He Reads Minds – Kind of a scary thought, isn’t it? But there is really nothing you have ever thought that God wasn’t aware of. We are created beings. Not so with God. He always was, always will be, mind-blowing right?

“…whatsoever things, are pure, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8

God is omniscient. This adjective used to describe our God means “having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding: perceiving all things.” He knows it all. The good, the bad, the messy and the beautiful. He doesn’t just see the outside behavior, what you actually do, but he knows the thoughts and intents of your mind and heart. God goes for the deep work that needs done. Scripture supports this:

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12 KJV)

Having a free-will means we are free to not think good thoughts as well as to think good thoughts. This is the battle we face every, single day and we have to have a weapon to win it. That weapon is the Word. Dear reader, you are a warrior on a winning side when you get into the Bible. Read it. Study it. Memorize it. Use it to reap all the rewards of strong faith. Courage. Strength. Peace. Hope. Joy. To name a few.

The enemy is described in the Word as a “roaring lion.” Have you watched those National Geographic films where the lioness prowls around a herd of animals on the Savannah? Looking for the younger, weaker ones to take down. Satan is like that. Different than God, Satan is a created being that went against God.

1 Peter 5:8: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

Satan cannot read your mind, but he can see your actions. The way you behave when you are not in His Word, not staking your joy on God’s truth. I believe he uses this observation to spring into action and cause you to doubt God’s good plan for you. He moves in just like he did in the Garden.

Ann Voscamp writes, “If Satan can keep my eyes from the Word, my eyesight is too poor to read light—to fill with light. Bad eyes fill with darkness so heavy the soul aches because empty is never truly empty; empty is only a full, deepening darkness. So this is what it is to be. Eve in the Garden, Satan’s hiss tickling the ear. “Did God actually say…?”” (Genesis 3:1 ESV). Ann points out the need for us to look at our lives through a “biblical lens” in order to decipher the meaning of it all. (One Thousand Gifts, Devotional, Reflections on Finding Everyday Graces)

In Jesus’ great Sermon, there are some verses, Matthew 6:22-23, where He teaches about light and darkness. How our eyes can be good and provide light for us, or bad and fill us with darkness. The choice of where to go with our field of vision is ours. And the choice is made in our minds with the information we allow to influence us.

The fact that God can read your mind need not be a scary thing, especially when we remember this promise in 2 Timothy 1:7,

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Speak those words the next time your knees are shaking or you are tempted to believe you are powerless, unlovable or losing your mind. I have, believe me.