Right Thinking Prov. 12:5 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
We need a big dose of right thinking. Prov 12:5 says that the thoughts of the righteous are right. So, let’s take a good look at right thinking today in hopes of stirring ourselves up to doing more of it.
Right thinking is the result of righteousness – Solomon says that the thoughts of the RIGHTEOUS are right. Righteousness comes from the Lord Jesus Christ as a gift when a person gets saved. So, after a man has the righteousness of Jesus his thinking will change as he yields his thoughts to Christ’s righteousness. A man who is lost is not righteous so his ability to think right is limited to only that common righteousness that men can have when they live by the law. In an immoral and lawless society like ours today you see very little righteousness and consequently very little right thinking.
Right thinking is the result of the right “input” – 2 Cor 10:5 – so if a man puts the right things in his mind and heart then his thinking is going to be right [Phil 4:8]. Good Bible preaching and teaching, good conversation, good instruction, Bible reading, and so forth are going to contribute to good thinking. If a man puts the wrong things in his mind then his thinking is going to be wrong [garbage in; garbage out]. So, a man who feasts on Hollywood movies, internet foolishness, incorrect instruction [i.e., evolution, science falsely so called, liberal education, and so forth], worldly philosophy, etc. is going to have a wicked imagination [as in Noah’s day] and he is going to develop strongholds of thinking that are going to exalt themselves against the knowledge of God.
Right thinking is the result of obedience to Christ – 2 Cor 10:5 – when strongholds of wicked imagination lodge in the mind and heart, these thoughts need to be brought into obedience of Christ. When these thoughts begin to obey the Lord then your thinking will begin to improve and so will your actions.
Right thinking is the result of continually thinking right – when you start thinking right, in time [perhaps a long time] your thoughts will straighten out to the point where some of the things you used to think about just won’t come to mind anymore. Praise the Lord!
Conclusion: Right living is the result of right thinking – when a man starts thinking like Christ, his life will begin to look like Christ [Rom 8:29]. The Holy Spirit’s work to conform you to the image of Christ is hindered and grieved by wicked thinking. Conversely, the Spirit’s work is improved by right thinking. So, right thinking leads to right living and wrong thinking leads to wrong living. Bob Jones. Sr. said, “Back of every tragedy in human character, there is a process of wicked thinking.” Solomon said of men, “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Hence, a man who thinks wickedly will live wickedly and a man that thinks right will live right.