A Penny for Your Thoughts

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

     “A penny for your thoughts.”  Maybe you have heard that phrase by someone who would like to know what you are thinking about.  The brain is an amazing part of our body.  How can we understand how thoughts work in our head.  When I am awake it seems I am always thinking about something.  I have some macular degeneration in one eye and lately, I have been seeing what looks like peacock feathers in a pattern below the waist of some people.  If the area was black such as in a silhouette, I will see what looks like peacock feathers.  My eye doctor says that the brain often substitutes something for a missing picture in the eyes.

     When I am asked about “what am I thinking” I usually say “nothing.”  I just don’t want to try to explain what thought just passed through my head.   The above passage can be a frightening thought as there is One Who knows every thought in every person’s life at every moment.  The Psalmist is asking God to search his heart and to know all of his thoughts and to see if there are thoughts that should not be there.  The exhortation is one that is going deep into the mind and trying to root out anything that is wicked or despicable.  You may find out that Satan has a way of bringing up thoughts into your head at the most inopportune time.  You might be in prayer and a thought rises up from your past  that you had not remembered for quite some time.  Pictures are like that also.  A scene may appear before your brain from years past and you may wonder where it came from.  Some things just seem to be filed away in your memory bank.  Short term memory seems to go first as you forget why you just walked into the kitchen or where you put your glasses.  At the same time, long term memory seems to still exist as to what they were doing forty or fifty years ago.  Second Corinthians 10:5 speaks about bringing our thoughts into captivity and then Philippians 4:8 exhorts us to think about those things that are good, pure, truthful and of a good report.  God knows all that there is no know about all of us and certainly He can point out the areas in which we need to take action.  When you are in a store and see someone that irritates you, what do you do?  Some will walk down a different aisle so as to not make contact with them or you may notice someone doing that when they have seen you.  That would be a good time to think about those things that result in a “good report” about that individual.  Praise God He knows each and every one of us.