will paraphrase some of them, but I encourage you to read it for yourself. First of all, He created us, in our innermost being. His eyes saw our unformed bodies before we were born. And all the days ordained for us were written in His Book of Life before we ever came into being. He knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. He made us in the secret place, and we were woven together in the depths of the earth. He knows us, every part of us, and is familiar with all our ways. He knows the words we are going to speak before we speak them. He protects us with His divine hand. There is no place we can go on this earth, or even into outer space, that He won’t be there with us at all times. He shines His light into our darkness. His thoughts toward us are so precious and vast that they would outnumber all the grains of sand. He loves us! We are the beloved of God. That’s who we are!
Think about it! He thought us first… He saw us in His mind’s eye! With His thoughts, His Words, we were created! And remember, we were created in His image!6 How wonderful it is that we are that important to God. When we are tempted to think wrong thoughts about ourselves, or each other, let’s think about how God sees us. We are all His precious, beloved creation. Also, let’s remember: the thoughts that we think, if spoken and acted upon, can create what we are thinking and seeing in our mind’s eye. If we think good thoughts, they can create good things in our lives. And, if we think God’s thoughts (those found in the Bible), He also goes to work to uphold and perform His Word in our lives.7—Scott Seidel8
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Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.—Psalm 40:59
Published on Anchor September 2013. Read by Bryan Clark.
Music by Daniel Sozzi.
1 NIV.
2 In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day (Multnomah, 2006).
3 Be a People Person (Thomas Nelson, 2002).
4 NIV.
5 http://www.fathersloveletter.com/Devotionals/24_FLLdevotional.html.
6 Genesis 1:26–27.
7 Hebrews 1:3; Isaiah 55:11.
8 http://www.seidelfamily.org/page29/page46/page46.html.
9 NKJ.
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