Articles
Don’t Believe Everything You Think
I admit a curiosity for bumper stickers. On occasion, one states a great truth or at least
provokes reasonable thought.
Once I stopped at a light, and the car in front of mine had the sticker, “Don’t believe
everything you think!” The more I thought about it, that statement struck me as true.
Often people reason, “If I think it, it must be right.” The press and the politicians seem to
believe that if one repeats something often enough, even if it is wrong, people will believe it.
When people decide that this propaganda is what they believe, then it must be right.
While society may go into transitions, morality does not. Society may think they have a new
morality, but thinking it does not make it so.
In spiritual matters, the dangers and consequences are more serious because they affect the
eternal. Naaman made this mistake because things did not turn out as he thought they would,
“Behold, I thought, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord
his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy’” (2 Kings 5:11). Because of
his thinking, Naaman could have lost the opportunity for healing simply because what God,
through Elisha, required was not what Naaman thought it should be. People reject God’s plan of
salvation because it differs from what they think. People think God ought to save them by faith
only, sprinkling, good works, or He should save them in their sins, not from their sins. Many
become upset when it is suggested that what they are practicing, whether in worship, works, or
manner of life —does not have God’s approval through the scriptures. The defense offered is that
this is what attracts people, what pleases people, or what people think they should do. A good
reminder is, “My thoughts are not your thoughts…” (Isa. 55:8-9). In every case, God’s truth
should be the measuring standard. Do not believe everything you think!
~Oran Rhodes (edited for space), House to House, Jacksonville, AL