I Can’t Even Count That High!

“How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand – when I awake, I am still with you.” Psalm 139: 17-18

Scientists have no concise number of thoughts a person thinks about in a day. Some will say we think about 12,000 thoughts, most of them useless. Other researchers estimate we think up to 80,000 thoughts per day, again, much of that useless thinking too. But even if we go for the lowest number, thousands of thoughts a day is a good number. Depending on what we are thinking, that is. We can have negative or positive thoughts, and then there are precious thoughts.

Negative Thoughts

We all have negative thoughts from time to time. “I didn’t study hard enough, I’m going to fail this exam,” you might say before walking into the examination room. Or “She doesn’t really like me, she just pretends. I’m not her type.” Negative thoughts.

Sometimes these negative thoughts overwhelm us. They come from all around us. For example, when a loved one, be it a parent or spouse condemns us, puts us down or even abuses us, we start seeing ourselves that way. If we are called stupid, then stupid we become! At least in our minds. Maybe what that person said is true? We start to maximise the negative and minimise the positive. Even if we once thought we had wonderful attributes, they now are subdued, pushed underground.

If we are a child or woman subjected to violence, we develop negative thoughts. Sometimes though, life can be good, but our negative thoughts come from within. And they don’t stop. They become like a run-on sentence, a replay that keeps repeating in our mind until the rut is entrenched in our mind. What happened once or twice now happens repeatedly in our minds. Negative thoughts. They don’t go away. Our thoughts become shrouds over reality.

Positive Thoughts

Positive thoughts can belong to the optimist, and the optimistic mind looks for happiness, health, and positive results in every situation. This optimistic person may have become so because of positive reinforcements in his or her life. Perhaps, there was an encouraging person in their life.

Once in awhile, life is difficult, but for the most part, a person with positive thoughts can look at the future with a smile and rejoice about today and tomorrow. They have made a different groove in their brain, grooves of positive thoughts. It isn’t that they don’t have problems, they do, they just handle them differently. Furthermore, they embrace the challenges of life.

Precious Thoughts

Precious thoughts don’t come from us originally. They come from a Source outside of us, even outside our realm. If we look at the verse above, it says that God’s thoughts towards us are precious, and more than the sands. How many thoughts are those?

Scientists have done an estimate by calculating the number of grains of sand in a teaspoon and then multiplying it by all the beaches and deserts in the world. The rough estimate is seven quintillion, five hundred quadrillion grains. That is a number I cannot even comprehend. I might have been able to handle 80,000 thoughts but in the quintillions. Forget it! I can’t even count that high!

That is how many precious thoughts your Creator thinks about you. Whether you are a man or woman, boy or girl, you are treasured in his sight. So much so that he thinks about you all the time. Whether you are sleeping or awake, God is with you, watching over you, calling you his cherished child. That is how much you are worth to God Almighty.

Now if the God of the universe thinks about you that much, how does that help you move from negative thoughts to positive thoughts? Maybe what man has said about you is wrong? Could you be precious and worthy of love? Maybe you are a wonderful person after all? After all, God thinks precious thoughts about you.

Moving from Negative to Positive Thoughts

If we know the precious thoughts, is it now possible to move from negative thoughts to positive thoughts? It might be worth the try. You see, God says, we love because he first loved us. So maybe we can’t really love ourselves until we know that God loves us. Is that possible?

God isn’t like man. His love isn’t dependent on what others think of you, or what you think of yourself. He doesn’t ask that we be perfect and flawless when we come to him. He takes us just as we are. Why? Because he looks at our potential. He looks at how he formed us, not at what we have become or what we think of ourselves.

If you are abused and broken, come to him, and let him put his healing hand upon you and heal you. Let him love you so you can love yourself. If you have sinned and lived a miserable life, he can cleanse you and make you whole. After all, that is why Jesus came to earth, to reconcile us back to God. No matter what condition you are in, God’s thoughts towards you are precious. No matter what you think of yourself, negative or positive, God has precious thoughts towards you, quintillions of them.

If we know the love of God, can we learn to love ourselves? Can we look at the future with a smile when he turns ashes into beauty? You are loved and wanted by the Almighty, the One who has precious thoughts towards you.

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