Guard Your Thoughts
“Even before . . .”
When you begin a thought, do you even pause to consider how the LORD already knows the future of your thought? Yes, He exists in what you WILL say as well as what you ARE currently thinking. Remarkable, I know. So, not only does God know where we have been, but He knows where we exist, and He sees the future of where we will go—in our thoughts.
“Even before there is a word on my tongue, . . .”
When you begin a thought and open your mouth, the LORD is there in the thought and in the word BEFORE it’s ever spoken. Yes, He remains in that space and time when our brain sends the message to our mouth and our voice with the words we are ABOUT to speak. Amazing, I am convinced that our Creator knows our thoughts and our words AND even the impact they will have on the ones who are present within the reach of the sound of our voice. God is there—in the space in between.
“Even before there is a word on my tongue,
(The Psalms 139: 4 NASB)
Behold, O LORD, You know it all.”
GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING!
He knows our thoughts while they are still rattling around in our brain.
He knows our words while they are forming on our tongue.
He knows our worries as they are weighing down on our heart.
He knows our future and the places we will go.
He knows our present actions we are currently doing. &
He knows our past, and still, He Loves Us.
I am not sure if you are like me and sometimes do (what seems) like rash actions or speak (what seems) like hasty words or go (what seems) like places you did not plan to go. Truly, it blows away my mind that GOD IS NEVER SURPRISED BY OUR ACTIONS, BY OUR WORDS, BY OUR MOVEMENTS, NOR BY OUR THOUGHTS.
He is not surprised because HE IS ALREADY THERE!
Now, this realization can either terrify us or bring us elation, depending on where we have been, where we are planning to go, what we have thought, or the words we have just uttered. But, get this, Satan has NEVER been inside our thoughts. Mind-blowing, right. When we think, then our thoughts belong only to God, but when we speak our thoughts, then we give the devil the opportunity to use our thoughts against us. Suddenly, our very thoughts become the devil’s battlefield, and Satan will use our thoughts against us to—
- Take us places in our minds we never intended to go.
- Cause us to think thoughts we never meant to think.
And Satan finds demonic pleasure in seeing us fall farther and further away from our close relationship with Jesus, the Son of God. Therefore, we are to guard our thoughts.
The apostle Peter understood this so well when he walked here on earth because he stumbled in his thoughts, allowing his thoughts to be spoken, to deny that he knew the One that was being crucified, that he was “one of them” who followed Christ. When Peter allowed his fear to become spoken words, then he began to spiral, eventually denying that he knew Jesus a total of three times in the space of one single night.
Then Peter remembered Jesus’ words spoken to him earlier that same night, when they shared Jesus’ Last Supper in the upper room.
“Simon Peter said to Him [to Jesus], “Lord, where are You going?”
(The Gospel According to John 13: 36-38 & 18: 25-27 NASB)
Jesus answered, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.”
Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now?
I will lay down my life for You.”
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for Me?
Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.”
. . .
Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself.
So they said to him, “You are not also one of His disciples, are you?”
He denied it, and said, “I am not.”
One of the slaves of the high priest, being a relative of the one whose ear Peter cut off, said, “Did I not see you in the garden with Him?”
Peter then denied it again, and immediately a rooster crowed.”
In The Gospel According to Luke, he recorded the first denial, while Peter had been sitting near the fire that night, when a servant girl came up and saw Peter’s face illuminated in the firelight. She looked at him and claimed to have seen Peter with Jesus. In all three instances, Peter denied being with Jesus, and the Son of God told Peter that he would speak these lies EVEN BEFORE Peter spoke the words aloud.
“O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
(The Psalms 139: 1-4 NASB)
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O LORD, You know it all.”