Loving God With All Your Mind - Part 2
Our relationships with people also need to be guided by the truth. “Whatever is true, think about such things.”. Many of us are guilty of playing mind games with people and second-guessing their motives. We often wonder about what a person isn’t saying or try to read between the lines of what he or she does say - “She said there’s nothing wrong, but I’m not sure.” We often draw conclusions from people’s actions. “He’s been grumpy lately, so he must be angry with me.”, “She hasn’t talked to me for a while. I must have done something to offend her.”
1 Corinthians 13 says that love “thinketh no evil” and “believes all things”. Whenever we question what another person said or did, second-guess other people’s action, interpret or distort the words and actions of others rather than accepting them at face value, we are making that person a liar.
In Matthew 18:15, it says. “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.” This means that if we sin against others, they are to come to us in private to talk about it. This verse gives us freedom from second-guessing other people. Because of this, we can quit wasting time and energy worrying about what people think of us or about what we do. We can stop wondering what others might be thinking or what we might have done wrong. Why? Because if we have done something wrong, they are to come to us and tell us. Until that happens, our guesses are just that. They’re guesses rather than fact, reality or truth.
By God’s grace and with God’s help, choose to think no evil about people. Determine to trust what others say or do. Count on others to come to you when you have failed them and count on God to reveal where you have offended them. Thoughts about people that are based on what is true or real will liberate you to generously serve and love one another.
