Twisted - Proverbs 11:20

Seek God Together

If you appreciate this work, consider supporting it - https://www.patreon.com/seekgodtogether Today we will read Proverbs 11:20 which says, “Those with twisted minds are detestable to the Lord, but those with blameless conduct are His delight.” Have you ever been ashamed, shocked, or disgusted by your own thoughts? If you said “no”, I’d wonder what else you were lying about. Our minds are factories of lurid, despicable content. They generate the worst thoughts about ourselves and others. They’re a mine-infested battleground of regret, bitter emotions, and worst-case scenarios. Your mind is a repository of all the most disgusting, contemptible, harsh, violent, and hateful thoughts imaginable. It’s all in your mind. It’s in you. And yet it’s the same mind that longs for more - for better. In your mind you seek God. So how is your mind? Depends on the day. Or the moment. The first part of this verse says that a twisted mind is detestable to God. But who doesn’t have a twisted mind? We are all guilty as charged. So you’d expect the second part of the verse to read, “but a well-ordered, or untwisted, or blameless mind is God’s delight.” And that would be an impossible burden. But it doesn’t say that. It says that blameless conduct is His delight. The twisted mind is juxtaposed to blameless conduct. And I’m glad it is. Your mind (and mine), screwed up as it may be, is actually not the most important part of you. It’s your actions. Are your thoughts a shock and horror? Join the club. But the beauty of living is that they are just that - thoughts. They have not yet manifested into action that affects your life and others. And here you have a choice. The most important part of you is the inner executive, the part that chooses what to do despite the thoughts. You can’t change 10 years ago or 10 seconds ago. It’s in the past. And the promise of God is that mercy is new every morning. But you are in charge of your conduct right now. And you are not slave to your thoughts even if they’re deafening. God is not mad at you for struggling. But His delight is in your blameless conduct. Perhaps the very mechanism He uses to make us into the beings He wants, humans who freely and perfectly love Him, is this painful wrestling with dark thoughts, but choosing blameless conduct. “God I’m glad you don’t judge my thoughts because they’re not pretty. I’ll choose in this moment, and this day to conduct myself like Jesus despite the thoughts in my head.”